Dr. Peter Ostrum spoke at Bond LSC in celebration of World One Health Day
Dr. Peter Ostrum, who once played the character of Charlie Bucket in 1971’s “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” —also starring the late Gene Wilder — smiles after giving a lecture to an audience at Monsanto Auditorium in Bond LSC. After “Willy Wonka,” Ostrum did not pursue acting further, and went into a career in veterinary medicine. | photo by Phillip Sitter, Bond LSC
By Phillip Sitter |Bond LSC
The character of Charlie Bucket found his golden ticket to a happy life wrapped in a Willy Wonka chocolate bar. Peter Ostrum, who at the time was just a child actor playing Charlie, later found his in horse pastures.
After playing Charlie in 1971’s “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” alongside the late Gene Wilder starring in the titular role, Ostrum didn’t pursue acting any further. He spoke about life as a veterinarian Nov. 3 at Monsanto Auditorium in Bond Life Sciences Center.
“People are always curious about what happened to Charlie. Why wasn’t he in any other films? Did he survive Hollywood? I’m relieved to tell you that my life didn’t end up as a trainwreck,” Ostrum said, getting some laughs from the crowd gathered to listen to him speak.
“The film industry just wasn’t for me,” he explained, although he did enjoy working alongside Wilder and co-star Jack Albertson, who played Grandpa Joe. Ostrum said that every day on lunch break during filming in Munich, Germany, Wilder would share a chocolate bar with him.
Back at home in Ohio, Ostrum worked at a stable, and had several positive interactions with veterinarians. He admired the profession, and working with horses specifically. He even went on to be a groomer for the Japanese three-day equestrian event team at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.
He wanted to become an equine veterinarian after a year working at an equine veterinary clinic. However, Ostrum discovered that dairy cow care fell more in line with his dreams, and after getting his veterinary degree at Cornell, he’s been doing that ever since — in upstate New York where he is also a husband and father of two children.
Ostrum described how agriculture and veterinary medicine have changed over recent years, with changing numbers and sizes of farms, the rising power of animal welfare groups and an increased desire from consumers to know where their food comes from. People want to know whether animals are treated humanely and whether farms are negatively affecting the environment, he said.
All of these changes and others require increased transparency, education and community outreach efforts by everyone working in agriculture, Ostrum said. In candidates for veterinary associates, he said that he looks for “the intangible skills at the heart of who people are” — their character and their ability to connect with clients and patients.
Ostrum also mentioned the importance of mental health awareness among veterinarians and other health professionals. “We can’t help others if we can’t help and support ourselves,” he said.
In a second travel log from Bond LSC researcher Cheryl Rosenfeld, learn about the wildlife she encountered in Tanzania this summer. Through the North American Veterinary Community (NAVC), Rosenfeld furthered her veterinary education while encountering wildlife in their natural habitat. See more about the first leg of her trip to Rwanda here.
By Cheryl Rosenfeld
In the early morning hours, our group flew from Kigali, Rwanda to the Serengeti in Tanzania. As we began the descent to the dirt runway, we glimpsed our first sight of wildebeest and the awe-inspiring Serengeti plains and I soon boarded “tano,” Swahili for the fifth 4×4 in our convoy. “Tano” soon came to have special meaning, as there are many groupings of five to see in Tanzania: “The Big Five, The Ugly Five, etc.” Emanuel, whose life-long ambition was to attend college to be a guide, led us to see all of these groups of five and then some.
Cheryl Rosenfeld
From the time we pulled away from the meeting spot, I started photographing animals on one side of the vehicle, but it seemed even more intriguing ones would appear on the other side of the road.
When the NAVC and our veterinary guide, Dr. Carol Walton, organized this trip, it was anticipated that the wildebeest would be in the Western corridor of the Serengeti but she was wrong. It’s no longer the case that the location of the wildebeest migrations can be projected with accuracy. Our lecture the first evening in Tanzania discussed how the wildebeest know to migrate and why past modeling of their migratory pattern is no longer accurate. Theories for the migratory nature of these animals include their ability to smell rain and/or changes in calcium concentrations in the soil. Wildebeest rely heavily on calcium to produce sufficient milk to nurse their calves that expend considerable energy keeping up with the herd.
In the past, the rains, like the wildebeest migration, would occur in similar sites and times throughout the year. Climate change has likely contributed to the rainfall in these sites being less reliable and correspondingly, compromised forecasting where the wildebeest will be located throughout the year. This year the wildebeest decided instead to migrate to the central Serengeti region. Thus, the next day we set off on an over-three-hour journey to this region.
While driving to find wildebeest we came upon new animals and birds including Coke’s Hartbeest, several Masai giraffe, and topis, which seemed to be splattered with oil. Finally, the wildebeest herds starting increasing in size until it reached a crescendo. As far as one could look in all directions there were wildebeest: males, females, and an abundance of baby calves. Eating alongside them were many zebras and their babies, with brown fuzzy fur along their back-end. It was the most amazing spectacle any of us had witnessed.
After seeing the vast wildebeest herds, we then came upon the elephants and lions, along with their babies. In the safety of the vehicle, we watched them engage in their natural behaviors for which no zoo experience can replicate. Both species were incredibly affectionate to the offspring and each other. In the case of the lionesses, each time the females, who were likely related, caught up with another that they had not seen in a short while would lead to emotional bouts of jumping on each other, caressing and licking. It was hardly the acts of a deadly predator. Yet, their existence rests on the wildebeest and other prey. With the wildebeest in this area, it seemed all life was flourishing at this time. A true paradise.
