How A Donation is Reshaping Australian Vet Med

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Record $100 Million Gift to Australian Vet School

In a massive boost for veterinary education, Perth businessman Ted Powell donated $100 million (≈$65 million USD) to Murdoch University to completely redevelop its School of Veterinary Medicine.

The gift was announced on August 7 and has been hailed as the largest donation ever to a Western Australian university. Construction is estimated to take five years, but the results could reshape veterinary medicine down under: the new state-of-the-art 9,600 m² facility will expand student capacity by 50% (up to 150 new vets per year) to address vet shortages.

Murdoch University’s Vice Chancellor said the new complex will modernize aging facilities, improve safety for staff, students and animals, and support cutting-edge research in areas like livestock, equine, wildlife and One Health.

The redevelopment (construction slated to begin next year) will also upgrade the university’s animal hospital and create a broader conservation and life sciences precinct. Powell, whose late wife was an animal lover, said he hopes the gift inspires others with means to “give back” to causes in animal and human health.

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AVMA Chart of the Month

We know it’s August, but this week we stumbled back on the AVMA’s Chart of the Month for July which looked at emergency and non-emergency wait times.

Not sure about you, but it’s kind of what we expected… emergency wait times are short, with 46% of clients beings able to see a vet within 30 minutes, the vast majority (79.9%) under an hour, and just 8.4% of owners reported waiting more than 2 hours:

For non-emergency visits, the vast majority were able to book an appointment in the same week:

So we’re kind of left wondering… what are people complaining about?

Hit the reply and let us know what you think of these stats, if they line up with your experience and if so, why do we think there is a vet shortage?

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Veterinary Med’s Three Headed Problem

In a recent opinion piece on Today’s Veterinary Business, Mark Cushing argues that three hot-button topics in veterinary medicine - the claims of a veterinarian shortage, the “spectrum of care,” and access to care - are closely connected.

It’s easy to see where he’s coming from… if there are fewer veterinarians, basic supply-and-demand logic suggests prices for services will rise, making care less accessible, particularly for lower-income pet owners.

But not everyone agrees… The AVMA and other organizations dispute the idea of a long-term shortage, calling current challenges something that can’t be solved without major structural changes. Skeptics argue that factors like inflation or consumer choice may be driving price sensitivity, not workforce shortages.

Cushing also critiques resistance to new models of care, such as veterinary “physician assistants” (recently approved in Colorado), telemedicine, or flexible approaches within the “spectrum of care.” He suggests that reluctance to explore alternatives leaves the profession vulnerable to worsening access issues. Meanwhile, state boards remain unclear on how veterinarians should navigate care below the “gold standard,” creating fear and uncertainty for practitioners.

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Quick Hits

Here are some of the other stories that caught our eye and we're following this week from around the veterinary world and animal kingdom: