Reviewed by Terri Schlichenmeyer
Take a good, long look at that critter curled up on the
sofa with you. No, I’m not talking about your significant
other. I mean your pet. Take a look at your dog or cat.
Or think about your horse. Or the hamster you once had,
or the snake in the terrarium downstairs.
We Americans love our animals; in fact, up to 70% of us
have a pet with which we share our lives. But can you
imagine loving a lemur? Adoring an ape? Wanting to
tickle a tiger?
When you read the new book Kicked, Bitten, and
Scratched: Life and Lessons at the World’s Premier
School for Exotic Animal Trainers, by Amy Sutherland,
you’ll read about people who do.
Take a good, long look at that critter curled up on the
sofa with you. No, I’m not talking about your significant
other. I mean your pet. Take a look at your dog or cat.
Or think about your horse. Or the hamster you once had,
or the snake in the terrarium downstairs.
We Americans love our animals; in fact, up to 70% of us
have a pet with which we share our lives. But can you
imagine loving a lemur? Adoring an ape? Wanting to
tickle a tiger?
When you read the new book Kicked, Bitten, and
Scratched: Life and Lessons at the World’s Premier
School for Exotic Animal Trainers, by Amy Sutherland,
you’ll read about people who do.
Each year, at the end of the summer, fifty hopefuls be-come the new class at the Exotic
Animal Training and Mana-gement program (EATM) at Moorpark Community College in
southern California. Before the students even apply to be a member of the newest class,
someone tries to dissuade them from wanting to work with animals.
Yes, the upper-classman admits. There’s a rush of adrenaline when a mandrill takes
your hand and grooms your arm. Gaining the trust of a camel will make you smile.
Figuring out how to get a recalcitrant seal to take her medications is a feat worthy of a
puzzlemaster.
But working with animals isn’t all glamour. It’s slave labor, as one student said.
It’s mucking stalls and catching elephant poop on a shovel. It’s being bitten to the bone
by an animal you’ve known for months and thought you could trust. It’s making stinky
meals and dealing with allergies and lack of sleep. It’s learning that you never go in a
cage alone and that you always, always back out.
For one year, journalist Amy Sutherland followed a group of first year students as they
learned the basics in exotic animal care, and a class of second years as they reached for
graduation and handed the reins of their beloved charges over. Through it all, Sutherland
documents the struggles of several human animals, including a single mother whose
student loans are drying up, and a perfectionist who wonders if she can ever relax.
Sutherland also writes about animals, such as a wolf who howls along with a Michael
Jack-son song, a baboon who won’t take guff from anyone who bothers her (male)
trainers, and an overweight horse who steals his best friend’s lunch.
Did you grow up dreaming of becoming a tiger tamer like the guys on TV? Then you’re
going to roar over this book.
Author Amy Sutherland shows that “training” animals is also training humans, and while
she’s careful to write about the good things that happen at EATM, she’s also willing to
portray the not-so-good parts.
Loving an animal, as pet owners know, is not entirely all warm and fuzzy. Don’t monkey
around. No need to feel sheepish. Just duck on out and capture Kicked, Bitten, and
Scratched. If you’re an animal lover or just want to read about a career path not taken, this
is a book you’ll love sinking your teeth into.
Animal Training and Mana-gement program (EATM) at Moorpark Community College in
southern California. Before the students even apply to be a member of the newest class,
someone tries to dissuade them from wanting to work with animals.
Yes, the upper-classman admits. There’s a rush of adrenaline when a mandrill takes
your hand and grooms your arm. Gaining the trust of a camel will make you smile.
Figuring out how to get a recalcitrant seal to take her medications is a feat worthy of a
puzzlemaster.
But working with animals isn’t all glamour. It’s slave labor, as one student said.
It’s mucking stalls and catching elephant poop on a shovel. It’s being bitten to the bone
by an animal you’ve known for months and thought you could trust. It’s making stinky
meals and dealing with allergies and lack of sleep. It’s learning that you never go in a
cage alone and that you always, always back out.
For one year, journalist Amy Sutherland followed a group of first year students as they
learned the basics in exotic animal care, and a class of second years as they reached for
graduation and handed the reins of their beloved charges over. Through it all, Sutherland
documents the struggles of several human animals, including a single mother whose
student loans are drying up, and a perfectionist who wonders if she can ever relax.
Sutherland also writes about animals, such as a wolf who howls along with a Michael
Jack-son song, a baboon who won’t take guff from anyone who bothers her (male)
trainers, and an overweight horse who steals his best friend’s lunch.
Did you grow up dreaming of becoming a tiger tamer like the guys on TV? Then you’re
going to roar over this book.
Author Amy Sutherland shows that “training” animals is also training humans, and while
she’s careful to write about the good things that happen at EATM, she’s also willing to
portray the not-so-good parts.
Loving an animal, as pet owners know, is not entirely all warm and fuzzy. Don’t monkey
around. No need to feel sheepish. Just duck on out and capture Kicked, Bitten, and
Scratched. If you’re an animal lover or just want to read about a career path not taken, this
is a book you’ll love sinking your teeth into.
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