Once a month, a large white bus with CARES printed across the side rolls through the gate of Transformation Park in Amarillo, rapidly attracting a loud, bustling crowd of people walking or carrying dogs in need of pet care.
Launched in 2020, the Community and Regional Engagement Service mobile vet unit run by Texas Tech’s School of Veterinary Medicine provides spaying, neutering, shots and other basic care to pets of homeless individuals located at Amarillo’s Transformation Park, a nonprofit shelter for people experiencing homelessness.
After working with so many people and animals, Joshua Cabello, a fourth-year vet student at the School of Veterinary Medicine from Amarillo, said working in such an environment opened his eyes to how under-served and undervalued some elderly or disabled people and their pets are…