Veterinarian, Medical Director

Summary:

The ARC (Animal Recovery Center) and CARE (Canine Annex for Recovery and Enrichment) are facilities dedicated to the recovery and rehabilitation of victims of cruelty and neglect admitted through NYPD and the ASPCA’s Humane Law Enforcement (HLE) and Community Engagement (CE) programs.

Our dedicated team of more than 45 sheltering, medical, and animal behavior professionals work closely with the ASPCA Animal Hospital, Forensics, Legal Advocacy and Investigations, Behavioral Sciences, Shelter Medicine Services, Community Engagement, Placement, and the Adoption Center teams to ensure coordinated response and operations, and holistic, balanced, high-quality care for the animals we serve.

The Director of Veterinary Services, ARC will perform all the duties of a licensed veterinarian, including providing compassionate, high-quality, practical veterinary care to a wide range of cruelty, neglect, and at‑risk animals. In addition, the Director will provide a management presence on the floor to ensure efficient and effective animal flow. The Director will hold the entire team accountable to act with urgency, providing balanced, high-quality care to the animals, coordinating with departments, and practicing Fear Free values.

This position directly manages 1‑2 Licensed Veterinary Technicians.

This position affords a wonderful opportunity for a veterinarian to drive forward the care and rehabilitation of animals who are victims of cruelty and neglect. ARC is comprised of medical, behavior, and direct care teams working together to recover, enrich, treat, and support a wide range of cases.

* The schedule for this role is Sunday‑Wednesday, 9am‑7pm (flexibility on Sunday with possibility of 8am‑6pm).

Responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

• Ensure ARC provides high quality individualized care, considering the medical and behavioral needs of our patients while maintaining overall population medicine using shelter best practices to a wide range of cruelty, neglect, and at‑risk patients.
• Serve on a panel with medical, behavior, and sheltering leaders to review cases and make weekly pathway planning decisions, including humane euthanasia decisions, taking into consideration animals’ physical and psychological well‑being, using organizationally aligned tools developed to assess quality of life and readiness for adoption.
• Perform humane euthanasia for animals deemed unsuitable for placement, working closely with the behavior and medical teams to ensure a compassionate, low‑stress procedure.
• Perform medical intakes on all new NYPD and CE cases admitted to ARC and in collaboration with partner departments for animals admitted to veterinary partner hospitals, AAH, ARC, and Adoption Center as needed.
• Provide medical support for large scale NYPD and CE cases.
• Perform exams, diagnostic tests, and medical treatments with full utilization of Fear Free medical handling. Ensure all staff are practicing Fear Free handing.
• Develop skilled and efficient diagnosis and treatment plans following ARC/CARE/AAH medical parameters and guidelines.
• Provide medical care for outpatients of owned, fostered out and/or animals in transition to the Adoption Center and placement partners.
• Maintain thorough, high quality medical records, documenting all exam findings, test results, and treatments.
• Work with partner hospitals as needed, including referral for advanced care, and assessing medical stability of new cases at partner hospitals.
• Respond to after‑hours medical concerns.
• Oversee and maintain the ARC animal census.

• Oversee the daily medical care and case flow of the animals housed in ARC.
• Lead the Daily ARC rounds meeting.
• Lead ARC LVT meetings as needed.
• Develop, disseminate, and keep current the ARC Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and ensure their implementation. Facility‑specific SOPs are developed in conjunction with CARE, AAH, Adoption Center, BST, and SMS to ensure best medical, sheltering, and behavioral practices.
• Model a standard of continued commitment to improve and expand upon all aspects of ARC including, medical, behavior,…