Chris has been working with animals since the early age of twelve, when he got his first job in a pet store cleaning cages in return for food and supplies for his various animals at home. Over thirty years later, Chris has now become a fixture in the animal care and veterinary medicine field, at least in Westchester County. He is a hands-on provider of quality, knowledgeable care, and his expertise encompasses all types and kinds of animals, with a special affinity for our canine and feline friends and their well-being.

He currently has four cats ("Bentley" an American Silver Short-Hair, "Anthony", "Chica", and "Oscar", all domestic shorthairs), a Shih-tzu named "Loni", and an always growing and changing population of snakes, lizards, turtles, tortoises, frogs, toads, salamanders, fish, tarantulas, scorpions, millipedes, mice, rats, gerbils, hedgehogs, and ferrets. Chris also features the exotic animals he cares for and rehabilitates in live shows that are not only educational, but entertaining as well. In addition to working at the Animal Wellness Center and the Catnap County Inn, Chris is also on staff at our affiliated hospital, the Katonah Bedford Veterinary Center. He has been the primary radioiodine technician for Dr. Peterson at Hypurrcat of Westchester since 2002, and has been instrumentation in the treatment and care of over 800 hyperthyroid cats to date.

Dr. Mark E. Peterson was awarded a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree with High Distinction from the University of Minnesota in 1976. After moving to New York City, Dr. Peterson first completed an internship and medical residency at The Animal Medical Center (the largest animal hospital in the world). He then finished a post-doctoral fellowship in endocrinology and nuclear medicine at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center (this fellowship was awarded and funded by the National Institutes of Health). It was during this period of his training that Dr. Peterson first documented hyperthyroidism as a disease in cats. He obtained board certification from the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine in 1983.

Dr. Peterson has served as head of endocrinology and nuclear medicine at The Animal Medical Center for over 25 years. His other current position is Associate Director of the Caspary Institute at The Animal Medical Center. In addition, Dr. Peterson has held faculty appointments as Professor of Medicine at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (1996-2000), Associate Professor of Radiology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University (1983-2005), and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University (1982-1988).

Dr. Peterson was the first veterinarian to successfully treat hyperthyroid cats with radioiodine (Peterson ME et al, Scientific Proceedings of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, p 124, 1980). In 2000, Dr. Peterson founded Hypurrcat, which now has Radioiodine Treatment Centers for hyperthyroid cats located in New York City, and Bedford Hills, NY.

Over the last 25 years, most of Dr. Peterson's research efforts have been directed toward advancing our understanding of naturally-occurring endocrine disorders of the dog and cat, especially hyperthyroidism and diabetes mellitus in cats, and hypothyroidism, diabetes mellitus, Cushing's and Addison's disease in dogs. In addition to hyperthyroidism, Dr. Peterson was the first person to document a number of "new" diseases in cats, including acromegaly, hypoparathyroidism, insulinoma, and Addison's disease.

He has received several awards in recognition of his clinical research efforts and discoveries, including the Beecham Award for Research Excellence (1985), the Ralston Purina Small Animal Research Award (1987), the Carnation Award for outstanding contributions to feline medicine (1988), the British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) Bougelat Award for outstanding contributions to small animal practice (1993), The Daniels Award for excellence in the advancement of knowledge concerning small animal endocrinology (1991-1997, 1999, and 2001), The Excellence in Feline Research Award, presented by the American Veterinary Medical Foundation and sponsored by The Winn Feline Foundation (1997), the Alumni of the Year Award, The Animal Medical Center (1998), and an Award for Outstanding Humanitarian Service from the Bide-A-Wee Association, for more than a quarter century of dedicated research in naturally-occurring endocrine disorders of dogs and cats (2002).

Dr. Peterson has published more than 400 journal articles, book chapters, and research abstracts. With more than 200 teaching presentations to his credit, Dr. Peterson is a frequent speaker at veterinary and medical seminars both in the United States and abroad.

Dr. Peterson is definitely a cat lover, with three cats of his own. These include "Mike E," "Bob E," and "Matt E," all male American Shorthairs. He also has an older, semi-retired Quarter horse named "Dusty" that Dr. Peterson does ride occasionally.