Alumna volunteers veterinary expertise to help underserved communities
Lindsey Buracker '07, DVM '13 volunteers twice a year to provide veterinary care in what is essentially a veterinary desert. Navajo Nation spans some 27,000 square miles and contains over 500,000 cats and dogs and only three veterinarians.
During these trips, Buracker finds a lot of hard work and a lot of fulfillment.
“It fills my bucket,” said Buracker, an alumna of the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. Veterinarians "have so much stress, so many hardships, difficult clients, and a lot of time we feel like we are taken for granted and our buckets are depleted. To go to these places where people are so grateful they’re practically crying, it fills me back up and reminds me why I’m in this difficult profession. It’s for those people, those pets, who truly need me.”
As an area chief of staff, Buracker oversees five Banfield Pet Hospital locations spread from Roanoke to Richmond. She manages and directs veterinarian teams — this includes everything from leading a 12-week mentorship program with new graduates to rolling up her sleeves and chipping in to help more experienced veterinarians.
In addition, Buracker is the area community champion, a leader in community outreach who organizes events. For example, a recent event with the Richmond SPCA saw over 100 animals vaccinated and spayed or neutered.
Through the Banfield Foundation, Banfield’s charitable arm that focuses on increasing access to care, Buracker volunteers to work alongside the foundation team and its charitable partners — including the Parker Project, Underdog Animal Rescue and Rehab, and Red Rover — to bring free or low-cost veterinary care to the pets of Navajo Nation.
Every few months, Buracker hops on a plane to donate her time and expertise, providing crucial veterinary care across the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Reservation of New Mexico and Arizona. Banfield Foundation pairs her with nonprofit partners doing critical work and covers her travel costs. In fact, the foundation offers this for any veterinarian or credentialed veterinary technician at Banfield who wants to volunteer time and talent through its Care Knows No Boundaries grant program.
“The goal of Banfield Foundation is to give back to people who don’t have the access we take for granted,” Buracker said. “These are low-income areas where veterinary care is few and far between. I’ve been to places where the closest vet hospital was over 200 miles away, and even if the pet owner could get to the clinic, the clinic often does not accept new clients or the pet owner doesn’t have the means to pay for the care.”
That’s why volunteers like Buracker are crucial. About once a month, veterinary professionals like Buracker volunteer with Banfield Foundation to visit under-resourced communities to provide care. Each visit lasts about five days, and roughly half the time is dedicated to surgery: They offer about 75 surgery spots a day, including mass removals as well as spay/neuter services.
Basic wellness visits are also in high demand. Because the veterinarians don't work out of a traditional veterinary office, people line up in their cars in lieu of a waiting room.
“It was like a drive-through window,” Buracker said.
She and her fellow veterinary professionals see as many pets as they can, often crawling into cars and pickup truck beds to examine animals. One person hauled his entire extended family’s pets in a horse trailer to ensure they could receive routine care.
However, not everyone can drive to veterinary care, so with a cooler of vaccines in tow, the veterinarians spend a day going door-to-door, offering care and pet food donations.
These trips are not exactly vacations, but Buracker returns reinvigorated every time, and she’s already looking forward to her next trip. She is planning on bringing along veterinarians and vet techs from her team back home in order to share the joy of giving back.
