Love for animals translates to long, successful career
Moose Jaw vet honoured with national award
Bob Bellamy didn’t grow up wanting to be a veterinarian but when he applied on a whim to veterinary school, it was the start of what would be a long and influential career.
“I always had an interest in animals. I just never thought of becoming a veterinarian to work with them,” he said.
Bellamy recently received the President’s Award from the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA).
Bellamy grew up in Melville and was known around town for his love of animals. If a bird or gopher was injured, it would somehow end up at Bellamy’s house where he would nurse it back to health.
After high school Bellamy attended university in Brandon and graduated with a degree in chemistry.
There weren’t any good jobs available in Bellamy’s field so on a lark he applied to medicine, veterinary medicine and dentistry school. He was accepted into the University of Saskatchewan’s veterinary school.
Following graduation from the U of S in 1976, Bellamy worked for a short time in Rosthern before moving to Regina.
The following year he decided to set up a mixed animal practice in Moose Jaw, as there was only one veterinarian clinic in the city.
Forty years later, Bellamy Harrison Animal Hospital is still open with Bellamy running it.
Over the years, Bellamy has made a name for himself in the Canadian veterinarian world serving as president for the Saskatchewan Veterinary Medical Association (SVMA), chair of the SVMA Practice Economic Community and chair of the CVMA business management committee.
As part of Bellamy’s work he developed the Saskatchewan Dispensing Manual for Veterinarians. The manual reviews all of the relevant federal and provincial legislation for regulating veterinary drug sales, putting it all in one place.
“(Veterinarians) go to the Food and Drugs Act, for example — it’s thousands of pages long — and what I did in this manual was just paraphrase the relevant legislation. So I’m trying to preserve the privilege that veterinarians have to both prescribe and dispense,” he said.
Bellamy also developed a series of informational videos. Originally they were for his own practice as a way to get information on treatments to his clients faster over social media, but the videos spread from there.
The videos played into the social media campaign he developed for the SVMA called SaskVets. From there the videos expanded to being offered nationally and internationally to veterinarians in the U.S.
“It’s my way of giving back to the profession,” Bellamy said.
In Bellamy’s own practice he uses social media daily to communicate with his clients and give them information about treatments for their pets.
“It’s much easier to explain something when you have video that actually shows what and why you’re doing it,” he said.