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Alumna’s Legacy Helps Pets
Find Forever Homes
When critically ill shelter animals come to the CCVM, part of the cost of
Bruner took a job with the Oregon
Department of Revenue, managing their housing, surgery, and care is paid by the Olive K. Britt Endowment for
its computer networks. She spent Emergency Medicine.
27 years working for the state as a Olive Britt was an OSU alumna who earned a degree in Wildlife Sciences
telecommunications engineer, later in 1940, and went on to become a veterinarian. When she died in 2006, her
overseeing the network information will created an endowment to provide hospital care for shelter animals and
center that serviced all the smaller animals whose owners could not afford critical treatment.
state agencies, until her retirement
in 2016. Dr. Kirk Miller, an OSU faculty member teaching veterinary students at the
Oregon Humane Society in Portland, has sent several cats and dogs to the
Leaving a Legacy CCVM for procedures that he cannot provide. “These are young, otherwise
healthy animals that are very adoptable,” Dr. Miller says. “In fact, they rarely
Bruner first started making regular make it back to us. They get adopted there[in Corvallis].”
contributions to the CCVM in 2001
when it launched a capital campaign Last month, that happened once again when a homeless golden retriever
to expand the DVM program so named Brie was brought to the CCVM for repair of an ectopic ureter. In
students could complete all surgery normal dogs, the ureter connects the kidneys to the bladder. Brie was born
training and certification require- with a ureter that did not connect to her bladder. The VTH surgically
ments in Corvallis. After her father, repaired this defect, and the Britt fund paid part of the cost. Soon after Brie
Joe, passed in 2012, she and her recovered from surgery, one of
mother decided they wanted her the students working on her case
endowment to go toward something found her a forever home with a
meaningful. friend in Portland, Callan Christ-
man.
“Students get an excellent education
here simply because it’s a smaller “We are so grateful for all that
school,” Bruner said. “The hands-on OSU has done to make Brie
time students get with instructors healthy,” says Christman. “She is a
produces outstanding graduates. wonderful addition to our family
It’s important that our school stays and we love her so much.”
on the smaller side, which takes
support from the alumni.” The Olive K. Britt endowment
earns about $7,000 a year in inter-
est. In 2019, donors contributed
another $4,360. All that money
has been used to help shelter
animals and pets of low-income
owners. The many, many generous
donors who have contributed to
the Britt fund over the years have
enabled the CCVM to save the
lives of hundreds of beloved pets
and pets-to-be.
