The veterinary profession in Ontario celebrated its 125th anniversary in 1999, marking its simple beginnings serving Upper Canada's Loyalist agricultural community, to its progress into a modern, multifaceted science. Today’s veterinarian can be found serving the public through an amazing array of practice specialties, education, research, and food safety sectors. The evolution of veterinary medicine touches all aspects of our lives from our dinner tables to our medicine cabinets. It reaches out to us from the pets who greet us at our door to the latest medical research breakthroughs the daily news brings us.

We have come a long way from September 24, 1874, when 27 pioneering veterinarians met in Toronto to form the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association. This launched a new era of organized veterinary medicine in Canada and the association would later become incorporated by statute in 1879 as the Ontario Veterinary Association. This important date in the history of Ontario’s veterinary profession marked the beginning of a long, hard struggle to attain "true professional status" and the privilege of self-governance that the profession enjoys today. The inception of organized veterinary medicine in Ontario came about early in the province’s history, considering Upper Canada had been virtually an empty region only 90 years before. Across the border, in the older states, veterinary organization was still in its fledgling stages, and in Great Britain, Queen Victoria had approved of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons only 35 years earlier.

The beginnings of veterinary work in Ontario are rooted in the history of its agricultural community. Settlers required growing veterinary attention for their livestock and by the 1860's, the advent of travel by steamship and railway stimulated a greater need for better animal care as livestock became more vulnerable to European diseases. Hog cholera, foot-and-mouth disease, anthrax, and other serious animal diseases were breaking out in the U.S., causing heavy losses and threatening to infect Canadian stock.

Unease over this situation and the lack of scientific training and diplomas to practice veterinary medicine prompted the establishment of a veterinary teaching college for Canada. Andrew Smith was appointed to head the new college and in 1862, he began by giving supplementary lectures in veterinary subjects to agricultural students in Toronto. Smith went on to form the private Upper Canada Veterinary School, and its successor, the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC), which is today, the oldest veterinary school in Canada and the United States. The first class of three young men received their diplomas in 1866. In contrast, the 1999 graduating class of the Ontario Veterinary College has 99 students, and 67 of these are women.

In 1871, the veterinary profession reached another milestone when the Agriculture and Arts Act of Ontario was amended to provide that no one should append their name to the title of veterinary surgeon unless certified by a veterinary college. The Veterinary Science Practice Act of 1931 broadened the scope of veterinary medicine by extending to include domestic animals as well as livestock. The Ontario Veterinary Association, now the College of Veterinarians of Ontario, became a corporate body empowered to govern its members and issue licenses to practice. Veterinary medicine had grown from its origins in blacksmithing and horseshoeing.

Today, Ontario, "the cradle of veterinary science in America" has over 3300 licensed veterinarians and over 1150 practices.