Kevin Fitzgerald
Encyclopedia
Kevin Terrel Fitzgerald (born September 23, 1951), a board certified veterinarian who works at Alameda East Veterinary Hospital
in his native Denver, Colorado
is best known through his visibility on the Animal Planet
reality show Emergency Vets
and, more recently, E-Vet Interns
. Fitzgerald also does stand-up comedy and a little tap dancing. In 2001, he was named one of the 50 most eligible bachelors by People Magazine.
. On summers off, he was hired by Tony Funches and Barry Fey to be a part of the (Denver based) Feyline Security Team and worked security for a wide variety of musical acts, such as Elvis Presley
, The Who
, Bob Marley
, Willie Nelson
, George Clinton
, and The Rolling Stones
. Kevin eventually ran this portion of Barry Fey's Concert Promotion & Production Business after Tony Funches moved on to other pursuits. On an episode of Emergency Vets
, Fitzgerald noted that he knew it was time to get serious about pursuing a career in veterinary medicine when Keith Richards
of the Rolling Stones asked him point-blank if he wanted to "still be a bouncer
at 50".
Fitzgerald joined the staff of Alameda East, a 24-hour facility equipped to provide emergency care, in 1985. He also once served as president of the Denver Area Veterinary Medical Society while he was on the Board of Directors of the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center
.
in 2004, Tenney was calling Fitzgerald daily saying she was going to kill him and had purchased a coffin for him. Her case finally made it to court in March 2005, but she was deemed unfit to stand trial in January 2006 and was ordered into treatment.
On October 27, 2006, Tenney was sentenced to 18 months of probation, obtain mental health treatment, and ordered to stay away from Fitzgerald and Alameda East Veterinary Hospital in a plea bargain in which she pled guilty to violating a restraining order. Doctors have now deemed Tenney more suitable to stand trial since her treatment began, but the prosecutor of the case, stating that she believed the disposition was appropriate, declined to bring Tenney to trial as long as Tenney continues to follow the requirements of her probation.
, which is where the Animal Planet
television series Emergency Vets
and its follow-up series E-Vet Interns
were filmed. For the past 25 years, he has been an assistant professor adjunct at the University of Denver
, where he teaches a course called "Perspectives in Veterinary Medicine". He also serves as a veterinary consultant for the Aurora, Colorado
police department's K-9 division. He has written chapters in medical texts on subjects such as emergency veterinarian medicine, toxicology, and reptile medicine and surgery.
Fitzgerald is also a regular on the Denver-area stand-up comedy circuit, where he is billed as "the hardest working veterinarian in show business". An episode of Emergency Vets entitled "Fitz's Day" showed snippets of his stand-up act. "Everybody laughed when I said I wanted to do comedy", Fitzgerald noted dryly, "but no one's laughing now."
On August 11, 2007, Fitzgerald was a "Not My Job" guest on National Public Radio's "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me". He told stories about Keith Richards, his fear of spiders and then correctly answered all 3 questions regarding BALCO
founder Victor Conte
. The segment has been replayed on several of Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me's "best of" and compilation episodes.
After Emergency Vets shut down production in 2002, Fitzgerald occasionally appeared in a set of pet health reminder PSAs on Animal Planet called "Animal Tips With Dr. Fitz". He also appeared in PSAs for the Animal Planet animal welfare project "ROAR" (Reach Out, Act, Respond) with his Alameda East colleague, Dr. Holly Knor.
In 2007, Fitzgerald and the rest of the Alameda East team returned to prime-time television in the new Animal Planet series, E-Vet Interns. On the new series, Fitzgerald constantly stresses the importance of exposing young vets to experiences with exotic animals such as snakes and other reptiles, as well as showing young vets how to give back to their community by providing services for "working animals" such as police dogs.
Alameda East Veterinary Hospital
Alameda East Veterinary Hospital is one of the world's leading veterinary hospitals. It is equipped with state-of-the-art technology and is considered one of the best intern places a future vet can study in the United States. It is located in Denver, Colorado, in the United States of...
in his native Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
is best known through his visibility on the Animal Planet
Animal Planet
Animal Planet is an American cable tv specialty channel that launched on October 1, 1996. It is distributed by Discovery Communications. A high-definition simulcast of the channel launched on September 1, 2007.-History:...
reality show Emergency Vets
Emergency Vets
Emergency Vets is a reality television series that airs on the U.S. cable network Animal Planet. First aired in 1998, it depicts the working and outside lives of the veterinarians at Alameda East Veterinary Hospital in Denver, Colorado, USA, plus the animals that they treat...
and, more recently, E-Vet Interns
E-Vet Interns
E-Vet Interns is a reality television series about veterinary interns working at Alameda East Veterinary Hospital in Denver, Colorado. It is a spinoff of Emergency Vets, a series about the lives of veterinarians at Alameda East that aired from 1998 to 2002 on the U.S. cable network Animal Planet...
. Fitzgerald also does stand-up comedy and a little tap dancing. In 2001, he was named one of the 50 most eligible bachelors by People Magazine.
Past jobs and positions
Kevin Fitzgerald was formerly a teacher at the University of HawaiiUniversity of Hawaii
The University of Hawaii System, formally the University of Hawaii and popularly known as UH, is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment...
. On summers off, he was hired by Tony Funches and Barry Fey to be a part of the (Denver based) Feyline Security Team and worked security for a wide variety of musical acts, such as Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
, Bob Marley
Bob Marley
Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers...
, Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
, George Clinton
George Clinton (funk musician)
George Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and music producer and the principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and launched a solo career in 1981. He has been cited as one of the foremost...
