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Interviews-English
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The Grandfather of Zoo Medicine
He's
known as the "grandfather of zoo medicine" in the United States
since he was the first to use immobilization of zoo animals by drugs rather
than constraints.
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Charles and Shirley
Sedgwick
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When
writing this column and interviewing the person, I often find that their
husband or wife is really a significant part of their life and achievements.
That was very true about Charles and Shirley Sedgwick. When Shirley left
the living room to get us a cup of coffee, Charles said about Shirley,
"Shirley was an incredible teacher. She taught in Worcester County
Jail House of Correction in Massachusetts and the prisoners respected
her and wanted to be taught by her." "She also taught school
and paid my way through Veterinary School." As Charles goes upstairs
to bring back a book, Shirley stated, "I know Charles would never
tell you this about himself; he's known as the 'grandfather of zoo medicine'
in the United States since he was the first to use immobilization of zoo
animals by drugs rather than constraints."
Charles and Shirley
have been married for fifty years and from what I could glean from our
conversation, all of the years were happy, challenging and interesting.
I asked them what advice they would hand out to the younger generation
today. Shirley quickly said, "Marriage is not a 50/50 partnership.
Sometimes it's 90/10, 70/30, but maybe after 50 years it could average
out to be 50/50." "Each partner needs to be able to give more
than his/her share and at the same time be ready to receive more than
his/her share."
Charles and Shirley
were high school sweethearts. They went to Fremont High School in Sunnyvale.
Charles, born and raised in Cupertino, reminisces about how it looked
when he was growing up. His dad was the 8th grade school teacher in 1922
as well as being the principal, school bus driver, fire stoker and deputy
sheriff. "My sister had asthma as a little girl, so my dad would
take us both up with him to the High Sierras and set up a big camp usually
in Lake Tahoe or sometimes Yosemite. Since he was a teacher, he'd bring
along key cards of animals, trees and plants for us to identify. Charles
went on "I was also the lone boy scout in my town and my dad was
the scout leader, so I learned a lot about the wild when my dad would
take me and drop me off to test my scout skills in the Santa Cruz mountains.
The outdoors became an important part of my life. I saw bears, rodents,
deer and all kinds of wild life." Charles remembers, "my dad
was big on history. He was born on a homestead in Santa Maria. His family
moved from Santa Maria to San Jose by wagon with their livestock and cattle
traversing up San Juan Grade." "I have posed pictures with my
dad and grandfather in their black suits standing in front of their wagons,
which strikes me funny," said Charles, "since that's not what
they wore when they were traveling." "On this trip to San Jose,
my Grandmother moved the family by herself. Grandfather was a steam engineer,
always freighting stuff from Stockton to the gold mines. Then one day
he went on his way." "I wish now I had asked more about my grandfather
and why he left," admitted Charles. "Now that I'm an adult,
I realize there were two sides to their story."
After graduating from
Fremont High School, both Charles and Shirley went to San Jose State College.
They were married between their 2nd and 3rd year while attending college.
Charles thought at first he would train to be a Forest Ranger, but after
taking the Strong Stanford Interest Test, it showed his leaning towards
physician and farmer. His conclusion - be a veterinarian. Charles graduated
from Washington State University, Pullman with his DVM in 1957. At that
time in the 1950's there were only 6 zoological vets in the United States
and most were Zoo Directors and not really working as vets anymore. It
was difficult to work on the large animals since the only way to constrain
them was by tying them up. Drugs weren't available until 1964. He went
into private practice treating companion animals, farm and track animals.
But as his reputation grew, other vets would begin to send him "exotic
pets" they felt he could better treat. In 1964, he went to the Los
Angeles Zoo. At that time two experimental drugs came out that could be
used to restrain zoo animals. Charles headed up a study on these drugs
by moving animals from the old Los Angeles Zoo to the new facility. Los
Angles Zoo became a testing place for these experimental drugs and Charles
found his specialty - anesthesiology.
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One of Charles' "exotic" pets
that needed his expertise. A
boat propeller dug a large hole
into this Sea Turtle. To mend
the shell, he used fiberglass and
with time the Sea Turtle was as
good as new.
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Charles and staff
working on a
White Rhino
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Charles was the Project
Veterinarian for the NASA space program for primates (Monkeys in Space
Program) in 1969. Test monkeys were used in a ground control group, as
well as, in space flight prior to sending a man into space. The monkeys
were getting simultaneously and seriously ill. Charles and his team were
able to bring them through a complicated recovery. When Apollo 11 went
into space, a leak in the capsule was reported, so NASA compensated by
pumping more air into the cabin. Unlike the monkeys, the astronauts only
suffered a little space sickness. It was later discovered that the air
tight capsules that the test monkeys were exposed to was the cause of
the sickness. A glue used to mount the insulation in the capsule combined
with the increasing CO2 in the air and the heat, created a poisonous gas.
Because the Apollo 11 capsule was leaking and more air was pumped into
the cabin, the poisonous gas was both diluted and allowed to escape.
