8:00 am - 6:00 pm College of Veterinary Medicine (Free, registration required) Contact: Heather Tucker Shelter Medicine Club president All-day event focused on the best management and medicine practices for local and regional animal shelters. The event is hosted by the Student Chapter of the Association of Shelter Veterinarians. Veterinary professionals and others who work in animal control facilities and humane societies or with animal rescue groups in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina are encouraged to attend. This year's keynote speaker is Emily Weiss, a certified applied animal behaviorist and senior director of research and development for the ASPCA, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Weiss has focused her career on improving the welfare of animals in zoos and shelters. She has developed several assessment tools now used by shelters throughout the U.S., including Meet Your MatchTM, Canine-alityTM, Puppy-alityTM, and Feline-alityTM, the first research-based adoption program for shelter cats. Feline-alityTM has proven to be an effective tool to decrease euthanasia, increase adoptions and decrease returns of cats in shelters. Weiss also works on developing enrichment and behavior modification programs for animals in shelters as well as a focus on companion horses. She alsois a section editor of the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science. Scheduled presenters for the 2013 conference include the College of Veterinary Medicine's Dr. Janet Martin, a staff veterinarian and developer of the new shelter medicine program; Dr. Andy Moorhead, an assistant research scientist who studies potential resistance to drugs used to prevent canine heartworms; and Dr. Sonja Zabel, an assistant professor of veterinary dermatology. Other presenters are Bill Wise, director of Walton County Animal Control, and Dr. Gerryll G. Hall, lead veterinarian of Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health/Merck's VetReach Program and a private practitioner in Atlanta. Sponsors for the UGA Shelter Medicine Seminar include Nestlé Purina, SCAVMA and the Association of Shelter Veterinarians. While there is no registration fee, all attendees must register by Jan. 13. To register, see www.vet.uga.edu/student_clubs/sheltermed.seminar. For more information, contact Tucker at ugasheltermedicineseminar@gmail.com.Located in the student lobby and classrooms area; main academic building for the College of Veterinary Medicine Shelter Medicine Seminar webpage