Representation Matters To The Stars Of Nat Geo Wild ‘Critter Fixers: Country Vets’

An African-American family from Oak Cliff, Texas, the Hatley brothers, are the first to race quarter horses and named their prized stallion Black Lives Matter. They took their four-legged friend to a veterinarian in the area, and when they returned, they found their beloved equine deceased. Black people were in an uproar, and white commentators quickly tried to denounce any culpability of the all-white veterinarian team linking the tragedy to actions of racism.

While the Hatleys have filed a lawsuit against the Weems and Stephens Equine Hospital and have renamed another colt to carry the Black Lives Matter moniker, the incident brought to light the absence of Black representation and availability of Black veterinarians.

Based on the statistics assembled by Zippia, 87.7% of veterinarians are white, 4.7% are Hispanic or Latino, 4.7% are Asian, and only 1.5% are Black or African-American.

Yet, Tuskegee University produces 70 percent of the nation’s African-American veterinarians.

Now entering into their fourth season of “Critter Fixers: Country Vets” on the Nat Geo Wild, now streaming on Disney Plus, Dr. Vernard L. Hodges and Dr. Terrence Ferguson both are on a mission to nurture every one of God’s living creatures and increase the visibility of the practice of veterinary medicine to the Black community. They’ve been friends for over three decades, owning and operating Critter Fixer Veterinary Hospitals based in Bonaire and Byron in rural Georgia, an hour and thirty minutes south of Atlanta.

Dr. Hodges‘ love of caring for animals began as the only child growing up in Fort Valley, Georgia, in rural Peach County on a modest farm filled with goats, cows, dogs, a cat, turtles, and various pets. His passion for animals carried him to Fort Valley State University, and he graduated as a Fish Biologist in 1993.

“I started more in the world of aquatics with dreams of being the first Black “Jacque Cousteau,” he says. “My father was Japanese and had koi, so I learned [how to raise] koi. As a kid, we’ll go down to the creeks and rivers.” Hodges would eventually meet Ferguson at Fort Valley State University. Before entering veterinary school, he traveled to Lake Phewa, Nepal, and India for the summer to participate in an Aquaculture program generating carp as a sustainable and economical protein source for the residents.

“I was leaning toward going into fisheries, but then I really liked aquatic life [and] land animals. So I figured veterinary encompasses them all [and] now I get to do surgery on fish and others. So that’s my journey,” Hodges adds. He graduated from Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1997 and continues raising koi fish on a farm in Peach County, his website reads.

Dr. Ferguson‘s path towards a veterinary occupation was more traditional, “When I was eight years old, from a very small rural area, we had a dog that was hit by a car, and I did what you would call doctoring this dog back to health. After a few days, the dog got better, but the process of doing that lit a fire in me to want to help animals. I remember telling my mother I wanted to be [an] animal doctor; she told me it was called a veterinarian. [I was] blessed from that point that the fire stayed lit, and I became a veterinarian, it’s the only thing I wanted to do.”

Ferguson, a native of Talbotton, Georgia, attended FVSU in 1987 and attained gainful experience interning with the US Fish and Wildlife Service at two of their locations in Patuxent Wildlife Refuge in Laurel, Maryland, and Alaska Wildlife Refuge on the Kenai Peninsula, according to his bio. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Veterinary Technology and graduated with his DVM from the Tuskegee School of Veterinary Medicine in 1998.

This past summer, the doctors attended the American Black Film Festival 2022, where festival attendees were taken by and wholly engrossed in discovering more about the lives of the doctors, how they overcame feelings of inadequacy and the impact of their influence. Hodges and Ferguson gave details about season four of their reality show, the importance of representing Black veterinarians, Black technicians and paving the way for the next generation of animal specialists.

“It’s a big thing, they call it DEI [meaning diversity, equity, and inclusion], that seems to be the catchword, but basically it’s Black representation for me, you can only be what you see,” Hodges says, who recalls a group of children raising their hands when he asked them if they wanted to become football and basketball players. “But never a hockey player because they don’t see hockey players here in the south, so there’s no desire to be what you can’t see.” He makes a compelling correlation with his chosen profession, describing how both children and adults will approach him and say, “I wanted to be a veterinarian, but I never saw one. I didn’t know who to go talk to, and it makes a difference.”

Hodges plainly states that he and Ferguson are the only two Black animal doctors on television that people can relate to their personalities. “We always say ‘for the culture,’ we understand the culture, the diversities, but the problem has been the schools haven’t. If you look up [the] GPA for veterinary school, the average GPA is about 3.7. Sometimes we don’t have those high GPAs because we’re working or sending money back to Mom. We’re first-generation college students, so we might not even know how to study that first year.”

