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Aleen Cust, the first female veterinary surgeon, graduated with honors from the New Veterinary College of Edinburgh in 1897. But graduating from vet school was the easy part; she had to fight a lot of opposition to her role. The legal advisor for the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) insisted that they could not recognize her because only “persons” were eligible and therefore women did not “qualify”!
The British parliament passed a law in 1919 which required the veterinary profession (among others, including medicine) to allow the registration of women. Dr. Cust was one of the first persons to take the RCVS exam after the law was passed.