STEF Trustee, Roger Clark, with the team in front of the elephant barn at the STEF Veterinary Centre
Roger Clark, STEF’s UK based Honorary Treasurer and one of our founding Trustees, was able to see for himself the completed STEF Veterinary Centre at Klok Kloi last week while on holiday in Thailand. It was the first time Roger had been back to the hospital since the beginning of 2020, when the construction of the elephant barn had only just begun (see the news story of Roger’s previous visit).
This time, of course, the hospital was complete, and even had a patient being treated in the elephant barn. Roger was able to meet both of the vets, Dr Aon and Dr Mink, as well as the STEFT coordinator, Fang, and three students from Korea who were on the veterinary volunteer programme.
“I saw the completed buildings for the first time” said Roger, “And I watched an in-patient receiving a saline drip and being given an enema. This elephant had no tip to her trunk, so she has to roll bananas to her foot and then, using her foot, she edges the banana onto the curve of her trunk so that she can put the banana into her mouth.”
Roger also went out with Dr Aon in the mobile clinic to visit an elephant that had a deep cut in one of its feet. Photos from his visit can be seen below.
[Click on photos to enlarge and read captions]
