
VMD, PhD
Dr. Gary Patronek is a Fellow of the Center for Shelter Dogs at the Animal Rescue League of Boston. He was previously the Vice President of Animal Welfare and Protection and New Program Development at the Animal Rescue League of Boston where he oversaw the Center for Shelter Dogs and the Department of Animal Welfare and Protection (shelters, technical rescue and law enforcement). Prior to his time at the ARL, Dr. Patronek was the Director of the Center for Animals and Public Policy at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University for seven years, where he supervised the graduate program in Public Policy. While at Tufts, he founded the Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium (HARC) to study the problem of animal hoarding. He has worked with Tufts to help develop a program in Shelter Medicine and he continues to hold an adjunct appointment at the University. Dr. Patronek is also the principal consultant for the Animal Planet show Confessions: Animal Hoarding, and is a leader in examining animal hoarding case studies.
Dr. Patronek graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and was one of the first veterinarians to hold an executive position at an animal shelter in the US. He also obtained a PhD in Epidemiology at the Center for Human-Animal Bond at Purdue Veterinary School, where he conducted some of the first epidemiologic research on shelter population issues and risk factors for pet relinquishment.