Obviously it was fatal to primates, which was one of the things that we had to be so careful about because you have keepers around, you have helpers around when you’re immobilizing animals. And if they would get in contact with one of these drugs, either while loading a syringe… Read More
Now as an associate director and as a director, did you make rounds of the zoo?… Read More
When I was in veterinary school, the two drugs were nicotine sulfate, which was a paralytic agent and very, very sensitive as far as the dosage. And you could give a certain amount and nothing would be apparent, and you’d give another 25% over that and the animal die. So… Read More
What was the state of the tranquilizer drugs now that you mentioned it when you were doing things in Africa or at the zoo at the time you were at starting at Brownsville?… Read More
Yes, Dr. Clinton gray at the National Zoo, Dr. Jack brunette from Dallas, Fred Soyfer from Houston. These were all some of the early leaders, Paul Chaffey from Fresno Zoo. And if I had a problem or a question, I could pick up the phone and call one of them… Read More
I laughed. I said, well, join the club. I did the same thing in Columbus and had to immediately give the reversal agent and put ’em on oxygen to revive ’em because it doesn’t work. So we had fun instances like that, where things didn’t turn out to be too… Read More
And so he had a grant that he could do this with. And they started publishing these tables, which gave the zoo vets sort of a guideline to go by whenever they would get a sick animal, they could check it, then they could check it to compare it to… Read More
Did you have any mentors within that veterinary group?… Read More
It was not so much an association thing at that time. As the Zoo Veterinarian Association grew to the point where I think it’s over six or 700 now active veterinarians around not just the US, but mostly North American, but also European, communication became better. And we had more… Read More
In the beginning, it was a pretty loose connection between zoo veterinarians around the country. As I say, the Zoo Veterinarian Association didn’t start until about the late ’60s. And it was a loose group of people who started meeting at Michigan State University back in ’67, ’68. And at… Read More
Did you call each other to consult?… Read More
How did that work?… Read More
Now, as veterinarian, you were dealing with other veterinarians, how did that work around the United States?… Read More
What was the state of the art of communication with these people?… Read More
We had a very strong minded mammals curator, and he and I sometimes got into it. And the fact that I was actually his boss made it to the point that I had the final word. It always wasn’t consensus, I respected this curator. I took what he had to… Read More
And so there was a lot of work, a lot of processing. And it seemed like at that time, it was just natural, to be the person that had arranged for the purchase and then the person that was responsible for treating them when they came in and then the… Read More
Did you have any of those issues crop up that your experience helped you with?… Read More
How difficult was it doing both of those jobs as compared to the jobs you had at Columbus when you were doing dual jobs. In Brownsville, here again, we had a very good staff put together there, Dr. Thomas Cherry pick people he wanted, and they were all hands-on people. Read More
We have a shipment of animals here for you. and we were dealing with several dealers, most of ’em are out of Florida who were importing things out of South America. And we would get a call, hey, we’ve got 40 flamingos here for you. Or we have this or… Read More
and the veterinarian?… Read More