Click to hear The Unkindest Cut Of All (4mins 00secs)
Some twenty years ago there was a very popular TV show about vets, called All Creatures Great and Small. It had all the right components for a succesful series – a good story line, beautiful landscapes, cuddly animals and lots of strong characters.
The life of a country vet is busy and challenging; not for him/her a doctor’s comfortable consultation room in a centrally-heated practice. A vet must work among the mud and muck of a farm and yet be as medically successful as a doctor, but in considerably less clinical conditions.
I spent a day with vet Adrian Allen as he went on his rounds on the Herefordshire and Worcestershire borders, which he described as ‘typical’. ‘Typical’ turned out to be getting showered from top to toe by an ungrateful cow, whose foot he was trying to save and introducing me to probably the least photogenic aspect of a vet’s work – the kind never hinted at on “All Creatures Great and Small
*crosses legs*
That’s what the Germans call “Mitfuhlung” Tell all your friends about this new sensation
Mike
I liked the contrast between the vet’s gentle voice describing ‘the emasculator’ (call a spade a bloody shovel!) and the graphic crunch as it did its job.