David Taylor (veterinarian)
Encyclopedia
David Taylor, BVMS, FRCVS, FZS, born in Rochdale
, Lancashire
in 1934, is a veterinary surgeon
. He qualified at the University of Glasgow School of Veterinary Medicine in 1956 and was the first veterinary surgeon to specialise in Zoo and Wildlife medicine.
Taylor has worked with zoo and wild animals since 1957, consulting on some of the rarest species on earth. He is world renowned as an expert in marine mammal medicine and from 1968 was the vet in charge of the first Killer Whale to be kept in the UK - "Cuddles" the Killer Whale at Flamingo Park, North Yorkshire.
Taylor attended the inaugural meeting of the Federation of British Zoos in 1967 which was held at the Zoological Society of London.
He was awarded the first RCVS Fellowship for a wild animal topic (diseases of primates) in 1968, and is recognised as an RCVS specialist in zoo and wildlife medicine.
He is recognised for his significant contribution to the field of zoological medicine today. He introduced the first dart gun into the UK and was the first vet in the country to trial and adopt the newer immobilising drugs for large animals. He was known for inventive and unusual treatments, on one occasion successfully treating a haemorrhaging killer whale by feeding it black puddings.
Taylor has worked for zoos across the world. These include: Chester Zoo
, London Zoo
, Chessington Zoo, the now closed Belle Vue Zoological Gardens in Manchester
, Flamingo Park Zoo in North Yorkshire, Windsor Safari Park
, Parc Asterix
near Paris, Marine Land, South of France and Madrid Zoo. He has also worked for some of the most famous circuses in the world.
In 1976 he founded the International Zoo Veterinary Group (IZVG) with his partner Andrew Greenwood and the Dinnes Memorial Veterinary Centre
in Santa Clarita, California
. Today, the IZVG is one of the largest and best-known independent zoological veterinary practices in the world.
In March 2008, Taylor retired from the International Zoo Veterinary Practice though he still acts as a consultant and continues to be a prolific writer.
. The BBC made three series and 32 episodes of One By One, broadcast between 1984 and 1987. It was set in the 1950s, with Dudley Zoo
doubling as the Great Northern Zoo, and followed the career of Don Turner, based on Taylor himself, as he established himself as wildlife vet. Don Turner was played by Rob Heyland
and James Ellis
played head keeper Paddy Reilly. Other actors who appeared in the series included Peter Jeffrey
, Peter Gilmore
and Catherine Schell
.
. He brought all sorts of exotic animals to the show and would usually be interviewed in these segments by Andrea Arnold
. Arnold's character, "Dawn", supposedly worked at Taylor's veterinary surgery for a while. Taylor held several competitions on No. 73, including one in 1987 in which the winner went on a trip to a Madrid Zoo accompanied by himself and "Dawn". In 1984–1985 Taylor and Arnold presented their own programme on Children's ITV
, Talking Animal, in which each episode focused on one animal.
Rochdale
Rochdale is a large market town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the foothills of the Pennines on the River Roch, north-northwest of Oldham, and north-northeast of the city of Manchester. Rochdale is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
in 1934, is a veterinary surgeon
Veterinarian
A veterinary physician, colloquially called a vet, shortened from veterinarian or veterinary surgeon , is a professional who treats disease, disorder and injury in animals....
. He qualified at the University of Glasgow School of Veterinary Medicine in 1956 and was the first veterinary surgeon to specialise in Zoo and Wildlife medicine.
Taylor has worked with zoo and wild animals since 1957, consulting on some of the rarest species on earth. He is world renowned as an expert in marine mammal medicine and from 1968 was the vet in charge of the first Killer Whale to be kept in the UK - "Cuddles" the Killer Whale at Flamingo Park, North Yorkshire.
Taylor attended the inaugural meeting of the Federation of British Zoos in 1967 which was held at the Zoological Society of London.
He was awarded the first RCVS Fellowship for a wild animal topic (diseases of primates) in 1968, and is recognised as an RCVS specialist in zoo and wildlife medicine.
He is recognised for his significant contribution to the field of zoological medicine today. He introduced the first dart gun into the UK and was the first vet in the country to trial and adopt the newer immobilising drugs for large animals. He was known for inventive and unusual treatments, on one occasion successfully treating a haemorrhaging killer whale by feeding it black puddings.
