Banfield Pet Hospital celebrated a milestone Aug. 12 with the opening of the company’s 1,000th clinic, a mark achieved 62 years after the first practice was established in Portland, Oregon.
The new clinic, located in the Nashville, Tennessee, suburb of Franklin, is a four-doctor general practice that, unlike many Banfield hospitals, is not housed inside a PetSmart store.
The grand opening featured a ribbon-cutting and hospital tours.
A Banfield tradition of offering free veterinary care to needy pets whenever a hospital is established benefited homeless cats and dogs at Agape Animal Rescue, Nashville PITTIE, the Maury County Animal Shelter, Rudimentary Rescue and the Williamson County Animal Center. The $25,000 worth of medical services, performed over five days, ranged from feline vaccinations to bilateral patella surgery on a poodle.
The four staff veterinarians are:
- Steve Doerr, DVM, who was raised in west Tennessee and practiced for 16 years in Northern California after earning his degree from Oklahoma State University. He joined Banfield in 2015.
- Tennessee native Cameron Dobson, DVM, who took a job with Banfield after his 2011 graduation from the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine.
- Jessica Gilliam, DVM, a classmate of Dr. Dobson’s and an Ohio native.
- Helen Reaves, DVM, a fellow UT alumnae, who was hired at Banfield in 2010.
They are among 3,500 veterinarians working at Banfield hospitals across the United States and Puerto Rico. The company is based in Vancouver, Washington.