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
How many days were you at sea?… Read More
23 Days at sea. And I imagine your days were pretty filled. Pretty filled from daylight to dark we were busy. It was hard. So now you get these animals to Brownsville, you’re in good shape, you’re still the associate director. Read More
And then once he was to the point where it was safe, why four of us put him back into a crate and then repaired the crate?… Read More
So that was a little different experience. But surprisingly enough, giraffe are some of the most resilient animals around. They were in large crates with canvas tops over ’em and they would brace their feet one way and then the other as the ship rolled, and they didn’t have any… Read More
So I had to sedate him. And fortunately I had some drugs on board that I could do that, but I couldn’t have any capture pistols or anything because of customs and all. So I just had the hand syringe. So as zebra went by, I had to get a… Read More
And then when the ship would go back the other way, it’d roll all the way across to the other way. Fortunately, there was about a four foot handrail all the way around, two or three rails, and that kept him from going overboard. Read More