New vet has passion for humane societies, animals

Jerry Ahrendt opened Kimball Veterinary Clinic so he could offer services to humane societies. “I worked for little clinics and they didn’t offer deals to humane societies,” he said. “I want to provide veterinary care for the lost and downtrodden.” Ahrendt built his small animal clinic where the old motel used to stand on Highway 55. “It’s kind of a landmark,” he said. “We actually had someone come in and ask for a room.” The clinic opened in August. He chose Kimball because there are five humane societies in the area. Ahrendt and full-time veterinary technician Dawn Kath spay or neuter and vaccinate dogs, cats, rabbits and other small animals from the humane societies. “Whatever it takes to give them new homes,” Ahrendt said. About 80 percent of their clientele is through humane societies with a growing number of individual clientele. At the clinic they do radiology, surgery, anesthesiology and ultrasounds. If they want a second opinion on an x-ray or ultrasound they send it on the Telemedicine machine via Internet and a specialist can fax a response. There is room and equipment for surgery prep, surgery, dentistry, a darkroom, boarding and treating animals. When people bring their pet in for a routine wellness exam there is no fee. “We want people to be able to afford to take care of their pets,” Ahrendt said, “and if they can’t, we still want to help them.” Lifelong ambition Ahrendt has been helping people care for their animals for many years. He graduated veterinary school at the University of Minnesota in 1966. After that, he was drafted into the military and spent two years in Vietnam working as a veterinarian in the civic action program. There, he helped implement veterinary standards in towns and villages where they previously didn’t have standards for pet and farm animal care. The peoples’ pigs were dying from disease so they brought vaccinated pigs over from America. When Ahrendt returned to Minnesota he worked at a few different veterinary clinics in St. Paul and the metro area before settling in Delano. He opened a veterinary clinic there and ran it for 24 years and sold it two years ago. “It got too big. We had a client base of 2,000,” he said. During the last two years he installed indoor and outdoor water gardens and occasionally worked for little clinics in central Minnesota. A new idea While working for the various clinics he noticed that they didn’t offer humane societies competative prices and decided to open another clinic focusing on this need. Ahrendt, who still lives in Delano, had signed a competition clause for his previous clinic stating that he couldn’t create competition within 30 miles of it. A rewarding job Ahrendt enjoys treating animals but his favorite task is surgery. “It’s more immediate,” he said. “If there’s a problem you fix it and see the affects right away.” Ahrendt himself has quite a few pets of his own. He’s adopted a cat, a border collie and rescued another collie from a Cheyenne Indian reservation. He also has chickens, four sheep and two goats. That breed of goats is also known as scapegoats, he said. They have a biological glitch that causes them to faint when frightened or startled. In the olden days one of these goats was placed in a herd of sheep so when a fox or predator came, the goat would get frightened and faint. As the predator went after the goat the herd of sheep could get away. Favorite pets Ahrendt wouldn’t say if he likes cats or dogs better. He likes all animals and doesn’t have a favorite. “[I like] animals that people like and work with, be it a cat or a ferret or a dog,” he said, “but my favorite dog is one that people really like.”