Cornell University bags accolades at Westminster dog show

Aly Cohen was 11 the first time she went to the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

“As a kid who loved animals, going to Westminster at that age felt like the best day of my life,” said Cohen, now an extension veterinarian for the Cornell Richard P. Riney Canine Health Center (RCHC) and clinical instructor for Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program at Cornell.

“Joan Rivers was there interviewing people. Martha Stewart was there with her Chow-Chows,” she recalled. “I remember walking by a Neapolitan Mastiff that was probably two-and-a-half times my weight at the time, and he just laid there in his wrinkly glory and looked at me like I was lunch.”

This year, Cohen was part of an 11-person team of experts from the Cornell University Hospital for Animals, Cornell University Veterinary Specialists, the Duffield Institute for Animal Behavior and the RCHC who came to provide veterinary care for the 4,000 canine competitors at the show, held May 6-9 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City.