INTERVIEW: This vet has ‘Gone Wild’ on Animal Planet

Photo: Vet Gone Wild is a new reality series on Animal Planet that follows the adventures of Dr. Chris Brown. Photo courtesy of Animal Planet / Provided with permission.

Dr. Chris Brown has his hands full on the new reality series Vet Gone Wild, which premieres Sunday, June 10 at 8 p.m. on Animal Plant. On the show, the Australian veterinarian, who comes from a long line of animal doctors, travels the world to help a wide variety of exotic species. There is no animal or bird that is too exotic for his caring hands.

Season one will find the good doctor helping rhinos, wombats, sloths, seals and dogs. Oh my! His travels take him to Fiji, South Africa, Vietnam and everywhere in between. For Australian TV viewers, the doctor should be a household name because of the success of his other show, Bondi Vet.

Recently, Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Brown on his new adventures and new series. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.

With a family history of veterinary work, was it always predestined that you would become a veterinarian?

Well, everyone seemed to think so, apart from me. I remember growing up everyone was always saying, ‘You’re going to be just like your dad; you’re going to be a vet.’ I used to see my dad leaving for emergency calls at 2 o’clock in the morning and 3 o’clock in the morning, and I think because everyone was expecting me to become a vet, I looked at every single other possible career instead.

I was doing work experience with my friend’s parents who were lawyers. Honestly, I tried every single career until I was about 17. I was actually quite set on becoming a pilot. I still have flying lessons, and that’s kind of a bit of a dream as well. But, when I got to 17 years old, I kind of just shook myself and just went, ‘What are you doing? It’s so obvious!’ It had been obvious to everyone what I was going to do, so I decide to become a vet.

I think I realized it when my family dog had a heart condition, and that was the moment that made me want to become a vet. He got quite sick, and I remember talking to my dad at length about how he worked, what was going on with him and what we could do to help him. That was really the moment.

What can audience members expect on the new series?

The unexpected is probably what they can expect. We generally arrive in these countries and reach out to a lot of different people and really just let them know that we’re around to help them if they need it, and then the calls and messages start coming in. We generally don’t know what animals we’re going to be treating when we first arrive. All we know is that we’re there to help, and so we treat the most extreme, most unexpected animals on the planet. I think that’s the joy of the series but also the challenge. Often, I can’t truly pack or prepare for what I’m going to be coming up against, and so you do the best you can. And it’s amazing what you can put together when you work together.

How do you find out about these sick and injured exotic animals?

It’s mostly through social media, I already have a lot of contacts around the world, and so I’ll just drop them a message and say, ‘I might be close by,’ or just keep in touch and see how things are going. And they will often message me, and that could be the reason we go to that country. If people need help for a specific reason, they often find out when I’m in town, and they’ll reach out themselves and say, ‘Hey, could you please come take a look at these monkeys or these elephants,’ or whatever it might be. So, it’s mostly through social media, and it serves as an example of social media being used for good!

Are all of these animals suffering from human-made problems, i.e. would you intervene with a truly wild animal?

Actually, I had someone else ask me that as well the other day. Viewers won’t see me driving across the African savanna trying to pluck an antelope out of a lion’s jaw. We certainly believe in wild things being wild, but if humans have played a part in why that animal is sick or struggling, to me it makes sense that humans play a part in righting that wrong. And that’s where I come in. An example would be the sloths in Costa Rica; that is the epitome of wild. The sloth was climbing through trees, thought something was a vine, but ended up being an electrical wire. That’s caused by humans, and the sloth wasn’t aware that it was an electrical wire. So it made sense that we went in and help that sloth.

What’s one of the toughest animals to care for?

I think there’s two kinds of tough animals. One is the ones that have an incredibly tough reputation like a lion or cheetah or leopard, simply because you know, they don’t know you’re trying to help them, and they have powerful jaws and claws. And you can get really badly injured just trying to make a difference to them. They’re always hard, but at the same time, it becomes a difficult challenge that you ultimately enjoy.

The other ones that are hard are the animals that are just unique and incredibly different from the animals that you usually work on, like [pangolins] or sloths. [Pangolins] are the only mammals in the world that have scales, so they’re incredibly difficult to work on. And then when it comes to sloths, their heart beats so slowly that trying to do an anesthetic on them is incredibly hard. So, yeah, there’s one[s] that are physically dangerous, but those who are unique can be tough to care for, too.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Vet Gone Wild premieres Sunday, June 10 at 8 p.m. on Animal Planet. Click here for more information.