Bethany Lundsted, CVT, GACC Manager
Bethany joined the Gardner Animal Care Center team in December 2003 as a veterinary technician. She graduated from Becker College in May 1995 with an Associates of Science in Veterinary Technology. In June 2004, she passed her certification examination. Before coming to GACC, Bethany worked for 10 years at a small animal clinic in New Hampshire.Bethany lives in Rindge, NH with her husband, Newton, her oldest daughter, Jackie, Parker in the middle, and Leila, the youngest. They have a Golden named Krypto, a Great Pyrenees named Misty, a Black Labrador named Lady and two cats: Ashe, the big gray one; and Kahuna, fat, orange and loveable. The family spends a lot of time at the hockey rink and in the barn with Jackie’s pony, Bunny. Bethany’s life is very busy, but she is always surrounded by animals! She hopes to someday fulfill her dream of touring Africa.
Christy J. Boris, BS, CVT
Christy has been at Gardner Animal Care Center since 2002 but has been in the field of veterinary medicine since 1991. Prior to coming to Gardner Animal Care Center, Christy worked at a small animal hospital in her hometown of Keene, NH as an assistant hospital manager. She is a member of the Massachusetts Veterinary Technician Association where she serves as the organization’s corresponding secretary. In October 2012 she was awarded the MVTA Veterinary Technician of the Year. She is also a member of the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America. She is married and has two cats: Simon Theodore Boris and Gideon Dillinger Boris. She likes anything athletic (especially trail running- she ran her first 60-mile race in October of 2014) and is a hardcore #3 Dale Earnhardt fan!
Jennifer Davis, CVT, AS
Jen is a mother of 2 grown boys and has worked here at the Gardner Animal Care Center since graduating from Becker College in 1997. She heads our dental unit and guides students on their externships. She has four cats (Neil, Princess, Duck and Tiger Lilly), a Hamster named Nibblet and tropical fish. She sometimes takes in orphaned kittens to nurse until they are old enough to be adopted. She is also on the Massachusetts Veterinary Technician Association board as the newsletter editor. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family and chatting with friends online. Her hobbies include playing street hockey in a local women’s league as a goaltender, tending to houseplants and reading a great fantasy novel.
Kim Richard, CVT
Kim graduated from Becker Jr. College with an Associate’s Degree in Science specializing in Veterinary Medicine. Upon graduation, she started employment at Framingham Animal Hospital. Kim then moved to sunny San Diego, CA, and worked at El Cajon Rancho Veterinary Clinic. She then moved to Monterey and worked at Pacific Grove Animal Hospital. When she returned to Gardner, Kim finally took employment at Gardner Animal Care Center in 1989. Many years and many changes later, she still enjoys her technician job thoroughly.
Lynn Kelley, CVT
Lynn graduated from Becker College in 2008 with an Associate of Science Degree in Veterinary Technology. Shortly thereafter, she passed the veterinary technician national exam and became a certified veterinary technician. She also earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Worcester State College in 2004.Lynn joined the Gardner Animal Care Center team in July 2008, and prior to that worked as a veterinary technician in a non-profit animal shelter. Lynn has loved animals from a very young age and can’t imagine herself in any other occupation. She enjoys volunteering at feral cat spay and neuter clinics and doing her part in controlling pet overpopulation.
In her spare time, Lynn enjoys camping, traveling, music, collecting books, and being with family and friends. She shares her home with two dogs – a Cairn Terrier named Reese, and a Beagle that (sometimes) answers to Dale.
Haley Boucher, CVT
Haley studied at Becker College in the Animal Science Program, graduated in 2013 and became a CVT (certified veterinary technician) not long after. Prior to joining the GACC team, Haley completed her externship hours here and had a such a great experience she was thrilled to be called back as a permanent member of the team. Since early childhood, she has had a love for animals and always knew that working with them is what she wanted to do. Haley lives in New Hampshire with her boyfriend and three dogs, a sheltie mix named Beetle, a Pomeranian mix named Binckley, and a Chihuahua mix named Oliver. In her spare time, she enjoys yoga, running, hiking, and spending time with her friends and family.
Joel T. Powers, CVT, RN
(November 15, 1984 – March 7, 2010)
Gone, but never forgotten.
