Who'd be a Wildlife Vet?

For those of you who have been watching Safari Vet School on ITV1 on Friday nights, you'll have met Will Fowlds. Will is a giant in stature and nature. He appears to have the most amazing job flying around darting lions, elephants and antelopes but the last few weeks has tested him beyond anything he's had to deal with before. Being called out to two rhino who have survived poachers hacking the whole front of their faces off to take their horns. Three rhinos had been darted using veterinary drugs overnight and the poachers had brutally removed the bone, skin and horn with either machetes or axes and then left them for dead. One had in fact died from it's injuries but 'Themba', a male, and 'Thandi' the female were still alive when discovered the next morning. So began a gruelling, heartrending week of trying to cope with two mutilated huge animals. Decisions had to made whether to euthanise them straight away or give them a chance. Will and the park team decided to bravely see if they could be saved.

The body's capacity to heal is phenomenal and I see a cat versus car case almost weekly in general practice but seeing these big beautiful creatures so maliciously traumatised makes me feel ill. Trying to piece them back together without the ability to handle them as we do our patients is so difficult. Will and the rest of the team are doing everything they can and are these are just two of over a hundred animals poached this year alone in South Africa. We are back in crises again with this species that only a couple of decades ago was at the brink of extinction.

The images and video of these poor animals is sickening to watch but we need people to be shocked, shamed and angered into action. Without a real global effort we are going to lose this species one horrific act at a time.

To follow the rhino's story please visit Kariega Park's Facebook page HERE.