Sunday, September 19, 2010

"OK, now open real wide . . ."


They're lucky tigers, even though they may not agree. Then again, their toothaches have probably gone away and they're feeling much better overall.

For many of the tigers who live at PAWS ARK 2000 sanctuary in San Andreas, CA, the last weekend of August was a marathon dental weekend. (Most of us quail at an hour-long dentist date. Imagine being a tiger -- drugged, trucked to the surgery site, operated on, returned 'home' and then waking up with a feeling that something strange just happened.)

By the end of the weekend, 19 root canals and one oral surgery had been performed on five tigers by a group of doctors ("Vererinary Dentists Without Borders") who provide their services free to "disadvantaged animals" in non profits like PAWS.

Both a video and a slide show of the tigers being treated are on the PAWS newsletter site (newsletter@pawsweb.org. For (amazing!) background information, the site of the Peter Emily International Veterinary Dental Foundation (PeterEmilyFoundation.org), which supplied the doctors and technicians who pitched in at PAWS, may also be of interest.

Humans helping non-human animals who, in all these cases, had already been rescued from horrible lives: way to go -- and thanks!
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1 comment:

Fiona said...

I'm all for humans helping nonhumans. I have been feeding a pregnant feral cat through the summer. I am concerned about her as it appears by her belly that she has had her kittens. I'm wondering if I might get some financial help in TNR for her in my state?