But oftentimes I was the anesthetist and the surgeon on the things that I did. I had some graduate students that started working with some of these drugs. Then the things like a Rompun or Xylazine came on the scene, we used these, we gained some experiences. We shared experiences… Read More
You don’t get close to a taper in terms of emotional closeness, but I could accomplish a lot with that animal by just going easy, stroking it and doing, I could do a rectal, not a palpation, but take a temperature and this sort of thing. So I think that… Read More
What was your first experience using tranquilizers on animals?… Read More
And was this a new technology when you entered the field or was it developed as you were already in the field?… Read More
Well, the development of some of the drugs for chemical immobilization in the zoo field started in the 1950s. I didn’t graduate from veterinary school until ’55. And so, as I said with the chimpanzee, the only anesthetic agent that I had was a phenobarbital, which was a human sedative. Read More
When you were working with animals, either the zoo or the circus, but the zoo, did you ever get close to any of them that you really have- You mean any of the animal extremists?… Read More
No, at the zoo, the animals that you worked with, did you get close to any of them that some are patients, some are special patients ’cause they recognize you or they knew who you were in a positive way as opposed to a negative way?… Read More
Well, we’re told that we shouldn’t become emotionally involved with any of our patients in veterinary medicine. That’s impossible because you do get emotionally involved. And I became specifically involved with some of the primates. We had chimpanzees at the Sacramento Zoo, and one of those chimpanzees hated me with… Read More
It can’t throw feces through the glass, so he didn’t do that, but I could come in on a Sunday afternoon in a business suit and he would recognize me. And the people at the zoo often knew that I was in the zoo because the chimpanzees had some high,… Read More
Were you ever the focus?… Read More
Well, yes, I have been the focus of given situations. I mentioned at least one point where the media was there, and the animal activist jumped on that and said how terrible a veterinarian I was. I think in a lot of situations, I have been in political meetings where… Read More
In thinking about different situations that transpired with working with elephants, I never personally have been involved in a close call working with elephants. But I remember one particular elephant actually in Wisconsin, in Madison, that Bill Lindsey and I, and he’s an alumnus essentially of Madison Veterinary School ’cause… Read More
I never worked with an elephant where I didn’t have a keeper that was knowledgeable about elephants that was under control of that elephant. And yet I knew that they could slap with their trunks, they could kick, they can smack you with a tail, they can press you, they… Read More
On a different subject, but still within zoos and circuses, how did you deal or how did you see it dealt with animal activists when they were attacking you to the zoo or the surface?… Read More
I can talk that up from a standpoint of foot problems and elephants are always a special challenge. And when I first started, we dealt with physical restraint as the only means of examining those feet and treating foot problems. Nowadays with the advancement and training procedures and so forth,… Read More
You mentioned that thankfully you’ve never been hurt working with elephants. Read More
Have there been some memorable situations where for one reason or another, you might’ve been in an awkward position or something that surprised you so much about the intelligence of an individual elephant, that you were quite aware that it was very unusual when you were doing your medical issues… Read More
Were there some situations that stand out?… Read More
Well, the work with the animals in a circus is straightforward, no problem there. The challenge as I see it is actually with people and that gets back to same old, same old, or communication is the challenge. Circus people have been hammered on from a variety of situations, a… Read More
They may have reasons for that, there are other animals to do the same thing. I had an African gray parrot that hated women. And yet I could do anything I wanted to, and any man could perhaps do the same thing, but they didn’t like… There are pets that… Read More