Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine published its September 2026 dean’s message on October 1, 2026. It presents animals as important to personal wellbeing and community health through three themes: companion-animal care, wildlife conservation, and livestock and food security.
The message is a reflection on the roles animals play in people’s lives and communities, drawing on the dean’s travel to Seattle and Africa. It offers qualitative observations rather than measured impacts or statistics.
Companion animals, wellbeing, and access to care
At a Dean’s Celebration of Excellence in Seattle, the message describes the human-animal bond in the lives of at-risk youth. Animals can offer companionship, emotional support, security, wellbeing, and a sense of home. At a Seattle Humane luncheon, stories about access to care and community-based health care reinforced another role: animals can be lifelines for people who feel alone.
These examples connect the bond people form with animals to the availability of care in their communities. The message does not quantify the effects of that care.
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Wildlife encounters and conservation
The message also links wildlife with tourism and economic prosperity in the African locations discussed. It describes the Woodland Park Zoo’s Advancing Empathy Initiative as using encounters with wild animals at the zoo to help people develop empathy and turn concern for animals into conservation action.
Livestock, animal health, and food security
In the African locations visited, livestock are described as important to family financial security. The message connects maintaining animal health and addressing diseases that can cross between humans and animals—or harm livestock—with efforts to support food security in developing nations.
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It also identifies dairy, beef cattle and calves, and chickens and eggs as foundational to Washington State’s economy. These are the dean’s qualitative observations; the message gives no economic totals, disease figures, or other numerical measures.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.The message’s central idea
The dean concludes: “However you look at it, animals are central to our personal wellbeing and community health (fiscal and otherwise).” Across the examples, animals matter not only through individual bonds but also through care, conservation, family livelihoods, and food systems.
Read the full message from WSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine. The college’s 2026 archive lists it as published October 1, 2026.
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