Linda Laffond
Linda has been a member of the Gardner Animal Care Center since 2004. Prior to her coming to GACC, Linda worked as a Veterinary Technician at a domestic and wildlife clinic in Wickford, RI. She was also a boarding manager and veterinary assistant at a small animal hospital in Jacksonville, FL. Her compassion for animals is obvious to the owners and team members. A lot of her time is spent counseling our clients on the importance of healthy nutrition and weight management. Outside of the hospital, Linda spends much of her time outdoors biking, hiking, or enjoying road trips. She has 3 rescue cats, Alice, Moonpie, and Reese.
April Llewelyn, GACC Manager
When April was about eight years old, she decided to become a dog groomer. This decision was largely influenced by her desire to work with animals. She has always had a strong love for animals. After graduating from a culinary arts program, she went on to Becker College and enrolled in the animal care/grooming program. She also took canine massage classes at the Spencer School of Massage. April has worked for a kennel, grooming facility, and other veterinary offices before finding herself at the Gardner Animal Care Center. After many years of hard work and dedication, she now heads the department of our Client Service Representatives.April was born in Gardner, Massachusetts. Her family moved frequently starting when April was four. She has lived in numerous parts of Massachusetts – Winchendon, Royalston, Athol, Orange, Colrain, Greenfield, Ashfield, Amherst, Hubbardston and Gardner – and has had the chance to enjoy the many cultures of Massachusetts.
April was married in April 2006 to her husband, Bruce. In 2007, they welcomed their daughter, Morgan, to the family. Their house is protected by one cat and four dogs. When not working, you can find her roller skating, ice skating, bowling, watching movies, enjoying dinner and spending time with her family.
Jacqui Dickinson
Jacqui began working at the Gardner Animal Care Center in Aug of 2006. She started caring for animals at the age of 10, taking in stray cats and spending her allowance on examinations and vaccinations and finding good homes for them. Working with animals has always been her dream and she loves taking care of all the dogs and cats who board at our facility. She is currently working on achieving a Veterinary Technician degree and really enjoys her classes. Jacqui lives with her husband, their 10-year-old orange tabby, Kung-Fu, and her wrinkle-faced dog, Gertie, a 13-year-old Golden Retriever/ Shar-pei mix they adopted from the Humane Society. She enjoys spending her free time with her two beautiful children, Ella and Clark.
Jennifer LaFleur
From as far back as Jennifer can remember, she had a great love for animals. Her first pet was a hamster named Fluff-a-Nutter. Since him, things have gotten a little crazy. She loves to foster and care for animals of all kinds.Jennifer was born in Germany and moved to the United States when she was three. She spent her childhood in Fitchburg and Lunenburg. She attended Monty Tech where she took four years of culinary arts classes. Jennifer had a pet mouse that lived in her locker there – the teachers never knew! She would even take him to classes with her in her purse. After she graduated high school, she began working at Twin City Animal Hospital and has been working at animal hospitals ever since.
Jennifer lives in Winchendon with her husband, Randy, daughter, Rachael, and son, Zachary. Their home is owned by LOTS of pets! It’s a lot of work but she would not change a thing. Life is good!
Michelle Bourdages
Michelle started working as a client services representative in September 2015. She lives with her two cats, Merlin and Max, and her two dogs, Rosey and Ginger. She has a degree in commercial art and design. Michelle was self-employed for nine years as a nail technician. Prior to joining us, she also took an online course for medical transcription. Her hobbies include gardening, painting, stained glass, and crafting.
Kasey Quinones
Kasey started at the Gardner Animal Care Center in 2014. Kasey went to school in South Carolina for business management while serving four years in the United States Air Force. After her enlistment, she returned to Massachusetts and was married shortly after. She and her husband have three boys that keep them very busy! When Kasey was about 7-years-old she witnessed a stray cat deliver a litter of kittens. Since then she knew she wanted to do something that involved animals. She believes working for a veterinarian is a great way to provide customer service which she loves doing and also being around animals all day.In her free time, Kasey likes spending time with her family and being outdoors. She is also a big baseball fan. You can usually find Kasey at the local baseball field watching her kids play. At home, Kasey has two American Bullies named Vayda and Brix and a cat named Kiki.
Kendra Lincoln
Kendra began working at the Gardner Animal Care Center in May of 2018. For the past few years, she has been working towards an associates degree in Business Administration/Accounting. Because of her love for animals, she hopes to start her own business one day that involves caring for animals, preferably cats because they are her favorite! Kendra currently lives with her Rottweiler, Max, & hopes to adopt some more furry friends soon. For fun, she enjoys spending time with friends & family, & hanging out with the cats in our boarding facility!
