Who We Are & What We Believe

Quite simply, we’re pet lovers who care for pets the way we want our own cared for. We consider your pets as equal members of your family, just as they are to us. We’re crazy about animals, crazy about getting things right, doing the best we can,  providing the best care possible, and being honest, fair, forthright and compassionate. We recommend what is necessary, respect people’s budgets but always put the best interests of your pets first. From the moment they arrive, we’re their advocates. That’s the way it should be.

Why We Love Animals

Imagine a job that requires days of laughing, tickling, playing and baby-talking with hilarious, fun-loving and playful creatures whose sole purpose in life is to have a good time. Well, that’s what it’s like to work at Queen West. Though there are also moments of sadness and grief, we consider it a tremendous honour to work alongside your dogs and cats. They make us immensely happy. We all feel that way. In fact, you can’t work at Queen West Animal Hospital unless you feel that way. It’s that important to us.

French poet, Anatole France, once said “until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened”. We’re pretty sure our souls are fully awake as we’ve loved literally tens of thousands of animals. It’s impossible not to. Even the scared cats who won’t come out of their carrier, or the dogs that bark and growl when we walk into the room. We take our time to connect with each and every one of them. No matter their personality, they always have something to offer. It is a tremendous privilege that we never take for granted.

Staff Care & Zero Abuse Tolerance

Rescue Work

Although covered in more detail in another section of this site, we pay it forward by providing veterinary care at or below our cost to numerous dog and cat rescues across the city. It is a source of tremendous pride for all our staff to look after pets whom might otherwise remain neglected. Additionally, we regularly help feline rescues by finding homes for stray kittens through our adoption program.

Fear Free

Our goal is to make Queen West Animal Hospital a less scary place for pets to visit. The Fear Free Program (http://www.fearfreepets.com/fear_free/default.aspx) has identified strategies we have implemented at our new location. These include calming music in exam rooms, strategic scheduling, soundproofing exam rooms, the use of dimmable exam room lighting, the use of pheromone diffusers and sprays in the waiting area and examination rooms and recommending strategies for owners to initiate at home prior to the visit. Though Fear Free Practice Registration is not available until 2018, we have started working towards at our new location.

Why We Keep Learning

Veterinary medicine changes all the time. All employees at Queen West Animal Hospital are designated a continuing education allowance annually which they use to attend both local and distant veterinary conferences, presentations and meetings. Additionally, we routinely organize educational presentations during our bimonthly staff meetings. Staff members are also asked to present summaries to the entire staff following continuing education experiences. We love learning. Hopefully it shows.

How We Care For Our Staff

Though we’re probably a bit biased, Queen West Animal Hospital is a great place to work. Many of our staff report it’s the best job they’ve ever had. We love coming to work every day and most socialize outside of work on a regular basis. Working at a veterinary hospital can, at times, be stressful, sad and humbling. As a result, we do our best to create a supportive and empowering workplace that encourages staff to be individuals, make their own decisions and utilize the full extent of their training.

Additionally, we recognize working at Queen West Animal Hospital is not the only part of our lives that matter. As such, we actively encourage and support staff to strive towards a good work/life balance and pursue dreams in other fields if they so choose. Though we’d love to work together forever, we would never hold anyone back in their efforts to be who they want to be.

Environment

We do our best at Queen West Animal Hospital to minimize our environmental impact wherever possible. Highlights of these efforts include:

Solar Hot Water. We are excited to announce the installation of solar hot water on the roof at our new 931 Queen West location! Though common in many tropical and subtropical countries, solar hot water is only just catching on in Ontario. Highly efficient and inherently fossil fuel free, we’re incredibly proud to use the sun’s energy to supply over 90% of the hot water used at our hospital!

Electric Vehicle Charging Station. We are already one of the only veterinary hospitals in downtown Toronto with dedicated client parking but are also proud to offer a Sun Country 100 amp EV charging station to our staff and clients. Electric cars are more and more the way of the future and Queen West Animal Hospital is incredibly pleased to do our part.

Lighting. In order to save electricity and reduce demand on our power infrastructure, all lighting at our new Queen West Animal Hospital location is LED.

Reducing & Reusing. All office paper is used twice. All office paper purchased at Queen West Animal Hospital is Sustainable Earth by Staples tree-free paper made from sugarcane and bamboo fibers. After sugarcane is crushed to make sugar, the waste fibers are converted into paper. All large format toilet paper for the building is made from 100% recycled fibers and is chlorine- and fragrance-free. Additionally, we now almost exclusively utilize electronic means with which to contact clients. We even reuse the plastic packaging that comes with our deliveries as poop bags for in-hospital patients!

Recycling. We consider ourselves aggressive recyclers, and actually regularly discuss recycling at staff meetings (we’re nerds) in order to stay up to date on what is and what isn’t recyclable. Recycling guides are posted at all recycling bins and we all do our part to recycle whatever possible. Additionally, we recycle all printer ink cartridges.

Toronto Environment Days. All batteries, unused cleaners, laboratory reagents and chemicals, paints, spent electronics and LED light bulbs avoid the landfill by being taken by staff members every summer to one of the city’s annual Environment Days.

Laundry. Though all surgical and hospital linens are autoclaved for sterility, all regular laundry at Queen West Animal Hospital is washed with cold water as a means to reduce energy consumption.

Community

We’re incredibly proud to be part of the Queen West community of Toronto, voted as the 3rd best by Vogue magazine of Europe in 2015! We regularly take part in presentations at local pet events and local schools promoting animal health and veterinary medicine and sponsor several of the local animal rescues (beyond our rescue work). Recently, however, we’ve made a commitment to the rich arts scene of Queen West, by sponsoring Editions at The Open Studio, ‘Plucked’ at SummerWorks and ‘Thumped! (Ten Toes) at the Toronto Fringe Festival. It is our intention going forward to build Queen West’s presence in the local arts scene through ongoing and annual promotion and sponsorship.

Accessibility

Our new location at 931 Queen West is fully wheelchair accessible. Wheelchair access is available from the Strachan Avenue parking area via an automatic door. All client areas on the main floor are therefore wheelchair accessible. Additionally, washrooms on all client floors are accessible and we are happy to announce all floors other than the basement will be accessed via elevator.

Aesthetic

Since opening our doors in 2000, Queen West Animal Hospital has been dedicated to the aesthetic of the amazing Queen West neighbourhood. Our newest location showcases that dedication better than ever before. With initial inspiration from Dr. Cherri Trusheim’s amazing hospital in Seattle, Urban Animal (http://urbananimalnw.com), we were put together with our incredible designer, Sarah Littlefield, also from Seattle (http://seattlejunklove.blogspot.ca). Sarah’s vision of a Canadian-themed cabin in the woods gave rise to what we humbly consider to be one of the most beautiful small animal hospitals anywhere. Highlights of the new facility include our Malm fireplace, vast collection of vintage dog and cat chalk ware, custom Canadiana wallpaper in each exam room, large lobby mural and our massive street art mural by Electric Coffin (http://electriccoffin.com). Looks matter, especially on Queen West, and we wanted to create not only a beautiful clinic but one that welcomes every time anyone walks in the door. Based on the feedback thus far, we think we’ve pulled it off. Come see for yourself.

Lastly, Made by Neversink (https://madebyneversink.com) rebranded our logo, website, colours and font. Though we’re obviously biased, we can’t say enough about the fresh and inspiring work they’ve done to recreate Queen West’s look.