OVMA is the collective voice for more than 5,000 veterinarians in Ontario. As one of the oldest and largest veterinary associations in Canada, our members trust us to offer world-class continuing education, practice management resources, tools to support better mental health and well-being, career advice and more.
Supporting veterinarians’ well-being and professional growth, to contribute to the advancement of animal and human health.
The Ontario Veterinary Medical Association is committed to the principles of diversity and inclusion and rejects discrimination or harassment based on grounds such as race, colour, ancestry, ethnic origin, place of origin, age, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, family status, marital status or disability. Every human being deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.
The well-being of our society and our profession is vital. OVMA is committed to ongoing and active promotion and maintenance of diversity and inclusion in its membership, leadership and organization; to ensuring that its services are provided without bias; and to educating its members regarding the value of diversity and inclusion.
OVMA is committed to working with the Ontario Veterinary College to ensure that the principles of inclusivity and diversity are reflected in the equitable selection of students, and to make veterinary education more accessible for underrepresented and minority groups. We're also committed to working with the College of Veterinarians of Ontario to ensure that the principles of inclusivity and diversity are reflected in the licensing and regulation of Ontario’s veterinarians.
OVMA is located on the ancestral and traditional territories of many nations, including the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, the Huron-Wendat people, and the Haudenosaunee people, which is home to many diverse First Nations, Metis and Inuit people. We commit to better understanding our responsibility to our relationships and the ancestral lands on which we learn, share and live.
The association’s humble beginnings stretch back to Sept. 24, 1874, when a group of Ontario veterinary surgeons met at the Ontario Veterinary College on Temperance St. in Toronto and formed a society named the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association (OVMA).
At that time, OVMA consisted of 27 members who defined the association's objectives as “the mutual improvement of its members, in those branches of knowledge specially pertaining to their profession, and the advancement of the position and interests of the veterinary profession in the Province of Ontario.”
After 150 years of name changes, including the Society of Ontario Veterinarians and the Ontario Veterinary Association, financial ups and downs, and organizational restructuring, OVMA finally took on its current form in 1980.
