He asked me when I was seven years old what I wanted to be, and my answer was “… a game ranger, like you!” Eventually, I opted to become a veterinarian, as my scope of work would become so much bigger working with both wildlife and domesticated animals.
I started working at Saving the Survivors in 2012, specifically to respond to the high number of injured and poached rhinos in South Africa. During this time, I worked as an equine surgeon (horse doctor) at our veterinary school, where I was teaching surgery to students, as well as performing surgery and lameness examinations on horses from all over South Africa. Because I had experience in large animal surgery, I was called to the first rhino survivor in 2013, called Thandi, in the Eastern Cape. She was darted, and her horns were removed by poachers, which left quite a large wound. We treated her over a couple of months, and she healed beautifully, so much that she had four calves afterwards. So by saving her life, we eventually saved five total rhinos if you count the babies she had as well.
During 2010, we lost 426 rhinos, and in 2011, we lost 532 rhinos to poaching. There were also many injured rhinos, who either suffered from gunshot wounds, fractures or large facial wounds where the horns were hacked off. These numbers increased to over 1,000 in 2012 and remained at that number for five consecutive years. During this time, we also started researching different injuries rhinos faced and how to treat them successfully. STS is the only organization that has pioneered the treatment of rhino facial injuries and fractures. We also perform groundbreaking research on antibiotics and painkillers in white rhinos.
