Is There a Doctor in the Zoo? [FIRST EDITION]

by David Taylor and Frankie Coventry.

Is there a doctor in the zoo?

Genres: Animals, Nonfiction, Nature

Unknown Binding

First published May 1, 1978

Reviews

[Ensiform · Rating 4 out of 5]

The early years of an exotic animal veterinarian. An enthralling, fascinating, hilarious, wonderful story. One thing that impressed me was how much a pioneer Taylor was – no anaesthetic dart guns, no zoo or exotic animals classes in vet school back in the '40s and '50s – yet Taylor made it work. I loved his assessment of Christian outlooks on animals, the drug-dealing Arab episode and especially his anecdotes about the chimps. They certainly are a lot smarter than we think!

[hyper saline · Rating 3 out of 5]

An account of a zoo vet from 40+ years ago mostly shows how opinions have changed about exotic animal ownership. A book that needs to be read in the context of its time, but still gets pretty ghastly. The chapter about capturing wild dolphins for aquatic parks most of all, when the author literally murders a baby dolphin.

Lots of pages were missing from my copy. I read it in jail, so the pages were, I'm sure, torn out to use as gambling ledgers.

[Sharon Buxton · Rating 4 out of 5]

B. nonfiction, English veterinarian, various exotic animals, unusual cases; from stash, keep to give away

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! Very much in the vein of James Herriot, David Taylor recounts his early years in in veterinary practice and slow transition to zoo vetting. Very charming and extremely humorous!

[Bronwyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I prefer Herriot

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gave it four stars, but I think it's important to add some comments here. Reading it out loud to kids now, ~30-35 years after I first read this book. I credit this book with giving me strong interest in becoming a zoo vet myself (not where I ended up, but gave me some strong STEM interest that did carry through).

First, I love Taylor's storytelling style. He can make even a normal experience seem exciting, and he's got a lot of beyond-normal experiences besides. He also uses such fun language-- family and I are learning lots of (colloquial? British? old-timey?) expressions and words.

But I do think the book has elements that are problematic, and things that I didn't remember from my reading it as a kid. The part where he shadows/helps someone catch dolphins was hard for me to read/ for kids to hear. He acknowledges the morally gray elements of parts of his job and I'm mostly with him (re: there being benefits to having animals in captivity in terms of allowing for breeding programs, in terms of public sentiment and desire for conservation... and re: him being there to push those conditions to be as humane as possible). But somehow, the catching of dolphins was especially hard. Additionally, he's willing to be vulnerable (describes how his hubris kills a baby dolphin). He clearly cares about the creatures.

I also hadn't remembered a part where he goes to treat some giraffes, and the people running the camp (described as 'Arabs' in parts) are engaged in illegal activities (and are endangering animals). I found myself changing the words as I read along to my kids, partly b/c that descriptor doesn't feel appropriate now but also b/c my kids don't know many groups of Arabic people and I didn't want them having this as one of only a few stories they connect with a group. (I just said "the men" mostly since in this case it all seemed to be men. The stories are dated, and probably typical for the time, most of the key players in most of the stories are men.)

Still-- I'm REALLY glad I found this book and am enjoying (re)experiencing it with my family. My local library didn't have it and it was out of print, so I had to find it for purchase online. Now to figure out what to do with it. That four stars I gave it feels... not right. I'd give it 5-plus stars but with so many caveats... (which makes me concerned re: just dropping it in a Little Free library for someone else to come upon).

[Beka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fabulous book of zoo stories.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book tells the story of a vet in England that works with zoo animals and how hard it was in the beginning to take care of them.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this. it's basically james herriot, although zoo rather than farm.

[Lydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is more or less like James Herriot crossed with exotic zoo animals.