Dr. Michael Schaufele, Dr. Alexine Crofts and Dr. Margaret Fisher

Dr. Michael Schaufele brings close to 15 years of veterinary experience to his work at The Richmond Animal Hospital - along with a lifetime of interest in animals and their care.

Dr. Schaufele graduated with honours from The University of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

He has a degree in Zoology as well as in Veterinary Medicine.

His interests in Veterinary Medicine include soft tissue surgery, behavioral medicine, nutrition and dermatology as well as exotic animal medicine.. After several years of working for other vets, Dr. Schaufele realized that in order to implement his vision of an all-encompassing practice that provided services from diagnosis to surgery to medicine to behavioral medicine, he would need to open his own animal hospital.

In 1993 he bought the practice of the Richmond Animal Hospital and has spent close to a decade building it into one of the most respected and innovative animal care facilities and veterinary practices on the West Coast.

During his career, Dr. Schaufele has dealt with thousands of animals, providing diagnosis, care, treatment and surgery. As well as being a veterinary surgeon providing both preventative (such as spaying and neutering), medical surgeries (such as orthopedic, tumor and cyst removal), Dr. Schaufele also offers emergency medical care for animals that have been injured in car accidents or other mishaps.

He also continues to add to his knowledge of behavioral medicine for animals, a component of veterinary medicine that is becoming increasingly important to pet owners, breeders and animal caregivers.

Since taking over The Richmond Animal Hospital, Dr. Schaufele has handled more than 40,000 appointments, including preventative care, diagnosis, treatment, surgery, follow up and euthanasia. His approach to the animals and to their "people" is what keeps clients returning to The Richmond Animal Hospital.

He is professional, compassionate and caring and Dr. Schaufele seems to understand more than most about what each animal needs and how to help.

We are pleased to have Dr. Crofts as a part of the Richmond Animal Hospital team. After completing her undergraduate studies in Genetics at UBC in 1997, she decided to pursue Veterinary Medicine. She received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the Ontario Veterinary College in 2005.

Dr. Crofts has always had a passion for all animals and their care. Growing up, she was surrounded by many animals. Her family also bred English Cocker Spaniels, which led her to an interest in canine obstetrics. Another passion of hers is internal medicine. She also enjoys the complexity of different cases and learning from her experiences.

She had an exciting year in 2003 working with Global Vets. Global Vets is a program at the Ontario Veterinary College, which offers veterinary students a unique opportunity to investigate animal health care in developing countries. Being a part of this program she traveled to East and South Africa and worked with many exotic species including cheetahs, buffalo, giraffes and chimpanzees. She also spent time in villages developing vaccine programs. Dr. Crofts also worked at The Marine Mammal Rescue Center, which is part of the Vancouver Aquarium. While working with them she was involved in the rescue, rehabilitation and release of harbour seal pups back into the wild.

Aside from her work as a Veterinarian, she has many hobbies, which include photography, jewelry making, learning piano and spending time on our beautiful local mountains skiing and snowboarding.

Dr. Crofts' veterinary interests and fresh attitude are a wonderful compliment to our team at The Richmond Animal Hospital. She is looking forward to meeting our clients and their pets.

DR CROFTS IS CURRENTLY ON MATERNITY LEAVE, BUT WILL BE RETURNING IN LATE 2010.

Dr. Margaret Fisher joined our team in April 2006. Since the age of 15, Dr. Fisher knew that she wanted to be a veterinarian. She had a passion for medicine and a love of all animals. With her career path already decided, Dr. Fisher attended U.B.C. where she graduated with an Honours degree in Animal Science. She then moved to Saskatoon, where she received her Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine in 2001.

After graduation, she moved to England where she practiced for 6 months. She enjoyed various weekend trips around Europe, and then decided to return back to her native Vancouver. Since then she has practiced at the Vancouver Animal Emergency Clinic for 4 years where she learned how to manage a variety of emergency and critical care cases. Emergency and Critical Care is still a strong area of interest as is pain management. She is keen to extend her knowledge in soft tissue surgery, oncology and endocrinology.

During her time off, Dr. Fisher loves to play beach volleyball and tennis. She has recently purchased a townhouse that needs complete renovation and will keep her busy for years.

Dr Lis was born in Richmond but has lived and traveled far and wide between then and returning to work in Richmond now. He has lived in 4 Canadian provinces and has lived, worked and traveled amongst 6 continents. Animals have always been a part of these adventures; whether growing up with huskies, rabbits, chickens in the back yard and uncountable cats overrunning the household, capturing and observing wildlife in his field biologist days, or working with rural Uganadan communities to improve their goat and poultry management so that they can make a better living. His path to becoming a veterinarian has been circuitous and has brought him to a meaningful profession, one in which each day he gets to work with and help to improve the health of people's furred, feather and sometimes no longer so furry pet family members. His adventures continue each day now at the Richmond Animal Hospital, rarely a dull moment, and always a new challenge each day!