Presently, there are only 33 accredited veterinary colleges in the country, and Hodges believes they all should understand the countless nuances of Black society.

The famously coined phrase “representation matters” may come across as an empty platitude. Still, to Ferguson, it serves as a driving force for the duties he carries out in his hospitals and with his altruistic endeavors spreading the opportunity of veterinary medicine to marginalized groups.

“I was an eight-year-old kid who wanted to be a veterinarian, but when I got a little older in middle school, and I tried to go to different clinics and wanted to shadow or look for that mentor, I was denied, or they didn’t have time,” he starkly remembers. Continuing during his early years in undergrad, he worked in Alaska and Maryland and was exposed to other African-Americans employed in wildlife conservation and fisheries.

“You go to undergrad, and I’m still looking and searching for that person to guide me, and it wasn’t until I was a junior in undergrad that I saw the first Black veterinarian, Dr. Corker, who relit that fire in me that ‘okay, you can do this.’ That’s why representation matters; that’s why it’s so important for Dr. Hodges and I are always accessible, we have these programs in place, trying to help that diversity, and I want to be there for the kids because there wasn’t anybody there for me,” he soberly observes.

Ferguson’s experience with the scarcity of willing mentors has caused him to use his platform to become a mentor for children and college students throughout America. Together the doctors launched Vet for A Day which gives underserved children access to a captivating experience in the field of veterinary medicine, pairing the activities with fun and information. Together with Hodges, they instituted the Vet For the Day program, which has grown into a national movement and hosted events in middle Georgia, Houston, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, and St. Louis.

Once the veterinary pharmaceutical companies became knowledgeable of doctors bringing awareness to the field, the companies decided to back their efforts. Hodges and Ferguson partnered with the Zoetis Foundation, IDEXX Laboratories, and Merck, who lent its support to the Critter Fixer stars when they engaged college students with demonstrations at Auburn University.

“IDEXX Laboratories gave us these tests; they are one of the biggest laboratory tests [companies]. We use them every day, and most veterinarians do. These kids performed the physical testing of the animal’s blood during the process,” Hodges says. In addition, to their pet pharma company partners, other schools have also opened their doors to the doctors, such as Harris-Stowe State University and their alma mater Fort Valley State University, where they plan to conduct summer camps, “We were hosted by Prairie View A&M while we were in Texas, and we took the kids on campus, we showed them exactly what is done. Not only are we doing Vet For A Day, but we’re also doing a college tour. So we [took] them to HBCUs and showed them what campus life is, what they have to offer, and what it’s like to be a student at an HBCU,” he adds.

Hodges reports that the Critter Fixer family is vast, and over 70 African-Americans have worked at Critter Fixer Hospitals, “We’ve written applications to go out into the world; we can make phone calls around the United States. That’s one thing we started years ago, but it’s just a multiplication of ourselves.” Hodges wants to add more Black veterinarians to the practice, and he is determined to convince schools to grasp the concept of improving their diversity offerings. Auburn University paid for the transportation of students who graduated from their Veterinary Intensive Program to participate in the Vet For A Day because the educational institution knows that Hodges and Ferguson can provide the necessary mentorship and insight of being a person of color in this profession.

“The only Ivy League vet school, Cornell, wants us to come to their college and do a four-day seminar. We’ve got Texas A&M on board who’s going to [create] a veterinary school. We spoke to the University of Georgia, and we’re going to partner on some different things,” he excitedly outlines. “So not only are we doing Vet For A Day where we’re [teaching] younger kids, we’re talking about some of the most prestigious veterinary institutions in the country who are bringing us on campus because they got a small Black population. They want them to see what it is like because when you walk into an eight by eight room, and as a veterinarian, you got to tell somebody what’s wrong with their [pitbull], not only are you treating the pit, you are treating the person as well [and need] to know how to interact with them as well. So that’s another thing we’re doing besides the Vet For A Day.”

Hodges and Ferguson’s acceptance from higher educational institutions, pharmaceutical companies, and their community is astonishing. Yet, Ferguson does admit there were times when some pet owners would visit their hospitals and make up glib excuses for leaving once they realized the doctors were Black.

“So those times did happen. But for the most part, our community has been very receptive to us; we’ve been very engaged in our community. We’ve had some of those experiences but to be honest; they haven’t been that much. Not anything that deterred us; if anything, it just pushed us to drive and push harder,” Ferguson affirms.

Hodges appreciates the acknowledgment and support but does consider how difficult their journey was in the beginning: “I mean, it’s kind of [novel] and cool being Black in this profession 25 years later, but I’ll be honest, it was tough. We weren’t doing it in Atlanta; we were in the thick of it. It was just us against the world [and] it wasn’t cool to come to Critter Fixers.” Hodges ascertained the community’s general attitude at the time demanded that both doctors had to prove that they were well-versed in their profession.

