Soon, there may be no one to take care of Fido, according to projections from the North Grafton-based Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University.
A study the Cummings School hired the UMass Donahue Institute to complete says the region will face a shortage of as many as 658 veterinarians by 2014.
Vets will be in high demand in coming years because of retirements and the creation of new jobs, the study said. The Cummings School, the only veterinary school in New England, will not graduate enough new veterinarians to meet that need, in part because 40 percent of the graduates leave the region.
Veterinary medicine brings $3.3 billion a year into the New England economy, according to the study.
There are 20,000 jobs for veterinarians and their staff in the region, and for every 100 of those jobs, another 59 are created in related industries, the study says.
The majority of the direct veterinary expenditures, 65 percent, went to clinical practices, which serve both pets and farm and food animals. Another 23 percent was part of scientific research and development, with veterinarians responsible for the welfare of as many as 2 million laboratory animals in New England.
