2023 Alumni Fellow
Dr. Jay Merriam, DVM 1969
All-College Seminar, recorded April 13, 2023
Alumni Fellow interview hosted by Samantha Bennett, host of Agriculture Today
Biography
Combining a concern for equine welfare and a love for teaching, Dr. Jay Merriam has prioritized both in his 50-plus years in private sport horse practice.
As president of the Massachusetts VMA in 1993, Dr. Merriam co-founded Project Samana, a charitable health care project that has taken over 300 veterinarians, students, and technicians to the Samana area of the Dominican Republic on twice-yearly visits for the last 30 years. Participants have treated thousands of animals and provided training for local veterinarians, students, and caregivers. Integrating welfare and humane care into his growing practice was key to becoming an adjunct instructor at Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, where he chaired a private practice/academic internship within the Department of Large Animal Medicine.
As a member of AAEP’s board of directors for eight years, Dr. Merriam advanced welfare concerns and served as founding chair of the Equine Welfare Committee, a post he held for three terms. He organized the first Equine Welfare session at the AAEP Annual Convention in 1995.
Dr. Merriam’s vision was to expand outreach efforts similar to Project Samana to other countries where working equids are critical infrastructure. He consulted with equid vets in the developing world and envisioned a movement to train Western veterinarians in the medical needs of the world’s horses, donkeys, and mules. Most live under unhealthy conditions but are vital to the survival of their families. He also began to build a network of like-minded organizations and clinicians who could share the work, reduce duplication and, above all, work together in field training situations. He coined the term “Equitarian” for the cause to build grassroots support for the effort.
In partnership with Dr. Julia Wilson, Dr. Merriam co-founded a unique nonprofit organization, “The Equitarian Initiative.” The first Equitarian Workshops began in Mexico in partnership with Dr. Mariano Hernandez-Gil, the Donkey Sanctuary, UNAM and others in 2010-2015. They have since spread throughout Central and South America. Working closely with local veterinary schools and other education/aid organizations, this innovative outreach for veterinarians has touched many colleagues personally; enhanced the image of veterinarians; and influenced the lives and health of working horses, donkeys and mules and their families. Their focus is the provision of direct veterinary care, training of veterinarians and caregivers and education on the need for a healthy working equid population. After the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, Dr. Merriam began a project in partnership with World Horse Welfare that is still ongoing.
He is a frequent speaker on working equid care and has taught in India, Morocco, Haiti, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic. Currently, Dr. Merriam serves on the board of directors for The American Fondouk in Morocco where he presents surgical training seminars and clinical workshops annually. He is also a director at Wind Walkers Therapeutic Riding Centre in Colorado, Project Samana and Equitarian Initiative.
Mentoring has always been an integral part of his professional and practice life. “Teaching altruism” has been the driving force of his professional career, proving that practice and equine welfare can co-exist. His feeling that students can gain more clinical knowledge and experience in intense, high volume nonclinical settings while learning to give back early and often in their career has proven successful. Many graduates go on to start their own projects. Seasoned veterinarians can come back to “real veterinary medicine” when matching their clinical knowledge to the real-life world of these animals without the benefits of well-equipped clinics — only the gift of inner experience and knowledge.
Dr. Merriam graduated from Kansas State University in 1969, interned at University of Missouri, and performed graduate studies and obtained an MS in Equine Surgery in 1974 from Auburn University. He worked in a racetrack/surgical practice in New England before founding Massachusetts Equine Clinic in 1985.