Meet Lauren Cabrera.
After 15 years in nursing, I have decided to fully switch gears to vet med. I start veterinary school in Fall 2025 at Washington State University (Go Cougs!). I was fortunate enough to receive a private scholarship which allowed me to attend the University of Florida Shelter Medicine Master’s Degree program, and couldn’t be more grateful for that opportunity.
Background
Originally from New Hampshire, I found myself living on the island of Saipan in 2012. After nearly one year, I left to find myself and traveled the world, pursued a master’s degree in nursing, and completed a palliative care fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NYC. I finally found myself on the nearby island of Guam in 2018. I worked as a hospitalist and started a palliative care service. In my free time, I was in the ocean freediving. Life was easy, yet I couldn’t help but notice… Guam had SO MANY stray dogs, and only one animal shelter. How could they manage?
Then Everything Changed.
In 2020, I got married. In 2021, I was on maternity leave with my first child. I thought to myself.. “Well, I’m home a lot now. I should foster dogs…”.
I tend to overdo things, so instead of just fostering dogs, I decided to start a whole new organization called Boonie Flight Project (BFP) with my friend, Kelsey. BFP quickly took off (no pun intended) and we were suddenly flying 20-40 dogs off-island to adopters across the country every month. It was incredibly challenging volunteer work. Exhausting, frustrating, and often felt hopeless. But, BFP started to change the perception of boonie dogs locally and partnered with the shelter to launch a low-cost spay/neuter clinic. Flying dogs was a band-aid, but spay/neuter and shelter programs were the sustainable change needed.
Saipan Humane Today.
Saipan Humane Society (SHS) was originally started in 2022 with a focus on spay/neuter clinics and supporting the municipal shelter. Shortly after opening, everything changed. The community wanted access to veterinary care more than I ever could have imagined. Last year, the clinic saw 6,000 pets for everything ranging from flea/tick preventive to vaccines, hit by car to seizures, spay/neuter, and more. This is all thanks to visiting volunteer veterinarians and virtual support.
I took the course International Shelter Medicine through UF, which was incredibly validating. After seeing veterinarians from the mainland overwhelmed when adapting to our lack of resources (combined with some very sick animals), it was refreshing to read protocols and stories from a similar place. This book helped me realize that “gold standard care” is not realistic everywhere - and that is OK.
The Avalanche
I used to say “everything snowballed from there”, but recently realized that was a bit of an understatement. In reality, everything avalanched. Suddenly I became the board president of Guam’s only animal shelter. I moved to Saipan, a much smaller island nearby with no veterinarian. There, I ran a pop-up MASH clinic and founded another non-profit called Saipan Humane Society. Thanks to the help of this program, I was able to implement a humane euthanasia program for shelter animals where there was none, and learned to partner with the municipal shelter instead of against them.
My Actual Job
Despite spending a great deal of time and energy on SHS and BFP, neither are my actual job. I actually work for the local government Department of Agriculture as the Animal Health Manager. With no resident veterinarian, I am supervised by a consulting veterinarian based on Guam. My role varies widely day-to-day and can include (but is not limited to!) planning for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), seeking resources for food animal health, creating and implementing policies, planning the construction of a quarantine facility, assisting with wild birds, and more.
The Public Health for Shelter Animals course was very helpful for me in this capacity. In fact, this course helped me to implement the necessary programs for an Animal Health HPAI response!
Connect on Instagram.
@boonieflightproject
@future.island.vet
@saipanhumanesociety
Saipan Humane Today.
Saipan Humane Society (SHS) was originally started in 2022 with a focus on spay/neuter clinics and supporting the municipal shelter. Shortly after opening, everything changed. The community wanted access to veterinary care more than I ever could have imagined. Last year, the clinic saw 6,000 pets for everything ranging from flea/tick preventive to vaccines, hit by car to seizures, spay/neuter, and more. This is all thanks to visiting volunteer veterinarians and virtual support.
I took the course International Shelter Medicine through UF, which was incredibly validating. After seeing veterinarians from the mainland overwhelmed when adapting to our lack of resources (combined with some very sick animals), it was refreshing to read protocols and stories from a similar place. This book helped me realize that “gold standard care” is not realistic everywhere - and that is OK.
Academic Work.
VME 6817 Humane Euthanasia Practices for Animal Shelters: White Paper
VME 6817 Humane Euthanasia Practices for Animal Shelters: Standard Operating Procedures
Organizations.
Academic Work.
VME 6817 Humane Euthanasia Practices for Animal Shelters: White Paper
VME 6817 Humane Euthanasia Practices for Animal Shelters: Standard Operating Procedures
Organizations.
