Dr. Rocio Bellido earned her veterinary degree from San Marcos National University in Lima, Peru. From a young age she wanted to be a veterinarian and would bring injured stray animals home to take care of.
After graduation she worked in private practice for a couple of years before moving to the US. In her native Peru, declawing was not a common practice, nor taught in school. The first time she saw a declawing surgery in the US, she was shocked at the pain the cats endure and at how often this surgery was performed.
Since 2014 Dr. Bellido has been working as a shelter veterinarian with Kansas City Pet Project, the Kansas City, Missouri municipal, no-kill, open admission shelter where she continues advocating for homeless animals.
Dr. Bellido has a special interest in forensics, gaining experience on animal abuse cases by working in the shelter setting and attending workshops with law enforcement. Her passion is small animal surgery, and she enjoys learning new surgical techniques that help the shelter animals have the best outcome possible.
She has also volunteered on international trips and has traveled to Mexico and Peru with Rural Area Veterinary Services (RAVS) and The Perros Project, respectively.
Dr. Bellido has been active against declawing cats by educating new owners, as well as being part of an innovative shelter program for declawed cats. Many declawed cats are surrendered to a shelter due to behavioral issues. Under this program, every declawed cat in the shelter is evaluated behaviorally and medically, and, if needed, undergoes surgical repair. Dr. Bellido has been performing surgical repairs for the past two years on shelter cats with amazing results, and she is hoping to compile enough data to help ban this procedure.