Page 68 - World of Animals - Issue #36

Working for Wildlife

VETS WITHOUT
BORDERS

We chatted to Luke Gamble, founder of the Worldwide
Veterinary Service (WVS) about the charity’s work and

what it’s like saving animals across the globe

What does WVS do and what prompted
you to set up the charity?
WVS helps animals in places where no one
else will. We provide veterinary support

to small non-profit organisations and little
animal charities in really tough places
where there’s no veterinary aid or help for
the animals that live there. We send teams,
drugs, medicines, parcels and supplies to
these places, and build up a sustainable
infrastructure that will continue to support
the animals in these communities, as well
as the people who often depend on them.
We work with all species from all over the
world. It’s a great charity.
I set it up at the end of 2002 and it was
really just a hobby! I loved being a vet and
this was something I could do to apply my
trade and enjoy adventure and travel. I ran
it for fun for about ten years, but then we
started to get serious grants and it started
to grow much bigger, and so it is where it
is today!

What kinds of projects do you have on the
go at the moment?
Well, I just got back from a trip to Zambia
and Malawi. In Zambia we are trying to
help set up the first wildlife veterinary clinic,

working on the edge of the Kafue National
Park. We want to get it off the ground
because the areas around the edge of the
national parks are ‘game management
zones’, where people can hunt. The idea
of these buffer zones is to try to protect
the animals within the national parks. But
ABOVE In 2009 Luke visited this
elephant at the Friends of Asian what happens is that snares are set and
Elephants hospital. It had its leg a lot of animals get injured. The idea of

blown off by a mine, but now this sanctuary is to help those animals.
proudly sports a prosthesis –
© WVS the first of its kind in the world There are currently only three wildlife vets

in Zambia so there’s just no support or
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