Northern exposure to animals guided Yukon student to vet profession

“I’m from Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon, but once I walk to the end of my street, there is nothing but forest, rivers and mountains,” says Campbell, a first-year veterinary student at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM).

“Many of my favourite memories are from being outside in the Yukon, from hiking to camping by a glacier, to flying into a lake on a float plane for a moose hunt or fishing beside grizzly bears.”

Campbell’s childhood also involved caring for various pets that included dogs, cats, horses, guinea pigs and even a bearded dragon. At an early age, Campbell began riding horses, and she participated in trail rides and competitions in the Yukon as well as in Alaska.

She also has many wonderful memories of riding the horses on her grandfather’s cattle ranch just outside of Calgary, Alta. Dr. Don Moore (DVM), a 1961 graduate of the Ontario Veterinary College, was the Calgary Stampede’s official veterinarian for 35 years and one of the founding partners of Moore Equine Veterinary Centre.

“I was lucky to grow up hearing stories about his life as a vet and spending time on his farm with the horses and cows,” says Campbell, whose grandfather passed away in 2023 at the age of 86. “I don’t remember one specific event that piqued my interest in veterinary medicine so much as weeks on the farm with his horses and reading his vet books where I imagined myself as being a vet one day.”

After Campbell completed high school in Whitehorse, she moved to Ontario. Although a veterinary career had always been in the back of her mind, she decided to explore other options by enrolling in the Bachelor of Humanities and Biology program at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ont.

However, after a year of studies and a summer job working with small animals at Whitehorse’s Alpine Veterinary Medical Centre, Campbell decided that a veterinary career was what she wanted. She switched her degree program at Carleton and began taking as many animal-related classes as she could.

“I imagine myself going back to the Yukon at some point at least and practising there. However, in what capacity I am not sure yet.”

After two summers at the Alpine Veterinary Medical Centre, Campbell took a summer job working with wildlife and large animals at the Government of Yukon’s Animal Health Unit. She particularly appreciated the support of Dr. Jane Harms (DVM), a WCVM graduate, as well as Drs. Michelle Thompson (DVM) and Maud Henaff (DVM). All three veterinary professionals provided Campbell with ample opportunities to learn and ask questions.

“I had an amazing team to work with … I loved the many ongoing projects and new ones that would pop up,” says Campbell, who spent two summers with the territory’s Animal Health Unit. “The best parts of the job were probably the mentorship and all the different parts of veterinary medicine that I got to see, from farm visits to necropsies to compiling data on northern diseases.”

Campbell also valued the opportunity to work with Yukon wildlife — completing tasks such as monitoring immobilized bears or performing necropsies on Arctic foxes, mountain goats and lynx.

Since she began the four-year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) program in mid-August, Campbell has been taking any opportunity to learn more about the many career options for veterinarians.

“I think one of the great things about vet school is that over the next four years I will be exposed to all different aspects of veterinary medicine and may fall in love with something I don’t know about yet,” says Campbell.