David Taylor (1934-2013)
Dr Taylor (BVMS, FRCVS, FZS) was born in Rochdale, Lancashire on the 11th February 1934 as David Conrad Taylor.
Encouraged by his Grandmother to follow his dreams of becoming a vet he practised on local animals (newts, frogs, hedgehogs etc) and finally graduated from the University of Glasgow's Veterinary Department in 1957. Upon leaving university Dr Taylor gained employment in a veterinary surgery close to his childhood home in Rochdale solely because it had as one of its major clients, the venerable Belle Vue Zoo in Machester (which closed in September 1977). Despite being in the practice it took over two years before an opportunity presented itself to allow him to be THE vet called to the zoo. In reality he was called as an insurance policy in case the animal (a female chimp who had had her thumb bitten off by a male) died. Depressed by this sequence of events he persuaded the senior partner to allow him to be the on call vet for the zoo. Despite a turbulent start where he had to win over the formidable Head Keeper Matt Kelly and the other staff at the zoo he was soon making changes to the animals in his care via food changes, policy changes etc. Within a short while he had decided to practice solely on exotic animals and took the plunge into opening his own practice making him the first vet in the world to specialise and only deal in exotic species. In 1967 Dr Taylor attended the inaugural meeting of the Federation of British Zoos (now know as BIAZA - the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquaria) held at the Zoological Society of London (London Zoo). At this time Dr Taylor began a long association with cetaceans (whales and dolphins) and was involved with the importation of dolphins and orcas (killer whales). Indeed he was the vet in charge of looking after the first killer whale in the UK - Cuddles at Flamingo Park, Yorkshire. In 1968 he was awarded the first ever Royal College of Veterinary Services Fellowship (FRCVS) for a wild animal topic (being diseases of primates) and was recognised as an RCVS specialist in zoo and wildlife medicine. He was the first ever user of a veterinary dart gun in the UK and was a pioneer in using new and experimental drugs in large and wild animlas (including the powerful anaesthetic Immobilon). He was also not averse to using unusual or experimental techniques including using a large endoscope on a dolphin who had swallowed a plastic ring, an industrial x-ray machine on an elephants leg and raw black puddings to save the life of Cuddles the killer whale who was haemmorraging to dealth from multiple ulcers. In his time as a vet he worked for some of the best known zoos in the world including: Chester Zoo, London Zoo, Chessington Zoo, Belle Vue Zoo, Flamingo Park (whwere he was also curator for a while), Parc Asterix near Paris, Marine Land Antibbes, and Madrid Zoo as well as some of the most famous circuses in the world including Bobby Smart's and Chipperfields. In 1976 he founded the International Zoo Veterinary Group (IZVG) alongside his partner Andrew Greenwood and Martin Dinnes of the Dinnes Memorial Veterinary Centre in Santa Clara, California. IZVG today is one of the largest and most well known independant zoo practices in the world. In 2008 Dr Taylor retired from active veterinary work with IZVG burt continued to work as a consultant and author until his death. RIP Dr Taylor. Dr Taylor was married twice and had two daughters from his first marriage. |
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