Taylor has worked for zoos across the world. These include: Chester Zoo
Chester Zoo
Chester Zoo is a zoological garden at Upton-by-Chester, in Cheshire, England. It was opened in 1931 by George Mottershead and his family, who used as a basis some animals reported to have come from an earlier zoo in Shavington. It is one of the UK's largest zoos at...
, London Zoo
London Zoo
London Zoo is the world's oldest scientific zoo. It was opened in London on 27 April 1828, and was originally intended to be used as a collection for scientific study. It was eventually opened to the public in 1847...
, Chessington Zoo, the now closed Belle Vue Zoological Gardens in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, Flamingo Park Zoo in North Yorkshire, Windsor Safari Park
Windsor Safari Park
Windsor Safari Park was a popular family attraction built on St. Leonards Hill on the outskirts of the English town of Windsor in Berkshire; it has since been converted into the site of Legoland Windsor...
, Parc Asterix
Parc Astérix
Parc Astérix is a theme amusement park in France, based on the stories of Asterix . Situated approximately north of Paris and from Disneyland Resort Paris, in Plailly in the département of Oise, it opened in 1989...
near Paris, Marine Land, South of France and Madrid Zoo. He has also worked for some of the most famous circuses in the world.
In 1976 he founded the International Zoo Veterinary Group (IZVG) with his partner Andrew Greenwood and the Dinnes Memorial Veterinary Centre
Martin R. Dinnes
Martin R. Dinnes is a renowned veterinarian from Agua Dulce, California recognized for his accomplishments in the profession of veterinary medicine....
in Santa Clarita, California
Santa Clarita, California
Santa Clarita is the fourth largest city in Los Angeles County, California, United States and the twenty-fourth largest city in the state of California. The 2010 US Census reported the city's population grew 16.7% from the year 2000 to 176,320 residents. It is located about northwest of downtown...
. Today, the IZVG is one of the largest and best-known independent zoological veterinary practices in the world.
In March 2008, Taylor retired from the International Zoo Veterinary Practice though he still acts as a consultant and continues to be a prolific writer.
One by One
In the mid-1970s and early 1980s, Taylor wrote a highly popular series of autobiographical books that charted his life and experiences as a "Zoo Vet". These books were adapted for Television in a drama series, One by OneOne By One (TV series)
One By One is a British television series made by the BBC between 1984 and 1987.The series, created by Anthony Read, followed the career of international veterinarian David Taylor and his work caring for exotic animals at zoos in Britain, from the 1950s to the 1970s...
. The BBC made three series and 32 episodes of One By One, broadcast between 1984 and 1987. It was set in the 1950s, with Dudley Zoo
Dudley Zoo
Dudley Zoological Gardens is a zoo located within the grounds of Dudley Castle in the town of Dudley, in the Black Country region of the West Midlands, England...
doubling as the Great Northern Zoo, and followed the career of Don Turner, based on Taylor himself, as he established himself as wildlife vet. Don Turner was played by Rob Heyland
Rob Heyland
Rob Heyland is a British actor turned television writer.His first TV role was as a police constable in a 1982 episode of The Professionals entitled Cry Wolf....
and James Ellis
James Ellis (actor)
James Ellis is an actor from Northern Ireland with a television career of more than 45 years. He went to school at Methodist College Belfast and later studied at both Queen's University Belfast and the Bristol Old Vic....
played head keeper Paddy Reilly. Other actors who appeared in the series included Peter Jeffrey
Peter Jeffrey
Peter Jeffrey was a British actor with many roles in television and film.Jeffrey was born in Bristol, the son of Florence Alice and Arthur Winfred Gilbert Jeffrey. He was educated at Harrow School and Pembroke College, Cambridge but had no formal training as an actor...
, Peter Gilmore
Peter Gilmore
Peter Gilmore is a British actor, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Captain James Onedin in the BBC Television period drama The Onedin Line. He also had roles in eleven Carry On films, and played the heroic lead in the adventure film Warlords of Atlantis...
and Catherine Schell
Catherine Schell
Katherina Freiin Schell von Bauschlott is an Hungarian-born actress best known for her work on British televison.Schell rose to fame in various British film and television productions in the 1960s and 1970s...
.
