For the 37th year - on Saturday, April 5, 2003 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. - students, faculty and staff of the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine will show off animals of all kinds, the latest medical techniques own healing skills in the popular family event, the Veterinary Open House.

Each year, self-guided tours take thousands of visitors through exhibits and demonstrations in the teaching hospital and classrooms of the nation's top-rated veterinary college. While the exotic, companion and farm animals are always a big draw, many high school students and their parents are interested in the career and education information.

"There are so many opportunities in this rapidly growing field," says Katie Evans, who is halfway through the four-year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) program at Cornell. "Careers in veterinary medicine traditionally involved working with dogs, cats, cows, horses, sheep and pigs. But a lot of people don't realize that veterinarians also work in the animal-health industry, government and the armed forces, zoos and wildlife refuges in the United States and in developing countries, as well as in everyday practice at local veterinary clinics."

Information on college admission and veterinary careers will be available throughout the day, along with two special sessions in the John D. Murray Lecture Hall: Planning Your Pre-veterinary Education, geared to students in grades 7 to 12 and their parents, at 10 a.m.; and How To Be a Competitive Applicant /Veterinary Careers Information, for college students, at 11:30 a.m.

Among the planned exhibits and demonstrations are these perennial favorites:

o Petting zoo for hands-on play with baby farm animals;

o Exotic pets and wildlife, from snakes and parrots to hawks and owls;

o How to milk a cow, another hands-on activity;

o Anatomy of pets;

o Ultrasound exams of a dog's heart;

o Cornell Companions, the college's pet-therapy corps;

o Equine treadmill, used to study orthopedic and cardiovascular disorders of horses;o Horse-shoeing by an expert farrier;

o Have your picture taken dressed in scrubs like a veterinary surgeon (for children);

o Teddy Bear ER.

"The Teddy Bear ER is where we show off our suturing techniques and try to put those eyes, ears and noses back on stuffed-animal toys," Evans explains. "And if your real dog has been a little rough on his stuffed toys, we'll do our best with those, too."

Scheduled for rain or shine, the Veterinary Open House is free and so is parking in the "O" lot, just off Route 366 with entrances from Tower Road or Caldwell Road. Visitors should enter the college through the Veterinary Medical Center doors under the Open House banner.