Following a more than two-year search, the city of Rochester has hired a full-time veterinarian for its Verona Street shelter.
Since April 2024, veterinarians have been working on a per diem basis to care for the shelter's animals. But as of Oct. 19, Dr. Bruce Ingersoll will fill this critical void.
"We are all excited to finally have this position filled, and it's only going to have a positive impact on our shelter," said Staci Papadoplos, the city's director of Animal Services.
We can now count on the same doctor being here five days a week, so the continuity of care is going to be a lot better for these animals, so we don't have to transfer medical cases from one doctor to another."
She said Ingersoll was one of three candidates who applied for the job since a firm was hired in February to help with a national search.
Ingersoll said he's excited about the community engagement aspect of his new role.
"I'm looking forward to exploring the opportunities of what we do to help keep animals in people's homes versus having them relinquish them, take them to Lollipop (Farm), bring them to the shelter, or just release them onto the streets."
Ingersoll, 49, was a founding director of the nonprofit Rochester Emergency Veterinary Services, a practice he left in September, 2025.
"The overnights and the general practice was getting to be a lot for me and...getting up in age, I decided that a more regular nine-to-five was going to be better," he said.
Animals have always been at the center of Ingersoll's life. He grew up on a Fulton, New York, cattle farm and graduated from the Cornell University School of Veterinary Medicine in 2005. For 12 years, he was a professor in the veterinary technician program at Genesee Community College, where he still serves as an adjunct.
There is an ongoing, nationwide shortage of veterinarians, and it has hit animal shelters especially hard. Some studies say more than 50% of budgeted shelter veterinary positions across the country remain vacant, resulting in a backlog of spay/neuter surgeries and prolonged stays for shelter animals.
"I think in general, shelter medicine can be really emotionally difficult for people," said Ingersoll. "They take care of a lot of the neglect cases as well as abuse cases. And that can be unfortunately really detrimental to one's mental health."
Despite this awareness, Ingersoll said he is not concerned about taking the lead position in an urban shelter. He said he has always been able to compartmentalize the most difficult aspects of veterinary work.
"I'm better at focusing on well, how many hundreds of animals did you help this month versus those three or five or 15 that we couldn't."
Ingersoll lives in the city of Rochester and has four dogs, a cat, and two rabbits.
