Our History
Mountain Animal Hospital was founded by Dr Oscar Smith in 1954.
After graduating from the Ontario Veterinary College in 1948, he returned home to Lynden, ON and started Lynden Animal Clinic, a mixed animal practice serving cats, dogs, and farm animals.
In 1954, Dr Smith built Mountain Animal Hospital. It was the first animal hospital on the Hamilton Mountain and has remained in the same location ever since. He later expanded the building to the plaza you see today, as well as a building behind the plaza which was originally a laundromat, but is now a dog cafe.
In 1954, Dr Smith built Mountain Animal Hospital in its current location
Dr Dudley Collins started at the clinic as a vet student in 1954 and returned after graduating from the Ontario Veterinary College in 1955. Dr Lorne Beitz joined him not long after; he graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College in 1954 but worked in mixed animal practice before joining Mountain in 1959.
Dr Collins and Dr Beitz bought the clinic from Dr Smith in 1960. Aside from practicing general medicine and surgery, they also provided boarding services (with capacity for up to 106 animals!) and grooming.
In 1974, they added an extension to the building to expand the surgery suite. Dr Beitz performed orthopedic surgeries like fracture repairs and cruciate ligament repairs while Dr Collins performed more of the soft tissue surgeries like foreign body obstructions and perineal urethrostomies. Dr Rendyl Godwin graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College in 1976 and became a partner in the practice in 1980.
Dr Claudia Wong and Dr Mike Woodward carry on Mountain’s long history of independent ownership.
Dr John McKenzie grew up near Brockville, Ontario where his father worked as a government veterinarian for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Dr McKenzie graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College in 1984 and worked in mixed animal practice before joining Mountain in 1988. In 1990, he became a partner. By 1997, Drs Beitz, Collins, and Godwin had retired. Dr McKenzie was the sole owner for 26 years until his retirement in June 2023, at which time he passed the torch to his associates, Dr Claudia Wong and Dr Mike Woodward, to carry on Mountain’s long history of independent ownership.