When critically ill shelter animals come to the OSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH), part of the cost of their housing, surgery, and care is paid by the Olive K. Britt Endowment for Emergency Medicine.

Olive Britt was an OSU alumna who earned a degree in Wildlife Sciences in 1940, and went on to become a veterinarian. When she died in 2006, her will created an endowment to provide hospital care for shelter animals, and animals whose owners could not afford critical treatment.

Dr. Kirk Miller, an OSU faculty member teaching veterinary students at the Oregon Humane Society in Portland, has sent several cats and dogs to OSU for procedures that he cannot provide. “These are young, otherwise healthy animals that are very adoptable,” he says. In fact, he says, “They rarely make it back to us. They get adopted there [Corvallis].”

Last month, that happened once again when a homeless Golden Retriever named Brie was brought to the VTH for repair of an Ectopic Ureter. In normal dogs, the ureter connects the kidneys to the bladder. Brie was born with a ureter that did not connect to her bladder. The VTH surgically repaired this defect, and the Britt fund paid part of the cost. Soon after Brie recovered from surgery, one of the students working on her case found her a forever home with a friend in Portland, Callan Christman.

“We are so grateful for all that OSU has done to make Brie healthy,” says Christman. “She is a wonderful addition to our family and we love her so much.”

The Olive K. Britt endowment earns about $7,000 a year in interest. In 2019, donors contributed another $4,360. All that money has been used to help shelter animals and pets of low-income owners. The many, many generous donors who have contributed to the Britt fund over the years have enabled the VTH to save the lives of hundreds of beloved pets and pets-to-be.

If you would like to make a gift, large or small, to the Olive K. Britt endowment, visit the OSU Foundation website.