I’ve been home now for just over a day and my head is still spinning from the events of the past three days. I knew that transporting an elephant 300 km wasn’t going to be easy, but what I did not expect was for a complete media circus, the most disheartening abuse of an animal and the sadness that comes from seeing the domestication of a wild animal. At one point I was seriously close to tears when the Indian mahout (elephant trainer) was whipping the poor beast with a stick. I looked up into the elephant’s eye and could see directly into its soul; beaten down and defeated the animal was begging for help. When we finally arrived at the sanctuary, which will be its new home, I was pleased to see that it has a wide-open space to live in. But my heart sinks every time I think back to the hours spent trying to get it onto the truck. It was certainly one of the cruelest things I’ve ever witnessed....Continue reading
The last 72 hours of the trip were immense. To briefly recap, whilst the TV crew headed back to check the footage, I did another rumenotomy on a cow and removed a staggering 20kg of plastic/money/nails which is incredible. Then Nigel and I headed off to town to get some elephant food for the following day. This was the start of an epic journey and involved an incredibly sad start to the movement of a suspected TB infected elephant....Continue reading
These trips are coming thick and fast – can’t believe I am off again. The big case I am leaving behind on this trip is Lily. She’s a beautiful collie who was unfortunately run over by a tractor last week. Her pelvis was shattered and I’ve done my best to repair what I could the x-rays in the pictures show what was done – unfortunately I couldn’t save her hip bone, it was impossible to fix all the fragments so I had to cut off the top of her femur. I am hoping with all my heart she is walking on my return....Continue reading
What a journey. We spent about 2 hours clearing customs and then a three and a bit hour car journey to base. The biggest news though is that Agatha, Alberto, Pablo and Daniela are about the nicest family you could hope to meet and they have bent over backwards to make sure everything has gone smoothly on our first day. Alberto (the father) and Daniela (daughter) met us at the airport and kindly ferried us to the hotel. The hotel is 7km from the shelter and is lovely. Agatha (founder of the charity and Mother of the family) sorted it all out and after a few hours sleep we met her and Pablo (son) who took us to their home. The home is magical -it has a wonderful warm feeling and the animals seem so happy – they must realise how lucky they are to be living there.
We spent the first couple of hours getting our bearings as they live on a farm, and introduced ourselves to the rescued ostriches, donkeys, horses, dogs, cat, rabbits, turtles etc to name but a few of the animals they have resident there. The rest of the day was filled up with an operation on a poor cat that had an aggressively growing tumour on its back, meeting Raul (a crazy Indiana Jones type character who rescues the more exotic species of animals that are about in the area) and examining some injured birds of prey that Raul is rehabilitating....Continue reading
I really don’t want to complain about flying around the world, filming these great programmes in far flung corners of the globe, but the fact that I actually don’t like flying makes the journeys twice as hard. In fact, neither Luke, Nathan nor Adam like flying. Considering that we are going to film six more programmes all over the world, this is ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is that we start talking about crash statistics and most common malfunctions on planes every time from the moment we check in until take off....Continue reading
We have spent the first day at la Cienega animal shelter in San Jose Itrubide and what a pleasant experience. The animals look healthy, the land is absolutely stunning and the people are welcoming and extremely friendly.
With the new cameraman Scott Mckinnon on board we’ve got off to a brilliant start: filming a scene with an injured hawk and an endangered eagle yesterday morning and an operation on a cat with a huge tumour growing out of its back. Despite the jetlag we’re firing on all cylinders and it looks as though this is going to be another cracking trip.
For regular readers of the blog you’ll know that I started a campaign to save my own name. This hasn’t gone all to plan as Luke keeps on calling me various different things on every trip we venture to: from Bruce in Malawi to Narinder in India. And when we arrived at the charity it didn’t take long for Agetha, who runs the sanctuary, to call me Bruce (in fact it was the first thing she said!) Last night I was christened with my new Mexican name of Lupe. Which I have now found out from my Spanish girlfriend is actually a girl’s name, so this is wonderful. Not only have I lost use of the name of Nathan, but I’ve been given a new one which is used for girls… oh well…...Continue reading
The big question today was how on earth can a vet on a charity mission end up flying with the Mexican National Acrobatic Paragliding Champion? What an incredible day. Nerve wracking doesn’t quite cover it and after the fourth flight I was throwing up everywhere which I am certain the guys will never let me forget, but the adrenaline rush was amazing. Fabul was the name of the pilot I was flying tandem with, and he took great pleasure in swirling me around thousands of feet above the mountain so I could experience proper ’G-force’ – but the point of the trip was to show me the red kites in their natural habitat and to try to ‘fly like a bird’. It was amazing – albeit a bit nauseating on the spins. Definitely makes rollercoasters seem like kindergarten rides.
Late afternoon we headed back to the sanctuary so I could catch up on some ops. I took seven teeth out of a small terrier from which I also removed a small mammary tumour under inject able, it went really well considering the little dog was nine years old with a raging heart murmur. There was also a beautiful Labrador cross that had been dumped at the shelter with seven puppies and Agatha was so upset. It was really sad because she is a beautiful sweet natured dog and was simply dropped off at the shelter without us even knowing her name. When I examined her because she wasn’t eating, she had a bit of a temperature and a touch of metritis so I got some meds into her and I am certain with the amazing compassion and care available at the shelter, she will pull through. The puppies are about six weeks old and thankfully are relatively fit and healthy despite being riddled with fleas....Continue reading
Had a fantastic day. Luke went up into the Mexican blue skies to go paragliding with red kites. Fabo, a paragliding acrobatic champion and Luke’s tandem pilot, really took our ‘talent’ for a ride. We had to repeat certain shots and after the third flight, Luke touched down and starting throwing up straight away. Fabo said it is very common. Luke had motion sickness, similar to seasickness. I know it’s not fair, but I have to admit, I was grinning and smirking away....Continue reading
Epic . What a start to the day – an emergency call to rescue a donkey that was stuck up to its neck in a swamp. The call came from a young man called Carlo who is only fifteen but is a complete force and champion for animal welfare. He heads up a rescue charity of local youngsters which saves animals. I was absolutely amazed when I arrived. Carlo was submerged in the swamp with he donkey, his 12 year old brother was behind the wheel of a large digger and a friend of his was on the bank assisting as required. The defeated park ranger who had called them for help was a mere onlooker having failed to save the donkey. My assistance was simply to lend some muscle in getting it out, all the good work had already been done by Carlo whose quick thinking in keeping the donkeys head out of the water and mud, saved its life....Continue reading
Scott, Marc and Bruce had their work cut out today. They had to walk up a mountain to film me examining some cattle that roam the plateau. I had it easy because I rode up with the Mexican cowboys. Lupe was the leader and he is very much the real deal. They gave me a steady horse and aside from bouncing around a fair bit as the guys demonstrated how to weald a lasso, I absolutely loved the ride. The scenery was breathtaking and we treated a couple of cows that had a couple of problems. To be honest, the cows were generally in great condition and I guess only the fittest survive. The cowboys tend to be utterly self sufficient – they cut their own stallions for example (without anything other than a knife) – so I think the meds I gave were a rarity. I don’t think this is because they want to cause the horses pain, more because they have no choice and no drugs.
After the work, we built a fire, had some tacos and a good chat. Long journey but fascinating to go with the cowboys and live the experience. I am sure this will be a highlight of the trip. Can’t believe how much effort and work Agatha and Alberto have gone to organise all these community days and activities – they do so much in the community and know so many people it is amazing.
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