2011 is World Veterinary Year
2011 marks the 250th world anniversary of veterinary education - when the world's first veterinary school was founded in Lyon, France in 1761 by Claude Beaugelat - Grand Equerry of Europe.
To celebrate veterinary training and the veterinary profession, 2011 will be named World Veterinary Year in animal associations around the world; with veterinary institutions organising events and celebrations in their own countries to promote our profession to the public and raise awareness of the key role veterinarians play in society.
Claude Bourgelat (March 27, 1712 – January 3, 1779) was a French veterinary surgeon and barrister.
He was the founder of veterinary colleges at Lyon in 1762, as well as an authority on horse management, and often consulted on the matter.
"Bourgelat, a French barrister, observing that certain maladies were devastating the French herds, forsook the bar and devoted his time in seeking out a remedy for the then pest, which resulted in his founding a veterinary college in Lyon in 1760, from which establishment he despatched students, with weapons in their hands all-necessary for combating disease by science with practice; and in a short time from this period, the plague was stayed and the health of stock restored, through the assistance rendered to agriculture by veterinary science and art."
The plague to which Lupton referred was cattle plague, also commonly known by its German name, Rinderpest.
Read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Bourgelat