, and The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
. Kevin eventually ran this portion of Barry Fey's Concert Promotion & Production Business after Tony Funches moved on to other pursuits. On an episode of Emergency Vets
Emergency Vets
Emergency Vets is a reality television series that airs on the U.S. cable network Animal Planet. First aired in 1998, it depicts the working and outside lives of the veterinarians at Alameda East Veterinary Hospital in Denver, Colorado, USA, plus the animals that they treat...
, Fitzgerald noted that he knew it was time to get serious about pursuing a career in veterinary medicine when Keith Richards
Keith Richards
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
of the Rolling Stones asked him point-blank if he wanted to "still be a bouncer
Bouncer (doorman)
A bouncer is an informal term for a type of security guard employed at venues such as bars, nightclubs or concerts to provide security, check legal age, and refuse entry to a venue based on criteria such as intoxication, aggressive behavior, or attractiveness...
at 50".
Fitzgerald joined the staff of Alameda East, a 24-hour facility equipped to provide emergency care, in 1985. He also once served as president of the Denver Area Veterinary Medical Society while he was on the Board of Directors of the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center
Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center
-About the Poison Center:The Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center is a division of Denver Health Medical Center, an integrated health care organization based in Denver....
.
Stalkee
Beginning in 1999 Fitzgerald was stalked by a West Virginia woman named Vicki Tenney. She started out as a fan who wrote him letters, then progressed to the point where she moved to Denver in 2003 and began making death threats. By ChristmasChristmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
in 2004, Tenney was calling Fitzgerald daily saying she was going to kill him and had purchased a coffin for him. Her case finally made it to court in March 2005, but she was deemed unfit to stand trial in January 2006 and was ordered into treatment.
On October 27, 2006, Tenney was sentenced to 18 months of probation, obtain mental health treatment, and ordered to stay away from Fitzgerald and Alameda East Veterinary Hospital in a plea bargain in which she pled guilty to violating a restraining order. Doctors have now deemed Tenney more suitable to stand trial since her treatment began, but the prosecutor of the case, stating that she believed the disposition was appropriate, declined to bring Tenney to trial as long as Tenney continues to follow the requirements of her probation.
Current jobs and positions
Fitzgerald is most notable for being a veterinarian at Alameda East Veterinary HospitalAlameda East Veterinary Hospital
Alameda East Veterinary Hospital is one of the world's leading veterinary hospitals. It is equipped with state-of-the-art technology and is considered one of the best intern places a future vet can study in the United States. It is located in Denver, Colorado, in the United States of...
, which is where the Animal Planet
Animal Planet
Animal Planet is an American cable tv specialty channel that launched on October 1, 1996. It is distributed by Discovery Communications. A high-definition simulcast of the channel launched on September 1, 2007.-History:...
television series Emergency Vets
Emergency Vets
Emergency Vets is a reality television series that airs on the U.S. cable network Animal Planet. First aired in 1998, it depicts the working and outside lives of the veterinarians at Alameda East Veterinary Hospital in Denver, Colorado, USA, plus the animals that they treat...
and its follow-up series E-Vet Interns
E-Vet Interns
E-Vet Interns is a reality television series about veterinary interns working at Alameda East Veterinary Hospital in Denver, Colorado. It is a spinoff of Emergency Vets, a series about the lives of veterinarians at Alameda East that aired from 1998 to 2002 on the U.S. cable network Animal Planet...
were filmed. For the past 25 years, he has been an assistant professor adjunct at the University of Denver
University of Denver
The University of Denver is currently ranked 82nd among all public and private "National Universities" by U.S. News & World Report in the 2012 rankings....
, where he teaches a course called "Perspectives in Veterinary Medicine". He also serves as a veterinary consultant for the Aurora, Colorado
Aurora, Colorado
City of Aurora is a Home Rule Municipality spanning Arapahoe, Adams, and Douglas counties in Colorado. Aurora is an eastern suburb of the Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area . The city is the third most populous city in the Colorado and the 56th most populous city in the...
police department's K-9 division. He has written chapters in medical texts on subjects such as emergency veterinarian medicine, toxicology, and reptile medicine and surgery.
Fitzgerald is also a regular on the Denver-area stand-up comedy circuit, where he is billed as "the hardest working veterinarian in show business". An episode of Emergency Vets entitled "Fitz's Day" showed snippets of his stand-up act. "Everybody laughed when I said I wanted to do comedy", Fitzgerald noted dryly, "but no one's laughing now."
On August 11, 2007, Fitzgerald was a "Not My Job" guest on National Public Radio's "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me". He told stories about Keith Richards, his fear of spiders and then correctly answered all 3 questions regarding BALCO
Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative
The Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative was an American company led by founder and owner Victor Conte, a former bass player for the soul band Tower of Power. In 2003, journalists Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada investigated the company's role in a drug sports scandal later referred to as the...
founder Victor Conte
Victor Conte
Victor Conte is a former musician with Tower of Power and founder and president of BALCO, a sports nutrition center in California. He served time in prison in 2005 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute steroids and money laundering....
. The segment has been replayed on several of Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me's "best of" and compilation episodes.
After Emergency Vets shut down production in 2002, Fitzgerald occasionally appeared in a set of pet health reminder PSAs on Animal Planet called "Animal Tips With Dr. Fitz". He also appeared in PSAs for the Animal Planet animal welfare project "ROAR" (Reach Out, Act, Respond) with his Alameda East colleague, Dr. Holly Knor.
In 2007, Fitzgerald and the rest of the Alameda East team returned to prime-time television in the new Animal Planet series, E-Vet Interns. On the new series, Fitzgerald constantly stresses the importance of exposing young vets to experiences with exotic animals such as snakes and other reptiles, as well as showing young vets how to give back to their community by providing services for "working animals" such as police dogs.