A VETERINARY student from Monmouth has won an annual award from the charity Cats Protection.

Alicia Jones, a student at The University of Bristol, was Cats Protection’s winner in the Extra Mural Veterinary Study (EMS) Awards, which give veterinary students the chance to gain work experience at either Cats Protection or Dogs Trust and then write reports about their experiences.

Alicia’s report, ‘The stressors faced by cats entering rescue and rehoming organisations and methods to reduce these stressors’, secured her a £500 prize and recognition certificate which she will receive next Tuesday (26th April) at Cats Protection’s Bridgend Adoption Centre.

According to the charity, cats face unavoidable stress when passing through the charity’s centres and it is essential everything is done to minimise this and make their time with Cats Protection as stress-free as possible. Alica’s report highlighted the numerous methods used by the charity to create a calm and stable environment for the thousands of cats it cares for and re-homes every year. 

The charity’s director of veterinary services, Maggie Roberts, said: “The EMS Awards offer a great deal to veterinary students in the form of practical experience within an animal welfare environment, and their reports help them to focus on a specific aspect in detail, also giving us a fresh perspective on the topic. Choosing a winning student was incredibly hard as we had some excellent entries and I would like to thank all those who took part in the fifth successful year of the awards.”

Alicia said: “I am thrilled to be presented with this award. During my time at Cats Protection it was a pleasure to see many of the practical methods of reducing stress for cats in rehoming centres in action.

“Cats are solitary beings and not used to confinement with large numbers of others, so minimising the unavoidable stress they face while going through the rescue and rehoming process is vital.”

Further information about the work of Cats Protection can be found online at www.cats.org.uk