No. 73
Between 1983 and 1988, Taylor made regular appearances on the Saturday morning children's show No. 73No. 73
No 73, later re-titled 7T3, was a British 1980s children's TV show produced by Television South for the ITV network. It was broadcast live on Saturday mornings and ran from 1982 to 1988...
. He brought all sorts of exotic animals to the show and would usually be interviewed in these segments by Andrea Arnold
Andrea Arnold
Andrea Arnold OBE is a filmmaker and former actress from England, who made her feature film directorial debut in 2006 with Red Road.-Early TV work:...
. Arnold's character, "Dawn", supposedly worked at Taylor's veterinary surgery for a while. Taylor held several competitions on No. 73, including one in 1987 in which the winner went on a trip to a Madrid Zoo accompanied by himself and "Dawn". In 1984–1985 Taylor and Arnold presented their own programme on Children's ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
, Talking Animal, in which each episode focused on one animal.
Autobiographical Books
- Zoo Vet: World of a Wildlife Vet (1976) ISBN-10: 0049250124, ISBN-13: 978-0049250123
- Zoo Vet: Adventures of a Wild Animal Doctor (1977) ISBN-10: 0397012071, ISBN-13: 978-0397012077
- Is There a Doctor in the Zoo? (1978) ISBN-10: 0397012845, ISBN-13: 978-0397012848
- Going Wild: More Adventures of a Zoo Vet (1980) ISBN-10: 0049250191, ISBN-13: 978-0049250192
- Next panda, please!: Further adventures of a wildlife vet (1982) ISBN-10: 0049250213, ISBN-13: 978-0049250215
- Wandering Whale and Other Adventures from a Zoo Vet's Casebook (1984) ISBN-10: 004925023X, ISBN-13: 978-0049250239
- My animal kingdom, one by one (1984) ISBN-10: 0812829638, ISBN-13: 978-0812829631
- Doctor in the Zoo: Making of a Zoo Vet (1985) ISBN-10: 0745101453, ISBN-13: 978-0745101453
- Dragon Doctor: Further Adventures from a Zoo Vet's Cases (1986) ISBN-10: 0049250329, ISBN-13: 978-0049250321
- Vet on the Wild Side: Further Adventures of a Wildlife Vet (1991) ISBN-10: 0312055293, ISBN-13: 978-0312055295
- The Patient Elephant: more exotic cases from the world's top wildlife vet (1993) ISBN-10: 0860518353, ISBN-13: 978-0860518358
- Vet on the Wild Side (1998) ISBN-10: 0860516601, ISBN-13: 978-0860516606
Other Books
- The Secret Life of Dogs (2007) ISBN-10: 0007244762, ISBN-13: 978-0007244768
- The Secret Life of Cats (2007) ISBN-10: 0007244754, ISBN-13: 978-0007244751
- The Secret Life of Kittens (2008) ISBN-10: 0007263600, ISBN-13: 978-0007263608
- Collins Family Pet Guide - Rabbit (1999) ISBN-10: 0004133773, ISBN-13: 978-0004133775
- Collins Small Pet Handbook: Looking after rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, gerbils mice and rats (2002) ISBN-10: 0007134487, ISBN-13: 978-0007134489
- Rabbit Handbook: A Family Guide to Buying (1999) ISBN-10: 0806978074, ISBN-13: 978-0806978079
- Kitten Taming: The Fast Route to a Controllable Cat (2009) ISBN-10: 0600618315, ISBN-13: 978-0600618317
- Dogs (DK Pockets) (2003) ISBN-10: 0789495910, ISBN-13: 978-0789495914
- The Ultimate Dog Book (1990) ISBN-10: 086318443X, ISBN-13: 978-0863184437
- You and Your Cat (1997) ISBN-10: 0751302724, ISBN-13: 978-0751302721
- Your Dog's IQ: How Clever Is Your Canine? (2009) ISBN-10: 1592239870, ISBN-13: 978-1592239870
- The Little Tabby Cat Book (1990) ISBN-10: 0863184545, ISBN-13: 978-0863184543
- My Dog is a Genius: Understand and Improve Your Dog's Intelligence (2008) ISBN-10: 060061655X, ISBN-13: 978-0600616559
- Collins Pony Handbook (2002) ISBN-10: 0007120923, ISBN-13: 978-0007120925
- Old Dog, New Tricks: Understanding and Retraining Older and Rescued Dogs (2006)ISBN-10: 1554071976, ISBN-13: 978-1554071975