Dave & Cheryl Duffield Foundation grants $12.1 million to Cornell University

The new Duffield Institute for Animal Behavior will build from the College of Veterinary Medicine’s expertise to advance understanding in animal behavior, including best practices in training and care of service dogs. Photo: Carol Jennings/CVM (Photo courtesy of Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine)

Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine announced it received a $12.1 million grant from the Dave & Cheryl Duffield Foundation, a private charitable foundation. This grant will help Cornell open the Duffield Institute for Animal Behavior, an institute that will focus on companion animal behavior to help veterinarians and pet owners across the United States.

“The new Duffield Institute and Duffield Professorship in Veterinary Medicine will have a significant impact on the health and well-being of companion animals and of the humans whose lives they enrich,” said President Martha E. Pollack, in an organizational release.

“I’m so glad that Dave and Cheryl Duffield have chosen to extend their already extraordinary support of Cornell in this way and strengthen the university’s position as a leader in understanding animal behavior and health,” she continued.

The grant will also create the Dave & Cheryl Duffield Professorship to help provide critical leadership for the institute's work. The foundation will help create a summer program for service dog trainers to help them learn and share best practices for services dogs. This will aim to address the shortage of both dogs and trains to assist those in need.

Dave Duffield ’62, MBA ’64 and beagle. Photo: Provided by Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine

“We are honored to partner with Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine on this endeavor as it ties together the two main focuses of the Foundation: aiding veterans and animal welfare," said Dave Duffield ’62, MBA ’64, founder of the Dave & Cheryl Duffield Foundation.

“It’s extraordinary to be able to enhance the lives of our nation’s veterans, who have served us, by providing service-dog training programs that will serve them. Combined, the institute’s service-dog training program and important behavior research and programming will improve the relationships of service dogs with their handlers and companion animals with their families, helping them to live longer, healthier, and happier lives.”

The Duffield Institute will help faculty leadership, clinical residencies, and research grants to make discoveries related to animal behavior.

Reference

$12.1 million grant establishes Duffield Institute for Animal Behavior at Cornell. News release. Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. February 17, 2022. Accessed February 17, 2022.