“Tender Loving Care for Pets” Established at UC Davis

The University of California at Davis has established a program to assist individuals who wish to provide care for their pets after they die.  The program is called Tender Loving Care for Pets and is described as:

a new program at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine designed to provide lifetime veterinary services and pet care monitoring to pets that are predeceased by their loving owners. Through their estate plans, owners can establish funds to provide for necessary lifetime medical care for their pets at the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (VMTH) at UC Davis.

Pet caretakers will be able to bring enrolled pets to the UC Davis VMTH for annual examinations and vaccinations, as well as for emergency or chronic illness care. As the pets age, more frequent examinations will be provided for senior pet care. All the veterinary care provided to enrolled pets at the VMTH will be free of charge to the TLC for Pets caretaker home.

In Cynthia Hubert, Loved for a lifetime — What if your pet outlives you?, Sacramento Bee, Nov. 18, 2006, this program is described as being “the first to arrange for private adoptions” although there are other schools which “house a limited number of pet survivors on their campuses.”

For more information, see Estate Planning for Pet Owners.