National Take Your Cat to the Vet Day Timeline

1879

Veterinary education came to the U.S.

The Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) became the first land-grant institution of higher learning in the United States to establish a veterinary school.

1844

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons established

The United Kingdom's Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons still exists to this day. It regulates veterinary surgeons and monitors standards.

1762

The first veterinary school founded

Claude Bourgelat observed that the cattle plague was killing French herds. So, he gave up a law career and opened a veterinary college in Lyon, France.

3200 B.C.

The first veterinarians began practicing

Archaeological evidence indicates that veterinary procedures were performed during the Neolithic period, around the time cats became domesticated.

7500 B.C.

Cat domestication got underway

Legend tells us that cats domesticated themselves by abandoning their wild behavior for human companionship.