And as part of that, they were interested in just as a sidelight a, showing what zoos were doing to help conserve endangered species. And so they just had a standing request, if you’re, if you’re doing anything with some of these animals, invite us out. So in addition to… Read More
And can you relate the story of the snow leopard that died while you were doing a routine tranquilizing and lessons learned from experience?… Read More
How did you handle events when a routine procedure resulted in the death of an animal?… Read More
So your responsibilities to the collection didn’t change much?… Read More
N not too much. It was, you know, who I worked for and where my office was. But you know, those things changed after I’d been there about a year, year and a half. But I had been mostly on my own for, for that time. Read More
Well, I was, I was an assistant veterinarian, but Dr. Ashkin was, you know, because of declining health, he had a brain tumor and he underwent various surgeries and he was, we, we didn’t work together very long a after I started there. And so I was still officially the… Read More
Well, it, Or was it one in the same?… Read More
I, I think probably the, the biggest medical challenge and, and not based on animals being prone to illness or whatever, but just the volume of the collection. When I was at St. Louis, we had two, we had a pair of elderly gorillas, a handful of other great apes. Read More
How did that occur?… Read More
So, so those are, you know, that, that, that was one of the big changes and one of the challenges that I really enjoyed. Now you were hired as a staff veterinarian, but you moved up to the head veterinarian position. Read More
Or had you thought about that philosophically before, Before I, I hadn’t really thought about that. It, it really was, you know, trying to develop their trust. You know, I, I remember jokingly when I, because I, I’m, I don’t know that I was aware of this, but certainly I… Read More
And how did you handle it?… Read More
Were any of the animals at Lincoln Park where you started medically challenging?… Read More
Was there any secrets when you first came to Lincoln Park of getting and working with the Animal Creek animal keepers to accept you?… Read More
How hard or easy is it would you say for a young veterinarian to work into the medical routine routine of a organization?… Read More
I think so. So Dr. Ashkin had been a consulting veterinarian there at the zoo, and they hired him out of small animal practice and into the zoo full time when they built the first purpose-built Zoo Hospital in 76. And so this was just a few years later. So… Read More
Well, the director that was there throughout almost all of my dozen year tenure at Lincoln Park was Dr. Les Fisher. And Les was also a veterinarian. He started out as the part-time consulting veterinarian at Lincoln Park Zoo in the late forties. And somebody with a lot of, a… Read More
When I, when I started the hospital, staff was myself, one veterinary technician and one keeper to take care of the animals in the hospital. So my responsibilities was running that staff of two people, but was responsible for the medical care of a very good size and complex collection. Read More
What were your responsibilities as a young veterinarian?… Read More
I, I, I guess one of my, one of my first experiences, that was one of the first things that interested me. ’cause I, I really had an attachment to the Children’s Zoo at St. Louis. That’s where I started out working as a keeper. It’s where I met my… Read More