Storyteller Jerry Haigh shares his adventures as a wildlife veterinarian with the University of Saskatchewan and coming from a clinic at the base of spectacular Mount Kenya in Africa to the flat lands of the Canadian prairies in Saskatchewan. He worked with wild animals such as moose, polar bears and even a toothless old lion: • George the resident lion of the Forestry Farm Zoo, suddenly off his feed because a tooth infection, needed a couple of stainless steel crowns, accomplished by Jerry and his team of four dentists! • His study of the best cocktail of drugs for immobilizing various species brought Jerry in contact with researchers of black, grizzly and polar bears, bison, moose and many others • “Where Men Walk with Moose,” an episode of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, followed Jerry along with Bob Stewart’s team of moose researchers from the Department of Natural Resources • When the director of the Calgary Zoo needed dentistry for Foggy the Hippo, he turned to Jerry with his skill at immobilizing a wide variety of species and his ingenuity with a Gigli saw • Jerry and his family were called upon to bottle raise and find other ingenious ways to save a black bear cub orphaned by an earthmover • At the invitation of Ray Schweinsburg, polar bear biologist for the Northwest Territories, Haigh spent time at Pond Inlet (now Qikiqtaaluk) on the eastern shore of Baffin Island using his specialized techniques for animal immobilization and collecting samples for research on this iconic Canadian wild animal. And many more heart-warming and exciting stories from a time when being a wildlife veterinarian was a rare occupation!

Dr. Jerry Haigh was born in Kenya and educated in Glasgow as a veterinarian. Upon graduation in Scotland, he moved back to Africa, where he lived and worked for over ten years. During his time in Africa he met his wife, Dr. Joanne van de Riet, with whom he has two children, Karen and Charles. In 1975 Jerry and his family moved from Kenya to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where he took up a post as a wildlife veterinarian at the University of Saskatchewan’s Western College of Veterinary Medicine. Jerry’s career-long experience with wildlife has spanned over five decades and four continents. He has worked on species ranging from elephants, to wild dogs and polar bears, to moose. He is the author of Of Moose and Men: A Wildlife Vet’s Pursuit of the World’s Largest Deer, The Trouble with Lions: A Glasgow Vet in Africa, Porcupines to Polar Bears: Adventures of a Wildlife Veterinarian, and Wrestling With Rhinos: The Adventures of a Glasgow Vet in Kenya. He and Joanne, together for over 50 years now, live near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

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