Texas Tech University’s School of Veterinary Medicine students helped provide veterinary services to a special place with an incredible purpose.
Did you know just a short drive from Texas Tech University's School of Veterinary Medicine is the world's leading donkey rescue?
It's called Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue, a 172-acre haven located in San Angelo,
Texas. For founders Mark and Amy Meyers, it is a passion that started out as a project
for their sons to learn the responsibility that comes with animal care but then became
so much more once they noticed the huge need to rescue donkeys. 
Today, their operation extends across the country and San Angelo is their headquarters. At any given time, this facility can house around 1,000 donkeys.
Helping a Unique Purpose
Carolyn Arnold, professor of equine surgery at the School of Veterinary Medicine, had connections
to Peaceful Valley before joining Texas Tech. This led her to spearhead this incredible
opportunity for the School of Veterinary Medicine students to help Peaceful Valley
achieve its purpose. 
“The sanctuary provides a wonderful experience for veterinary students to gain important skills while improving the welfare of the donkeys,” Arnold said. “It's truly a win-win situation for all involved.”
While Peaceful Valley does rescue domestic donkeys, such as those that suffer abuse, neglect or abandonment, they also rescue wild donkeys.
“For our wild donkey population, we work with the National Parks Service, U.S. military,
NASA, and anybody that has a donkey population that are not federally protected,”
Meyers said. “Because donkeys are one of the few animals that don't increase in value
when they are castrated, we seldom get geldings (which are castrated donkeys).”
This is where the School of Veterinary Medicine has stepped in to help Peaceful Valley. In May 2023, several School of Veterinary Medicine faculty and staff, along with the inaugural class, traveled down to San Angelo for a four-day adventure to help the rescue perform a common veterinary procedure called castration.
The first trip was such a success that they were invited back this past October to,
once again, help perform this procedure. This opportunity has allowed students to
hone their surgical skills while at the same time help the rescue improve animal welfare
and make the donkeys more suitable for adoption into permanent homes. 
Becoming Confident and Competent
The School of Veterinary Medicine prides itself on the fact that their purpose is to support the veterinary educational and service needs of rural and regional communities across Texas and New Mexico.
To do this, they are providing students with a world-class, hands-on education that gives them real-world experiential learning opportunities, such as working with Peaceful Valley.
“This is a one-in-a-thousand opportunity for our students,” said Luis Morales, assistant professor of general veterinary practice at the School of Veterinary Medicine.
“This trip is the time when they learn how to develop their surgical skills in a field
set up.”
According to Arnold, it's a partnership that allows veterinary students the opportunity to perform surgery under the watchful eye of faculty and other veterinarians.
“It is a living laboratory, with students able to refine their technique due to the high number of surgical experiences at the sanctuary,” Arnold said. “Students come away from this experience with solid surgical skills and the confidence to enter practice as new graduates.”
During the first trip, students were able to castrate around 250 donkeys. Since there
were 63 students, that means each student was able to perform at least three or four
surgeries.
“This is amazing because the level of confidence in their skills grows with each surgical intervention they do,” Morales said. “It's awesome to be there and see them go from no-confidence level to a proficient level at the end of the week.”
For their second trip, they castrated 120 donkeys in two days which allowed each student to castrate one or two donkeys. Students, such as Kurt Marion, saw this as a unique advantage as most veterinary students don't have an opportunity like this.
“Castrating donkeys at Peaceful Valley is a great way for students to gain the technical
and surgical skills needed to be an effective veterinarian,” Marion said. “It is an
important event for me because I could see myself getting more comfortable and more
confident in my surgical skills. 
“Having faculty and practicing veterinarians there to mentor you as well is a huge advantage that some veterinary students might not have. I am so grateful for the learning opportunities provided by Peaceful Valley and the School of Veterinary Medicine.”
Dr. Walker Brooks is a rural veterinarian at Lazy 3 Animal Care in Cisco, Texas. Only being an hour and a half away, he had the opportunity to travel down to San Angelo to watch and assist firsthand as students performed this type of surgery.
Dr. Brooks agrees it is crucial for those veterinarians who want to be in rural areas to be exposed to the intense, fast-paced rural medicine.
“As a mixed animal practitioner in rural Texas for over 30 years, I see Texas Tech's
veterinary mission essential for small town America,” Dr. Brooks said. “The partnership
between Texas Tech and Peaceful Valley is invaluable, in my opinion. 
“It gives students a glimpse of rural practice where conditions are not always ideal or can be controlled. The students also experience a fast-paced environment with limited resources, which will occur in their veterinary career.
“By providing this opportunity, Texas Tech shows its commitment to producing some of the finest general veterinary practitioners available. The students I worked with were well prepared, caring and polite – all essentials to making good practitioners and making a difference in rural Texas veterinary medicine.”
Involved with Community
Community is a core value at the School of Veterinary Medicine. It is also an important aspect within veterinary medicine, especially rural and regional veterinary medicine.
Working with Peaceful Valley has allowed students to work together and help an incredible
purpose. It also showed students the role a veterinarian plays within rural and regional
communities such as San Angelo. 
“One of the core values at Texas Tech's School of Veterinary Medicine is community, a place in which we collaborate to achieve a common goal,” said student Jordon Koch. “Our relationship with the Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue is just that, a part of our community. Peaceful Valley invites our students out and gives them the opportunity to acquire invaluable hands-on experience and knowledge in the field, but in turn, receives a beneficial service.
“As a third-year student, I have now been to the sanctuary twice and I can say it was an amazing and rewarding experience that I am extremely grateful and lucky to have been given the opportunity to do. What other veterinary student could say that they have successfully and confidently castrated 5-6 donkeys before their fourth year?”
Dr. Christopher Womack is a local veterinarian at Los Caballos Veterinary Clinic in
San Angelo who frequently helps Peaceful Valley. He also had the chance to assist
and teach School of Veterinary Medicine students during their time at the rescue. 
For him, being a pillar in the community is vital to being a successful rural veterinarian and he got to see this firsthand with the School of Veterinary Medicine students.
“I've been working in a mixed animal veterinary practice in my hometown for almost 32 years,” said Dr. Womack. “My community is as important to me as I hope I am to them. My clients obviously trust me with the care of their animals, but there's much more that we as veterinarians have to offer to our clients and communities.
“One of my clients, Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue, has trusted me to provide veterinary care to their animals for over 20 years. When I reached out to Texas Tech for help with a castration project involving several hundred donkeys, there was no hesitation. As soon as they showed up to the rescue, we went right to work.
“At the end of the project, I hope the students learned that community involvement for a veterinary professional doesn't just mean talking to 4-H groups, sitting on the school board, helping with the local stock show or being on the city council. Sometimes it means getting down in the dirt and castrating donkeys so they can have a chance at finding a home.
“I'm both impressed and optimistic about this group of students from Texas Tech. If they are a true representation of what the future veterinarians look like, I think the profession is in good hands.”
What the Future Looks Like
The School of Veterinary Medicine is looking forward to next spring as another round of second-year veterinary students will make a trip to help Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue. They hope this will be a continual trip to allow students to help a great purpose while at the same time giving students opportunities to practice important, commonly seen skills in rural veterinary medicine.
“With Texas Tech being such a new veterinary school, it's such a great opportunity to be able to work with them and give the students a way to learn the important surgical skills such as castrations,” Meyers said. “It's such a great experience for the school and such a great experience for us to have that relationship with Tech. We are looking forward to a long-term relationship.”
