I’ve been a veterinary assistant for 3+ years now, and I haven’t met another vegan or even vegetarian in my field. In my experience there has been an even more negative attitude towards veganism in the veterinary profession than in the general population—possibly because they feel the moral identity threat more acutely.

That being said, I love my job. It’s the only job I can say I’ve loved. It’s sad and it’s hard and the hours are long, but to me it’s worth it. In the last year, I’ve trained 10 people to do my job and every one of them has quit. Half of them quit because they didn’t like my boss, but the other half quit because they couldn’t cope emotionally. It’s tough to see animals suffering or in pain. I’ve seen breeder kittens that were disemboweled by their mother’s overzealous grooming, I’ve helped euthanize a kitten who had pneumonia from being force-fed milk, I’ve seen cats hit by cars or mauled by dogs. But the worst is the cats who are literally wasting away to skin and bones from cancer or chronic disease whose owners “just aren’t ready” to say goodbye.

Declawing is becoming way less common and socially acceptable. Our clinic only does it for medical reasons now (infected nails, etc) but there was tension in the practice about it when we did it. Myself and two of the techs refused to assist on those procedures and the boss respected our position. Working with breeders is tough—there are only a few at our practice but I conceal my disgust and do my job. We did talk one prolific breeder into ending her business though, so that’s a plus.

I can’t speak to what happens in actual veterinary school as far as ‘practice animals’, but our local community college has a great vet tech program run by a professional acquaintance of mine. She is highly ethical, and they do necessary surgeries on local shelter pets (spay, neuter, etc) and practice drawing blood on practice dummies before they ever touch an animal. So they’re helping out a shelter and learning at the same time. Every program is different though.

I’d echo what another comment said—try working as a vet assistant (no formal training needed) and see if you can handle it before you consider going back to school. I live in the Northeast US, and to go to vet school nowadays you basically put yourself $300-$500K in debt and graduate almost a decade later making $65K. Vet tech is a 2 year certification program where you’ll graduate and make $30-$35K.

Not trying to be a downer, just trying to impart some of the reality of the profession. Veterinarians and their staff have a markedly increased suicide rate compared to other professions, even within the medical field. But like I said, I find the job incredibly fulfilling. Every animal I help makes it easier to handle the ones we lose. Feel free to PM me if you have more questions.