Death in the Animal (Caretaker) Kingdom

Going Wild with Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant

WNET

Science, Pets & Animals, Nature, Kids & Family, Natural Sciences

4.9 • 636 Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2022

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

*Content warning: this conversation contains mentions of animal injuries, death, and the topic of suicide.* Veterinarians deal with death so frequently that they have some of the highest suicide rates of any occupation. Dr. Hollis Stewart has worked with many animals – from domesticated pets in New York City and Fez, Morocco, to wild animals in the Middle East and Africa. Because of that, she’s also worked with humans (other vets, clients, and civilians) from all over the world. In this episode, Hollis shares stories of how treating animals in different countries taught her about the concept of “Inshallah” or “God’s Will” and “Whatever will be will be,” which in turn, taught her valuable lessons about living and accepting death. Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, you can follow “Going Wild” on your favorite podcast listening app. While you’re there, please leave us a review - it really helps. You can also get updates and bonus content by following me, Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant, and PBS Nature on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook. And you can catch new episodes of Nature Wednesdays at 8/7c on PBS, pbs.org/nature and the PBS Video app. Follow Dr. Hollis Stewart on Instagram and Facebook. This episode of “Going Wild” was hosted by me, Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant. Production by Caroline Hadilaksono, Danielle Broza, Nathan Tobey, and Great Feeling Studios. Editing by Rachel Aronoff and Jakob Lewis. Sound design by Cariad Harmon. Danielle Broza is the Digital Lead and Fred Kaufman is the Executive Producer for Nature. Art for this podcast was created by Arianna Bollers and Karen Brazell. Special thanks to Amanda Schmidt, Blanche Robertson, Jayne Lisi, Chelsey Saatkamp, and Karen Ho. NATURE is an award-winning series created by The WNET Group and made possible by all of you. Funding for this podcast was provided by grants from the Anderson Family Fund, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and PBS. Views and opinions expressed during the podcast are those of the individuals expressing them and do not necessarily reflect those of THIRTEEN Productions LLC/The WNET Group.

Transcript

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0:00.0	There was this one time that I went to the field in Nevada to study bears and had set some bear traps.
0:08.0	The second day I was there, I got a phone call, and he was like, oh, we got a bear, and it's actually is some bad news.
0:20.0	And I drove over, and when I got there, realized it was a little bear cup that I wandered into the trap.
0:33.9	And I really mean little, because it was emaciated.
0:47.3	And it had this very, very swollen jaw because it had a horrible mouth infection. It looked like some of the cubs' teeth had been removed, like removed by a person.
1:01.0	Somehow this bear cub had been stolen from the wilderness when it was a newborn, taken by people,
1:10.0	and it looked like they had performed like an in-house operation
1:14.0	on its teeth. Like they tried to remove the fangs. Did a horrible job, botched the job,
1:20.1	and it seems like these people panicked and just abandoned it in the wilderness.
1:32.3	Yeah. abandoned it in the wilderness. And the wildlife veterinarian explained that this poor little cub was too far gone.
1:37.3	There was no way to reverse this infection.
1:39.3	It had gotten into its bloodstream already, and the best move was to euthanize this little bear cup.
1:50.0	Honestly, even though this was years ago, it almost brings me to tears because it was so sad.
1:57.0	And I held this little bear's paw, you know, as we gave it the medicine to put it to
2:03.6	sleep and to stop its little heart.
2:11.6	I realized in that moment that in so many ways I'm shielded from this part of animal death. I don't have to deal with
2:20.1	that very much. And when I do, it's so painful. And yet I know that there are people in the
2:27.9	conservation community who have to experience this and be a part of it day in and day out.
2:42.4	Thank you. have to experience this and be a part of it day in and day out. I'm Dr. Ray Wynne Grant, and this is a different kind of nature show, a podcast all about the
2:48.8	human drama of saving animals.
2:53.9	This season, I want to share my story.
3:00.2	But I also want to introduce you to the other amazing wildlife scientists out there.
	...

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