Students Travel to Thailand to Work with Elephants, Pets
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A Cal Poly Pomona animal health science students gets down to scrub an elephant's foot.
Thirteen animal health science students from the Huntley College of Agriculture went on
Led by Assistant Professor Joanne Sohn, the group joined a program sponsored by Loop Abroad, an agency that provides students opportunities to study ecology and animal conservation. The program was tailored to the students’ skill level, so they were able to do more procedures than most groups.
The students spent one week working at the Elephant Nature Park, which is considered one of the only ethical elephant sanctuaries in northern Thailand. They spent another week at the Animal Rescue Kingdom Dog Shelter in Chiang Mai.
At the elephant park, students participated in treating elephants for conditions such as landmine injuries and abscesses. They were actually able to work directly on the animals and did such procedures as wound treatment, abscess flushing, and foot bandaging. They also followed elephants around to monitor their diet, elimination schedule, and behavior. In addition, students assisted in treating more than 100 cats and numerous dogs in the adjacent shelter.
The group then went to work at the dog shelter, where they practiced their veterinary technician skills by helping to spay and neuter 24 animals, held a village vaccine clinic and treated numerous animals at the shelter.
In the evenings, students were able to learn about Thai culture by visiting a local monastery for meditation, going to revered Buddhist temples, shopping at local night markets and taking a tuk-tuk ride around the old city. On the last