The animal was brought to the San Diego Humane Society’s medical team with a broken leg, normally a routine surgery.

However, this was not routine — the animal was a chicken.

It would seem that Dr. Zarah Hedge would know how to fix anything on an animal. After all, she is the Humane Society’s head veterinarian and one of only 35 board certified experts in the world on animal shelter medical care.

Dr. Zarah Hedge

(San Diego Humane Society)

She supervises 28 veterinarians and 120 staff members, caring for more than 40,000 animals annually.

Hedge also teaches veterinary medicine, mentors interns and testifies in court as an expert.

But Hedge had never fixed a chicken’s broken leg.

So, she consulted with experts, read what she could find and went into surgery.

She fixed the leg, sent the chicken to foster care for healing, and it was eventually adopted.

“There is always something new to learn here,” Hedge said, pointing out she recently learned how to spay and neuter guinea pigs.

Born in 1982 and raised in a semi-rural section of the Midwest, Hedge wanted to become a veterinarian since early childhood.

Her parents allowed her to bring home stray animals. As a result, the family had nearly a dozen cats, 3 dogs, a parrot and two ferrets at any one time.

“I would see cats outside and feed them,” Hedge said. “Then they had kittens.”

She would keep them until homes were found with friends, neighbors or people she approached at shopping centers.

Upon graduating high school in 2001, Hedge’s animal rescue operation ended when she left for college.

She obtained a bachelor’s degree, majoring in biology, and graduated veterinarian school in 2009.

After stints on veterinarian staffs, she came to San Diego in 2013 to work for the Humane Society.

“It made sense to become a shelter veterinarian given what I did at an early age,” she said.

Today, her official title is Humane Society vice president and chief medical officer in one of the largest shelter veterinarian programs in the country. She oversees a wide range of services including education and pet training, emergency services and medical veterinary care.

Among her services is Project Wildlife, one of the nation’s largest wildlife rehabilitation programs. There is no limit on species that Hedge and her team of veterinarians will help. They have, for example, helped injured birds, coyotes and even a bear. Their goal is to return healthy animals to their habitat.

When domesticated animals are brought to Humane Society veterinarians their goal is to fix and care for the animals so they can either be returned to the owner or put up for adoption. Hedge said the Humane Society has a policy of keeping healthy animals until homes are found; thus, no healthy or treatable animal is euthanized.

“I love animals,” said Hedge, who lives with a dog and five cats she adopted from the shelter. “There is great satisfaction in seeing an afflicted animal before and after being fixed, healed and adopted.”

And she finds satisfaction in reuniting animals with their human companions.

She told the story of an elderly homeless man’s 3-year-old mix breed dog named Lucy brought to her by the Humane Society’s emergency response officer.

“The man had Lucy since she was a puppy and you could tell she was his support system and Lucy loved him,” Hedge said. “He could not afford a private veterinarian.”

“Lucy needed two surgeries, one that I never did before, but it all went well. The dog was returned to the man along with a yoga mat I bought to help Lucy.”

Two weeks later, the man returned smiling with Lucy wagging her tail. “Tears were in my eyes,” Hedge said. “It was really nice keeping them together.”

Hedge encourages young people who might be interested in a career to shadow a veterinarian and get experience working with a clinic, as she did. “Get the experience and the schooling,” she said. “It is vigorous, but definitely don’t give up. Veterinarian work is personally rewarding.”

About this series

Jan Goldsmith is an Emeritus member of the U-T’s Community Advisory Board. He is an attorney and former law partner, judge, state legislator, San Diego city attorney and Poway mayor.

Someone San Diego Should Know is a column written by members of the U-T’s Community Advisory Board about local people who are interesting and noteworthy because of their experiences, achievements, creativity or credentials.