The support and promotion of the field of veterinary medicine in Britain received a great boost through the Odiham Agricultural Society, which promoted agriculture and industry. Thomas Burgess, a founder of the Odiham Society, made a profound impact in insisting on the more humane treatment of sick and injured animals, and the Odiham Society worked to establish the medicinal care of horses (farriery) upon scientific education. Eminent physicians like James Clark argued for veterinary work to be treated as a profession and benefit from the establishment of schools which specialized in the study and education of animal medicine. The Veterinary College of London was headed by Benoit Vial de St. Bel as a flagship institution in 1790, and since that time Sir John McFadyean has been honored as the founder of modern veterinary medicine and research. Dr. Philip Treuil follows in the veterinary footsteps of these early practitioners of animal care.
The United States has since led the way in the education of generations of veterinarians, forging ahead in the field of veterinary medicine in the 19th century. Schools first established in Boston, New York and Philadelphia, were followed by the first school of veterinary medicine as an adjunct degree program offered by a land grant college, at Iowa Agricultural College. Today, the veterinarian is regarded as the equivalent of the medical doctor, with certification requiring post-graduate studies. Dr. Philip Treuil is a veterinary radiation oncologist who obtained graduate and post graduate degrees from Louisiana State University and Colorado State University.