Could California, Get a New Vet School? UC Riverside Just Funded a Study to Find Out

Riverside County and UC Riverside are splitting the cost of a $250,000 feasibility study on launching a regional veterinary program, aimed at easing a local vet shortage and strengthening the county's animal services system.

Riverside County officials have agreed to split the cost of a $250,000 feasibility study with the University of California, Riverside to explore whether a regional veterinary school could help address local animal care shortages. The Riverside County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the proposal on Sept. 15, putting up $125,000 of the total, with UCR covering the rest.

The study itself won't build anything. It will evaluate the academic, operational, spatial, and financial requirements a veterinary program at UCR would actually need, essentially a reality check before anyone commits real money to a campus, faculty, or curriculum.

The initiative was introduced by Supervisors V. Manuel Perez and Yxstian Gutierrez on behalf of a board ad hoc committee formed in July 2024 to strengthen operations at the Riverside County Department of Animal Services. A new veterinary school, if it ever happens, would be one piece of that larger effort.

“A veterinary school could help strengthen our workforce, support our Animal Services system and, most importantly, expand access to quality care for animals throughout Riverside County,” said Supervisor Perez, framing the study as a response to an ongoing shortage of veterinarians and a chance to build a more direct pipeline for local students to enter the profession.

County officials were careful to draw a line between funding a study and funding a school. The agreement does not obligate either Riverside County or UCR to actually build or finance a veterinary program. What it produces is data: an outline of the resources and infrastructure such a school would require, and a clearer read on whether the idea is viable at all.

Perez credited UCR Chancellor S. Jack Hu and members of the UC Board of Regents for working with the county on the proposal, and said the study's findings, not assumptions, will determine what happens next. The agreement between Riverside County and UCR runs through Jan. 31, 2027.

Nothing here guarantees a new vet school in Southern California. But for a region that's felt the veterinary workforce shortage directly, both in exam rooms and inside its own animal services system, funding the study is at least a formal first step toward finding out if one makes sense.

Source: Reporting by Toni McAllister for Patch, Riverside County / Banning-Beaumont, Sept. 21, 2026.