Kathryn Becker
Kathryn joined the Gardner Animal Care Center team in June 2018. She is currently a student in the Veterinary Technology Program at MWCC. Before applying to the Vet Tech program, she completed her Associates Degree in Liberal Arts and also has her Medical Esthetician license.She has two Italian Greyhounds, Luna and Stella, and spends her free time with them. They are her best friends and she wouldn’t have it any other way! Kathryn has always wanted to be in the animal care field; when she was a child, she would play “Veterinarian” on her stuffed animals with a toy medical kit. Her dream for the future is to live on a ranch with her dogs and give a home to all of the animals in need.
Kathryn loves being a part of the Gardner Animal Care Center family and can’t wait for her future as a Veterinary Technician.
Gina Cuzzi, Supervisor
Gina has been with Gardner Animal Care Center as an ACT since April 2015. She is currently attending Mount Wachusett in the Allied Health Program. At an early age, Gina knew she wanted to work in either the human or animal healthcare field. Gina lives in a small town in New Hampshire with her family, boyfriend and two dogs, Molly and Xena. Molly is a very chubby and friendly chihuahua mix. Xena thinks she’s a lap dog but is actually a Great Dane/Cane Corso mix.Gina enjoys photographing her dog Xena as well as all the fantastic daycare dogs. In her spare time, you won’t find Gina without her shadow, Xena. The two love to go on walks, hikes, and swimming.
Tavonte Tallman
Animal Care Technician
I have been working at GACC since June 2017 and started working weekends as a security officer at Emerson Hospital. I am currently going to school for a degree in criminal justice and hope to become a police officer in Gardner. My best friend is my cattle dog-pit bull mix named Zoey. She loves her walks and playing ball outside, but when playtime is over, she thinks she’s a lap dog. I also have a cat named Moe who loves to follow Zoey and me around the block and can sit on command.
Jillian Brouillet
Animal Care Technician
Jill has been working with the Gardner Animal Care Center as an ACT since December 2017. She is currently attending Mount Wachusett Community College for her degree in nursing. She also took a few semesters at Umass Amherst in animal sciences.
Jill has a Catahoula Leopard mix dog named Athena who comes to work with her every day and loves it! She also has two Puggles, Sophie and Buster. She loves to take her dogs out on walks and hikes in her free time.
Kolby Ross
Animal Care Technician
Kolby has been with the Gardner Animal Care Center as an ACT since May 2018. She is currently going to school at Mount Wachusett Community College for her degree in Veterinary Technology. Before applying to the Vet Tech program, she completed five semesters at Fitchburg State University studying Business Management.
Kolby has a Chocolate Lab named Owen and a puppy nephew named Niko who is a Lab Mix; she spends a lot of her free time with them. Kolby has always had a love for animals as well as caring for them and has always wanted to work in the Veterinary field. Kolby loves working at the Gardner Animal Care Center and can’t wait to finally become a Veterinary Technician!
Morgan Grant
Animal Care Technician
Morgan has been working at Gardner Animal Care Center since May 2018. She has a cat, Axel, and a bulldog, Maggie. She is currently attending Mount Wachusett Community College to earn her Veterinary Technology degree! Her love and compassion for animal care, as well as client education is what inspired her to join the team!
Morgan is from the small town of Winchendon. When not working you can find Morgan baking, spending time with family, and walking Maggie. She loves working at GACC!
Halle Wright
Animal Care Technician
Halle has been with Gardner Animal Care Center as an ACT since May 2018. She is currently attending Becker College, studying Veterinary Science. Growing up with animals, she’s always had a passion for working with them. Through her time at school, she’s trained retired greyhounds, worked with lab animals, and learned grooming and social skills with dogs. Halle lives with her cat Chloe and dog Shilo. She enjoys going on hikes, traveling, and being with her friends. She loves working at GACC!
Bonnie Jo Duke
Animal Care Technician
Bonnie joined the Gardner Animal Care team in September 2018 but has been a loyal and happy client for many years. She attended Becker College in 1994-1995 and has had a passion for animals since she was a young girl. She pursued her passion to become part of many animal rescues volunteering and fostering dogs finding them loving forever homes.
In her spare time, Bonnie enjoys spending quality time with her family and her four precious mini dachshunds, Tucker, Tasha, Honey and Buddy, who are her world, her
She continues to volunteer with a rescue and hopes to one day pursue her dream of having an animal sanctuary of her own to help so many wonderful animals in need.
