Dit is één van die boeken die je wílt lezen, maar eigenlijk niet wilt lezen. Velen zullen gehoord hebben van de “dierenbeul van Twente”, de psychopaat die niet alleen dieren mishandelde en vermoordde maar ook een zwerver doodde en drie aanslagen op mensen heeft gepleegd. Sander Wageman heeft het verhaal van Henk ten Napel en de dierenbeul van Twente herschreven. Ondanks het zware onderwerp heb ik dit boek in een dag uitgelezen. Door de geëngageerde en persoonlijke manier van schrijven over Henk ten Napel, inclusief zijn correspondentie met de dierenbeul, wordt je meegenomen in de speurtocht en de missie voor rechtvaardigheid.

Op 12 juli 2001 hoort Henk ten Napel over de verschrikkelijke toetakeling van zijn merrie Twenga: ze is met een scherp voorwerp in haar schede gestoken. Gelukkig overleeft Twenga de afschuwelijke daad maar Henk laat het hier niet bij zitten. Dierenmishandelingen zijn niet vreemd in Nederland, maar doorgaans zeer moeilijk op...

I watched an episode of Royal Pains, an easy-going and fun series about a concierge doctor’s practice called HankMed in the Hamptons. When answering the phone they say: “How can we make you feel better today?”.

In the past when I was working full-time in a zoo or aquarium I did not always pay attention to all the details, because I was so swamped with work and full filing the needs of our visiting public, safety etc. or because I did not know otherwise. For example, I did not always notice that the bedding material was less in quantity or not of good quality and the nest building of our small rodents was OK but not ideal.

With the marine mammals like dolphins, seals, sea lions and walruses we used some enrichment devices but most objects would only float and were hard to take to the bottom or to interact within the water column. By paying more attention to details, to the quality of e.g., interactions, relationships or sleep, as well as the number of opportunities,...

We are all thinking about animal care, including how we interact with them and ways we can impact their wellbeing ranging from negatively to positively, i.e., the quality of care. To think about how we do what we do is impacting them, or likely, or possibly impacting them. 

One of the questions, or rather perhaps, exercises, I like to think about and engage in is: what it would be like to be in their position? Where they live, with whom, what opportunities and affordances they have, etc. This is a difficult thing to do and not without interpretational hurdles and problems, I know, I already hear the word anthropomorphism ringing in my ears.

I bet anyone working with animals would love to be able to be that animal or species or individual for 1 day (or longer)! To experience e.g., what the world is like for them, how do they experience varies things in their lives, how and what they think about, how do they feel and experience their world emotionally? Can we just be Dr...