By Al Litman
We are well into the new year and Mesquite is jumping with activity, in spite of some of the wettest and cold days I have seen in the nearly 19 years I have lived here.
Mayor Al Litman
And speaking of activity, we have a new non-profit organization in our city, Lions Clubs International.
For those of you not familiar with this organization, it is an international, non-political service organization, established in 1916.
Currently there are over 46,000 clubs and more than 1.4 million members in countries all over the world, and now right here in Mesquite.
I’m excited we have another humanitarian club in town.
Some of what I write about monthly comes from comments on social media, and I found something interesting this week.
If you don’t have pets you may not find this interesting, but from what I observe, Mesquite has more than it’s share of furry friends.
A number of residents recently chimed in about not having a 24 hour, or after hours emergency clinic for their animals.
I was pretty sure I had the answer as to why not, but I did a little research on the subject and found it most distressing.
There is an acute shortage of veterinarians in virtually every state in the country. Seven thousand to be exact.
There are 32 veterinary schools in the country, graduating about 3,200 new doctors yearly. It doesn’t come close to cover the number that retire or just leave the profession yearly.
Just as a statistic, the rate of suicide among members of this profession is three times the norm for the general population, and the highest of all professions.
I think we are fortunate just to have the excellent, dedicated veterinarians we have in Mesquite, and know they are working as hard as they can to provide their services for our furry friends.
Al Litman is mayor of the city of Mesquite.
