CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The first four-year veterinarian technician program is being initiated in the Mountain State following a great need for more accessible animal healthcare education opportunities.
West Virginia University and West Virginia State University are partnering with the West Virginia Department of Agriculture to bring the VetStart program to the state providing more educational training for aspiring vet techs.
While there are a few two-year vet tech programs in the state, this will make the first four-year program of its kind. WVSU President Ericke Cage said it’s a two-prong approach.

“Certainly we are committed to providing the education that our students will need as they seek to enter the veterinarian medicine workforce, but it really is also about meeting a clear and present workforce demand in the state of West Virginia,” Cage said.
Cage said in West Virginia there is only one vet tech for every three veterinarians, and that the American Veterinarian Medical Association recommends there be at least four vet techs per veterinarian doctor to maximize efficiency.
He said while the statistics confirm there is a great need for vet techs in the state, stories and accounts from area animal owners vocally reiterate the need.
“Whether it be those in the farm community or just those who have pets, they say they have incredible problems with connecting with veterinarian practices because there are so few of them in the state,” he said.
Cage said there are only two veterinarian schools close by at Virginia Tech and Ohio State. He said although there has been talk of starting a veterinarian school of medicine in West Virginia, the cost of it would be just over $320 million, and right now, it may be more financially feasible and educationally sufficient to start with the vet tech program first.
“Really a more cost-effective way of addressing the shortage of veterinarians that we can do at 1/100 of the cost is through the creation of this VetStart program creating pathways for individuals to receive four-year degrees as veterinarian techs,” he said.
Cheat Lake Animal Hospital has given more than $400,000 to help get the program off the ground, however, Cage said they are currently in the process of securing more funding to get it started.
He said the universities and the department of agriculture plan to secure the funding at the next year’s legislative session, and then he said they should be ready to start enrolling students into the program. However, he said they already have many students who have expressed interest.
Cage said higher education landscapes are evolving rapidly and local land-grant institutions like WVSU have to do everything they can to keep up, and such a program will help them do so.
“As institutions of higher education, we must change in order to remain relevant, we must change to provide our students with the education they need, education that is going to result in good paying jobs, we must also change to meet the needs of the workforce,” Cage said.