Many of you know about Vale Park Animal Hospital, and many of you know about the people who work there. Dr. Lisa Booth, for example, is one of the veterinarians that calls Vale Park home.
Dr. Booth is the newest veterinarian on staff, though her newness stretches across multiple years of employment. She began part-time in 2013 and has been with the animal hospital as an associate veterinarian ever since.
Dr. Booth is a Portage High School graduate and she got her degree at Purdue West Lafayette. She wanted to be a veterinarian since she saw Dr. Jerry Rodenbarger (fellow Vale Park vet) do a presentation at her school when she was in fifth grade. As you know, she didn’t waiver in her path.
Dr. Booth’s specialty is emergency medicine. She practiced it for seven years at the North Central Emergency Clinic and now she does it for Vale Park.
“I love working at Vale Park. I love the family atmosphere here, I love feeling like I’m part of something important," Dr. Booth said. “I love giving back to the community and that’s what Vale Park does. I try to reach out to people through the training courses I teach. My real passion is pet CPR training.”
Dr. Booth teaches pet CPR training classes for Vale Park clients, local police departments, fire departments, first responders, as well as for other groups. Twice a year she leads a general public training class at Vale Park, and special classes for firefighters, first responders, and law enforcement. Participants become certified, just like one would if one were learning human CPR.
This lead to the creation of Dr. Booth’s nonprofit organization, Kits for k9’s. This organization educates K9 officers on what to do if their dog is hurt in the line of duty and provides them with supplies that they can use in an emergency to potentially save the dog’s life.
“The kits are free to the officers and I do a training course with them,” Dr. Booth said. “I show them advanced training techniques that they can use in emergency situations and I go through the contents of the kits with them.”
Each kit costs about $100 to put together. All donations, monetary and objects, given to Kits for K9’s are used solely for the kits.
“My passion is helping out the public to help out their animals,” Dr. Booth said.
The idea for Kits for K9’s came from Texas.
“When I first started practicing I was reading an article about a vet in Texas who teaches CPR training and I thought it was a good idea,” Dr. Booth said. “The article stated that 75% of people will run back into burning buildings to save their pets so I contacted local fire departments and started there.”
Porter County Red Cross caught wind that Dr. Booth was teaching pet CPR and asked if she could teach some public classes. She agreed and that’s how public classes began. Then police officers presented their problem to her. They pay thousands of dollars for their dogs and when one is hurt they wanted to be able to help their four-legged friends.
“I began to look into things further for the officers and found that they don’t have first aid kits for their dogs. And the department has to raise funds to get these dogs so they go to a lot of work to get them and I want to make sure they can get the help that they need when they need it,” Dr. Booth explained.
Items found in the kits: hydrogen peroxide, Benadryl, triple antibiotic ointment, digital thermometers, eye wash, vet wrap, and more.
If you would like to donate to Kits for K9’s contact them at donate@kitsfork9s.org. Find out more about Kits for K9’s by clicking here and find Kits for K9's on Facebook!
