Aimee, Edana, and I hosted two van-loads of first year "Captive" students to our farm in Jackson, ME to learn some sheep care skills. As per the regular protocol for this event, which has been happening for almost a decade now, we added some animal scientist boot-camp and general attitude adjustment material.
You may think you're there to learn how to care for fuzzy sheep, which are admittedly cute. But when the sheep whose hooves you need to trim and whose eyeballs you need to check for signs of parasites turns out to weigh twice what you do, has an attitude of his own, and decidedly negative opinions about you and what you plan to do, a little internal adjustment may just possibly be required.
This may indeed be the moment when you discover whether or not you are really cut out for a career in Captive Wildlife Care and Education.
It is also perhaps the moment when you realize that, in order to properly understand what you are doing, it is necessary to actually use some of that oh-so-boring high school and early college biological science.
Let's face it, if you don't actually care what Haemonchus contortus is, or what causes anemia, or if you can't be bothered to study the physiology of nematodes, life indeed might be a little easier on you and possibly more pleasant. Classes, books, slideshows, the teacher droning on... blah, blah, blah...
But, if that is the case, if that is the person you are, and there's nothing you care to change about that, do you have any business looking after animals?
File all this under "How to change someone's mind."
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