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Gentlemen
Beast Master
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Fashion Stylesheet Grooming Fitness Crib The Choice The Gab Gentlemen The Gal |
AS A boy, Nielsen Donato would buy out the chicks and ducklings on sale outside church to save them from certain death. He would cart off the salvaged critters to the family's Malate home and ask his father, a surgeon, to save them. There would even be tantrums when it was time to kill a chicken for dinner, and once he smuggled a puppy into the house which his folks didn't notice until it was almost a year old. Clearly, Donato had a natural affinity for animals. "They're my passion," he says simply. Nowadays, the passion is expressed in ways that range from the routine to the remarkable. After studying Veterinary Medicine at the Gregorio Araneta University and working for a couple of years at the state-of-the-art Mount Pleasant Animal Hospital in Singapore, he came back home, and with four partners, all hotshot young vets, established Vets In Practice, which, animal lovers will swear, is the best clinic in town for every beloved pet, from Pomeranians to pythons. A visit to their Makati office would mean an encounter with dogs, cats, birds, snakes, lizards, rabbits, and even the occasional turtle crawling around underfoot. Thus, when he isn't gently cleaning the ears of a mini schnauzer, Donato could be delivering a lioness' cubs by Caesarean section, or helping make prosthetic beaks for injured exotic birds. That's because, aside from being a top-gun veterinary surgeon -- clients jokingly call him "The Hip Man" for his expertise on dysplasia in big dogs -- Donato is also a leading local wildlife expert. He manages the Laguna Wildlife Park and Rescue Center in Los Baños, and is there most weekends to tend to wild animals that were originally pets of misled machos who belatedly realized they were too much to care for, or which were rescued from raids on illegal animal traders. That is, when this 38-year-old isn't wrestling crocodiles at the Avilon Zoo or checking on the wild denizens of the Calauit animal reserve in Palawan. "I'm confident, because I've done it before," Donato says, when asked about how he freaks people out every time he steps calmly into a wild animal's lair. "I think it's great that we can get close to them and help them." Not that he hasn't had his close calls, "too many to remember," Donato says. Once, when he cut a corner near the cage of a 250-kg tiger, the cat managed to stick his paws between the bars and grab Donato from behind; the vet managed to keep his head away from the cat's mouth until he was pried free. Luckily, the tiger had been declawed, and didn't leave any unwelcome embroidery on Donato's chest. "I felt pretty helpless," he says, but remains unshaken. Then there was the time he was called on for an urban emergency -- helping recapture the runaway circus elephant that bolted from Araneta Center and ended up near Edsa Kamuning some years ago. Home life can get just as interesting, as Donato lives with wife Carol, kids Cedric, 10, and Nina, 2 -- and a Burmese python, an African gray parrot, and a beloved 11-year-old Black Labrador named Veda. How has Veda stayed in such great health for an old girl? we ask. "Well, first of all," Donato answers with a wry smile, "Daddy is a vet." by Alya B. Honasan Add your comments Note: comments reported as offensive will temporarily be suspended until reviewed.
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