Charles and Shirley
moved quite a bit during their life together and "not necessarily
each job provided an increase in salary," stated Charles and that's
another reason to appreciate Shirley so much.""She had been
brought up as a Navy child, so moving wasn't foreign to her and she accepted
it willingly." It couldn't have been easy for them either since they
had already begun starting their family. Charles and Shirley have three
sons, Mike living in Carmel Valley, David in Pittsburgh, PA and Paul in
Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. "Each move, whether easy or difficult,
" according to Charles, "guided us along the path where we were
supposed to be."
In 1971, Charles had
the opportunity to lead a tour to Africa for people to learn about animals.
Shirley was able to go along and according to Charles, "If the people
sponsoring this trip could not work out the finances to afford Shirley
to come along, I refused to go." In 1972, Charles was asked to accompany
a rescue group to Alaska to rescue a "Blue Bear" cub."The
Blue Bear is a color phase of the American Black Bear. The two common
phases, black and brown, occur throughout most of the wooded parts of
temperate North America. Two rare color phases are found in extremely
limited areas - the blue phase has a range that is only a pin prick on
a world map, that is the Yakutat and Glacier Bay area and the other rare
phase the white phase, is found in a bit larger area primarily the islands
of Princess Royal and Gribbell Islands off the Pacific Coast of British
Columbia.." (taken from "Blue Bear Glacier Bear by Clyde A.
Hill, ZooNooz, San Diego Zoo, January 1973.) The Blue Bear they were trying
to capture was about 200 pounds and was knocking over garbage cans and
breaking into the galley to get food at the United States Coast Guard
Loran Station at Ocean Cape, Yakutat. They were concerned that someone
would try to shoot the bear and and didn't want to make a trophy out of
this rare bear. The local Indians regarded the Blue Bear or any bear as
sacred, so everyone wanted this bear saved. Charles thought it would be
easy to put it under, but the bear was very clever and he kept avoiding
the anesthetic dart. Finally when the team was ready to go back to San
Diego, they did one more stake out when they were informed the Bear had
been seen again. Charles was hidden in the tool shed hoping to get a clear
shot with his anesthetic dart, which after a close call of the Bear rushing
towards him and then taking a turn slowly slid down the tree. The descent
was so gradual that the bear received not the sightest bump when it reached
the base of the tree. Because it was so dark, no one was quite sure if
they really got the Blue Bear or maybe some other grizzley. But when they
approached, Charles turned on his flashlight, "By golly we've got
the Blue Bear." The team was able to bring him back to safety to
San Diego Zoo. The Blue Bear grew up to be about 600 lbs at San Diego.
(Most of these details came from the same story from ZooNooz by Clyde
Hill, who initiated this trip to save the Blue Bear from a phone call
by Jim Jensen of Yatutat, Alaska.)
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The beautiful
"Blue Bear" has
silver coat that
distinguishes it
from his brown
and black bear
brothers
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Charles hiding in shed
ready with anesthetic
dart rifle |
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Charles administering
just the right amount
of anesthesia for size
of bear
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When you talk to Shirley
and Charles, it seems like they've always been here, but really only moved
to Aromas a year ago. According to Charles, Aromas reminds him so much
of Cupertino when he was growing up and he feels right at home. Shirley
has joined the Aromas Hills Artisans and makes beautiful was important
to be part of the local community and contribute their skills and talents
where they might be needed. They have a lovely house with books on animals,
veterinary science throughout the living room and an upstairs study. Photographs
of special animals to Charles graces his study walls. Old anesthesiology
equipment line up on top of a cabinet showing the history of his specialty.
One of Charles projects
was Bullet, a non releasable Bald Eagle with one wing shot off. His Technician
Diane trained him to get onto her fist. Diane and her husband set up a
program at that time for bald Eagles since they were endangered. Eagles
didn't nest in Massachusetts and having this Bald Eagle became a real
draw to teach different groups about the Bald Eagle. This presentation
was in demand. Shirley got permission to bring in this educational program
into the jail, in which she was teaching at that time. Diane and her husband
boxed up the Eagle, along with Shirley was admitted to go through the
inmate's yard to get to the Cafeteria, when all of a sudden, the inmates's
entrance opened and out came 300 prisoners. According to Shirley it felt
like a large orange ameba floating towards them. Diane and her husband
were trying to get the attention of the guards to make sure they knew
they were there, when Shirley said quietly to a finely chiseled body builder
towering over her, " Miguel, you don't get to come to this presentation
because you've been ditching class." His face dropped and that broke
the tension --the whole yard of prisoners burst out laughing. It only
took a tiny, very respected Teacher to diffuse what may have been a very
uncomfortable situation. The presentation went on without a hitch and
Shirley let Miguel attend anyway.
Bullet, although not releasable because of his damaged wing was able to
mate and reproduce in captivity and helped to establish a program that
installed eagle nests in Maine, Massachusetts, New York State and in New
England.
While I was chatting
to Charles and Shirley, Shirley mentioned that she studied hula since
she was ten. "Oh, and by the way," said Shirley, "did I
tell you I was at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed in 1941?" Oh my,
that's another story! END
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