Samantha Clark
Animal Care Technician
Photo and bio coming soon!
Grooming is provided by Woof Wagon!
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Claudia Romard Hofmann, CPDT-KA
Claudia is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA) with more than 30 years of experience in dog training and canine behavior modification. Claudia is originally from Germany where she started training dogs competitively at the young age of 14, competed in the sport of Schutzhund in Regional and National Level competitions, taught pet obedience classes since the early 90s and after she moved into the US in 2002 she immediately started to do the same here; personally her biggest success as a dog trainer and handler was her “Vice National Schutzhund Champion” title in 2006.In 2007 we were fortunate to add Claudia to our team, and she has been teaching classes ever since. Claudia teaches on Saturdays only as her “real job” as an Assistant Manager in a Bank requires her attention Monday through Friday. Along with standard training classes, Claudia specializes in problem behavior dogs and finding individualized solutions to address these problems.
Claudia is passionate about all dogs and her main objective is to help our clients learn to understand their individual dogs better, based upon the dogs own characteristics and tendencies that might differ from other dogs in the class. Her teaching style is based on canine behavior science and transparency in its approach. Her classes are not “cookie-cutter,” everyone receives the same basic training, but the pace and detailed technique are dependent on the individual needs of the team. Claudia’s strives to create a respectful and trusting relationship and the bond between human and dog.
Many employee pets, including Dr. Mike’s and Dr. Brian’s dogs, have been through her classes with great success.
Claudia’s favorite breed has been the German Shepherd Dog and her Kennel name “van Gogh” is world known. Claudia and her son share their home with a 13-year-old sable GSD and a 6-year-old rescued Pitbull-Mix who is a certified Therapy Dog.
Karen Rich CPDT-KA
Karen is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA) who hosts obedience classes on weeknights and evenings here at the GACC. She is a CGC and PUPPY S.T.A.R evaluator for the American Kennel Club (AKC) and a SPOT evaluator for the United Kennel Club (UKC). Karen teaches Advanced Canine Good Citizen classes and Therapy Dog Training classes in our 3,000 sq. ft. indoor training facility. She also teaches Puppy Preschool, Puppy Obedience, and Basic Obedience classes in the same facility on weeknight evenings throughout the year. She is certified in all levels of dog obedience training and has been instrumental in helping many dogs at GACC achieve advanced levels in Canine Good Citizenship, as well as going on to become therapy dogs. She is dedicated to helping dogs fit well into our society through behavior training.Since 1998, Karen has been active in the area of animal-assisted therapy (AAT). Her background in psychiatry and education equipped her to move into this field and to become an educator, as well as a tester/observer for the Alliance of Therapy Dogs. Many of her students have gone on to actively visit hospitals, nursing homes, schools, libraries, and senior centers, bringing joy and hope to others. Karen and her dog, Mya, are very active in the community, visiting several medical facilities each week. Mya has made well over 650 therapeutic visits, and has reached the highest title of therapy dogs that the AKC awards- “Distinguished Therapy Dog.” Mya can be seen acting as a “demo” dog and assistant in some of GACC’s obedience classes as well.
Karen has a particular interest in the early socialization of dogs and strengthening the human-animal bond. She is GACC’s dog behavioral instructor for the GACC Daycare team. She is currently supervised by three cats, two Golden Retrievers, and a German Shepherd Dog, who bring her much happiness, keep her on her toes, and teach her new things all the time!
After a few weeks of training, I started to become impatient with what I thought was the lack of progress in Ben’s development. One week, after class, I spoke with Claudia about my concerns. She encouraged me to stay patient, continue attending class. She stressed the importance of completing homework assignments, consistent handling techniques by all family members and continually applying what was being taught in class.
Well, we stuck with it. The results of Claudia’s methods speak for themselves: Ben graduated from Puppy School, Obedience School, AKC Canine Good Citizen, and AKC Community Canine classes. He is currently enrolled in Therapy Dog Certification Training. None of this would have been possible without the training Ben received from Claudia and Karen.
I would and have recommended the dog training services offered by Claudia and Karen to friends and even strangers that Ben and I come across on our daily walks. Brenda Leblanc
Our Address
Our Hours
Tues, Thurs: 7:30 am – 8:00pm
Sat: 7:30 am – 2:00 pm
Sun: Closed
Daycare opens at 6:30 am.
