After doing a lot of research, I signed up for a program through ACAN in small carnivore nutrition…read morecertification. For the last several years, I've been working in a pet supply store that focuses heavily on raw nutrition and biologically appropriate diets for cats & dogs. This seemed like a logical next step and a good way to expand my knowledge of nutrition. I sent a few questions via email to the school, answered by Dr. Kim Bloomer. Strangely, just a couple of days after showing interest, the tuition went from $697 to $967. Coincidence? I thought so until even weirder things started to happen. When I began getting into the first course, Philosophy of Animal Naturopathy, I heard a few things in the lectures that I found disruptive. This is not listed or disclosed anywhere as having any religious affiliation and there they were talking about God and quoting Bible scripture to support their claims about how God made carnivores and if we don't follow his law, then we're following the Devil's law. I emailed Dr Bloomer and her colleague Dr. Thomason, letting them know that I wasn't expecting this kind of perspective and asked why they hadn't disclosed the lens through which they teach anywhere on the school website. They gave me a short and sweet reply stating they are a private institution and do not have to disclose their personal beliefs because they are not government funded. They also have a no refund policy, period. I decided to see if things got worse or if I could pick out the best parts and leave what didn't apply for me. This did not work out. As I got further into the Philosophy course, the Bible talk and God references were rapid fire. Their perspective was so severe that if you didn't believe in God, nothing they were saying lined up. I wrote my instructors again letting them know that I was having trouble absorbing information. I told them that I am a lesbian and many of my brothers & sisters have been traumatized by the Christian faith and that some have found relief there, but either way, we needed to be able to make decisions for ourselves with all information made available to us. Simple. Just let people know what they're in for. If you are proud of your faith and it influences your passion for your work, cool! That's amazing! But, people have a right to know what they're paying for. Dr. Thomason even went so far as to tell me she knew of no other private institutuions that disclosed their personal beliefs to their prospective students. I sent her a list of many that do. ACAN is not funded or accredited by the government so they have no requirements about disclosing to the public, with a no refund policy. ACAN is a Creator God faith based organization. This is a scam, folks. Dr Bloomer and Dr Thomason are obviously qualified in their field, but their class was consisted of listenng to a lot of their podcasts and reading a book or two. This did not feel like the kind of education I was expecting. Remedial at best, and definitely misrepresented on their school website. I felt trapped, conned, and upset that I had to find another nutrition program to work with. I sent a last email asking for a refund. They granted it. Saved us all a lot of further headache. I found another school to attend online, with higher education accredidation and I won't ever look back. Hopefully this helps any prospective students know what they're getting into.

Unfortunately I have to echo the previous reviews. I too did my research and after much…read moredeliberation decided to go for the full Small Animal Health Coach Certification and ended up spending about $1400 upfront. Then I started to listen to the podcasts... the religion stuff upset me from an academic standpoint, but I tried to remind open minded because I know that one's religious affiliation does not negate their knowledge. But it is hard to stay positive when 1) you can get those podcasts for FREE anyway on iTunes.... why did I just pay this much?? 2) there is no real other coursework or engagement, unless you want to chat with them on facebook for random questions 3) everything looks and feels totally unprofessional... even their "focused" podcasts on a specific topic hop all around and it basically feels like they are just episode after episode of them telling you to feed raw. (we know!!) 4) you just feel like you are paying for fake school 5) they are incredibly patronizing in their podcasts. the attitude is very critical and judgmental about those who haven't "seen the light" regarding raw feeding. if you're in the club, you're good, but otherwise you are just another sheep. I don't think this is the way to allow more people to get behind this form of care taking for their animals. I do LOVE the philosophy of this course, by and large. I so want to learn the good of what is has to offer and do my own research and building from there but I am a young person trying to build my own career path and it is really difficult when you can't find legitimate schools and you get fucking ripped off like this. Really, really unfortunate.