Memorial services were held Friday in Montague, P.E.I. for Dr. Bud Ings, a “pioneer” of veterinary medicine who served as the province’s agriculture minister in the 1970s and later supported the development of the Atlantic Veterinary College (AVC).
Ings, who died last Friday at Montague’s Kings County Memorial Hospital at age 89, “worked tirelessly to improve the lives of animals, and to advance the veterinary profession on Prince Edward Island,” the college said in a release.
Raised on the farm at Mt. Herbert, P.E.I., Ings graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College in 1952 and returned to his home province, where at the time he was the only practising veterinarian in Kings County.
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Thus perpetually on call, Ings travelled the region in a red VW Bug, in a style the Atlantic Agricultural Hall of Fame said cast him as the province’s own version of celebrated British veterinarian James Herriot.
Ings entered provincial politics in 1970 as the Liberal MLA for the Third Kings riding under then-premier Alex Campbell, who he replaced as agriculture minister in 1974. Ings served in that portfolio until 1978, then as health minister until 1980.
According to the ag hall of fame, into which he was inducted in 2009, Ings also served a “key role” on the provincial committee which brought the AVC to P.E.I., an accomplishment for which he received AVC’s Hon. Eugene F. Whelan Green Hat Award in 2003.
Ings was also named to the Order of Prince Edward Island in 2012, received the Atlantic Award of Excellence in Veterinary Medicine and Animal Care in 2009 and was named a life member of the Fiddlers Society of P.E.I. in 2006.
Ings also wrote two autobiographical books, Mud, Sweat and Tears (2008) and Vet Behind the Years (2010), which the Order of P.E.I. said offer “useful glimpses into an earlier time in the Island’s history. Ings’ care of animals is complemented by his ties to the well-being of the eastern region.”
According to the hall of fame, proceeds from the books’ sales were donated to the P.E.I. Humane Society. Ings’ philosophy, the hall said, is that he “made a living off of four-legged critters his whole life and it is time to give something back.”
Ings’ obituary requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made in his memory to the AVC Companion Animal Trust Fund or to Hillcrest United Church. — AGCanada.com Network