“That’s one of the things I tell kids, if you’re good at what you do, they’ll find you,” he says. Yet, Hodges does not sugarcoat the difficulties they endured when he and Ferguson started caring for animals in Bonaire. Hodges even notes their circumstances would have been more straightforward if they worked in Atlanta, where they did attempt to purchase an established veterinary practice but were denied. “But here, when probably nine out of 10 people walking through the door weren’t Black, you felt like you had to prove yourself all the time.”

The journey to open their two practices in one year was no easy feat, and both were conscious that they needed to enhance their business acumen. Hodges and Ferguson immersed themselves in reading about running an effective and profitable enterprise. They taught themselves how to balance a checkbook, order supplies, and the methods to provide excellent veterinary care. Hodges and Ferguson wanted to open their first clinic in an 800 square foot paint shot but were turned down because they lacked understanding of the power of credit, collateral, having secure business banking relationships, and both had very little liquidity, which motivated the doctors to overcome the learning curve of understanding the business of veterinary medicine. Eventually, the pair grew in interest in acquiring real estate. They ended up opening their first hospital in a 1,000 square feet industrial corridor leasehold on Highway 96 in an underdeveloped part of Bonaire, Georgia.

“We took a little money, and we built the building ourselves. We rolled all around the South and got used equipment, and we always joked about I was his overqualified receptionist and he was my overqualified technician, and it was just he and I until we got this going. But once it did, [we] hit the ground running,” Ferguson says, also detailing how they continued to flip real estate property until they accumulated a sizable financial cushion.

“In veterinary school, you don’t learn a lot about business; you learn how to take care of animals, but we had to learn this business part and found mentors to help us through this process, and that’s what got us to where we are today, but it was definitely not an easy. We were devastated when we couldn’t get that equipment, but we had to figure it out. We were out there on our own,” he points out. With time and their sweat equity, they could finally purchase the land behind the corridor at an affordable price that is now significantly increased in value.

“We can never even afford to be here now; we’re talking half a million to a million plus and so million plus,” Hodges says, noting the immense growth that has now occurred near his practice. Today, for the Critter Fixers Veterinary Hospitals, one is a 7,000-plus square foot state-of-the-art facility, and the other is 11,000 square feet. Hodges and Ferguson own both buildings that house their pet healthcare centers in the Bonaire/Warner Robins area.

“That’s the power of real estate and leveraging it to do whatever we want at this point. We had to learn business because, unfortunately, one thing that keeps us down socially and economically as a people is we got to learn the business of business,” Hodges emphatically states. He also proclaims that bankers clamored for their business once their business fiscally increased.

Perseverance over obstacles is the overall creed the doctors appear to live by, and they have found success in the practice and stars of their popular eponymous television series. They hope the show “Critter Fixers: Country Vets” will inspire and engage the next generation.

“What the platform does is go back to representation matters. [It] shows the world two Black guys, who are professionals, [who] enjoy each other, have fun, enjoy their staff, and treat everybody like family,” Ferguson says. “So that little Terry or Terrance that’s out there, they get to see this and be inspired the entire time, they don’t have to wait and try to find that person that looks like them to stimulate them to want to do it. We’re out there, and we’re front and center, and this is something that we can do all over the world.”

The doctors take center stage for season four of their show and bring viewers on a wild and educational ride. They treat a ferret with a fractured pelvis, a goat with septic arthritis, and a visually impaired kitten, inspect the mouths of snakes, and aid a dog with a UTI (urinary tract infection). Fans of the show will also witness Hodges and Ferguson tackle their most difficult surgical operation on a goose that has a foreign object wedged in its trachea.

Despite his years of working with animals, Hodges still upholds that his favorite animal is fish. “People are sometimes amazed that we’re able to take a fish out of water who has a tumor or something going on, and we’re able to do surgery on it, and people are like, ‘how in the world are you doing this?’ If you think about it, most animals breathe with their lungs. Fish breathe with their gills, so if you can anesthetize them in the water, you can lay them down. As long as you got water going over their gills and they stay on the anesthesia, you’re able to perform your surgical procedure. For me, that is the most interesting part, taking aquatic animals and doing surgery,” he says.

Ferguson says his heart resides with dogs and cows. But he has developed an appreciation for exotic animals in the last five or six years. “We’re seeing sugar gliders, chameleons, bearded dragons, spiders, camels, chinchillas, llamas, and all these different species. Not one day at Critter Fixers was exactly like the day before, even though we’ve been in the profession for a while. These days are not the same. They’re always challenging. They challenge us. We always have to stay on top of what we’re doing, continue [our] education, and learn new things. You have to be willing to do that.”

To stream “Critter Fixers: Country Vets” visit here.