Help Santa’s reindeer: Join the E.L.V.E.S. this holiday season!

Published on
information-circle This article is more than 3 years old

 

Santa's ELVES

Even Santa’s reindeer need veterinary care! As the official veterinarian of the North Pole, the AVMA president gives each reindeer a thorough examination every year. This year, we’re inviting our member veterinarians to join AVMA President Dr. Tom Meyer on Santa’s worldwide veterinary team.

Since Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and all the rest of the reindeer travel across state and country borders as they help Santa deliver presents, they need to have health certificates and a clean bill of health.Just imagine how quickly an infectious disease could spread if Comet or Cupid were sick and sneezed, sniffled or coughed throughout their worldwide tour!

Besides illnesses that could be passed to other animals or pets, reindeer are also susceptible to and could carry zoonotic diseases, which are illnesses that can be transmitted between humans and animal. Plus, if the reindeer are sick before take-off, their immune system may be weaker, making them more vulnerable to other illnesses during and after their flight. In order to protect the people and animals of the world, it’s important that Santa’s reindeer are certified healthy before take-off.

Fortunately, with Dr. Meyer’s help, all of Santa’s reindeer were declared perfectly healthy and given the all-clear for flight. You can see the official Certificate of Inspection here.

Santa’s E.L.V.E.S.

Even with a clean bill of health for all his reindeer, Santa needs a team of veterinary staff standing by. That’s where you come in: participate in Santa’s Emergency Landing and Veterinary Expert System (E.L.V.E.S.) support team as an AVMA member veterinarian. We invite you to help us spread Santa’s holiday cheer by displaying your official E.L.V.E.S. badge on your clinic’s social media channels and educating clients on the various ways that veterinarians help keep all animals healthy—even reindeer.

AVMA members can download your official E.L.V.E.S. badge here.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a safe flight

You can see the whole story of Dr. Meyer’s inspection in the video below. Don’t forget to check out the rest of AVMA’s holiday resources, including an FAQ about Santa’s reindeer and holiday safety tips for pet owners.

 

Comments

Add New Comment

Restricted HTML

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a href hreflang> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote cite> <code> <ul type> <ol start type> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <h2 id> <h3 id> <h4 id> <h5 id> <h6 id>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
CAPTCHA
Please verify that you are not a robot.