However, even paradise is subject to outside threats. One such threat is the massive poaching of elephants in Tanzania and surrounding African countries with 40,000 being killed last year alone. Prior to 2013, Tanzania had a “shoot to kill” policy for those caught poaching elephants or other endangered species. However, this rule has since been relaxed with the elephant numbers now in severe decline. At this unsustainable rate of poaching, the African elephant may go extinct in the wild in the next few decades.
While we did see some groups of elephants, the size of each matriarch-led group seemed less than those depicted in Sir David Attenborough and National Geographic documentaries. Moreover, one elephant that we came across, which I affectionately referred to as “Stumpy,” bore sad evidence of this brutal practice: He lost part of his trunk in a poacher’s snare. Without a full trunk, this elephant exhibited great difficulty grasping various plant items to place in his mouth.
Our subsequent travel took us to the famous “Olduvai (which should actually be Oldupai) Gorge,” one of the most famous paleoanthropological sites, including the Leakeys’ famous discovery. From there we traveled to the Ngorongoro Crater, a gigantic fracture of the earth’s crust that provides habitat for some 30,000 animals, including the most endangered black rhinoceros that only has 20 to 30 left in this area. The difference between the black and white rhino lies not in their coat color but a structural difference in their lips with black rhino possessing pointed and prehensile upper lip to browse on twigs and leaves. In contrast, white rhino possess a square upper lip to graze on the grasses below.
When Dr. Walton convinced us to set off at first light, around 6 a.m., our goal was to find one of these amazing creatures. Once again, with Emmanuel’s assistance and eagle eyes, what started out as a black dot far off in the horizon began to morph into a recognizable rhinoceros. In utter delight, we strained our necks and photographed as this beautiful animal continued to move along and forage in the distance. It would be inhumane to allow this animal to go extinct. In the case of the rhino, many Asian countries believe that its horn increases male libido, which has never been proved to be the case. This mistaken notion possibly originated from the fact that male rhinos copulate with females for several hours duration. This behavior is, however, not transferrable to men who consume any part of a rhino.
The list of species we saw in Tanzania continued to grow while we drove around the crater with black-backed and common jackals following alongside our vehicle, eland and grants gazelles grazing in the plains, flocks of greater and lesser flamingoes observed in the distance, and more lion prides and spotted hyenas.
The next day, we had our final farewell lunch at the famous Arusha Coffee Lodge, where US presidents have dined. We then set off on our long journey back to the US.
All of us were impacted by the creatures and sites we saw. One male veterinarian, who seemed gruff and quiet for most of the expedition, put it best the night before we left. He unexpectedly stood up after our last lecture and proclaimed that he signed up for the expedition more as an escape from the daily grind of being a veterinarian. However, the trip made such as impression on him to the point that he realized that part of the veterinarian oath on “relieving animal suffering” should include standing up and advocating on their behalf to prevent their brutal murder, as previously occurred in the case of the gorillas and is ongoing for elephants and rhinos. All of us were moved by his emotional comments and the tears welling up in his eyes. Our group was indeed fortunate to see these majestic animals, while they still exist, in their natural environments. I hope there is a wake-up call for nations to come together to prevent their extinction.
While summer brings a slower pace for many researchers, others use it as an opportunity to learn for their profession and network with others in their field.
Bond LSC researcher Cheryl Rosenfeld recently traveled to Africa to further her learning as a veterinarian. This continuing education gives her the opportunity to learn the newest techniques in the field and network with others to learn what’s current and on the collective minds in veterinary medicine. Through the North American Veterinary Community (NAVC), Rosenfeld has now gone on three expeditions where participants observe animals in their natural, exotic environments, attend nightly lectures and learn more about the humans near these animals.
Previous expeditions led Rosenfeld to the Galapagos Islands and the Florida Keys, but her June 2014 trip started in Rwanda and ended in Tanzania. Here’s the first of two entries where Rosenfeld shares here experience.
In June 2014 Cheryl Rosenfeld traveled to Rwanda to observe mountain gorillas as part of her veterinary continuing education.
In June 2014 Cheryl Rosenfeld traveled to Rwanda to observe mountain gorillas as part of her veterinary continuing education.
The 1994 Genocide is a omnipresent part of the national psyche of Rwanda.
Sites like this memorialize the millions killed in the 1994 genocide.
Local children from one Rwandan village.
Rosenfeld is pictured in the blue four drums from the left.
By Cheryl Rosenfeld
The fate of animal populations is generally intertwined with the predicament of humans in the area. Nowhere is this truer than in Rwanda. Most people know Rwanda for Dian Fossey’s work with the mountain gorillas and the genocide of more than 1 million Hutus and Tutsis that happened 20 years ago in 1994. In this 100-day period, an average of six individuals were killed per minute. Children that survived were often orphaned and many surviving women suffered being raped and exposed to HIV infection. In all, many still require extensive medical and psychological care. On our flight and checking into our hotel was a medical team from Harvard Medical Center that was there as part of the Clinton Foundation to assist in the medical needs.
We saw the history that continues to shape the country when we first visited a genocide memorial site just outside of Kigali where thousands of individuals were brutally murdered and the Kigali Genocide Museum that was partially funded by an English Jewish Holocaust survivor. The history of the conflict is rooted partially in Western influence that infused a social division. Prior to Europeans colonization, Hutus and Tutsis lived in relative peace and individuals could go back and forth between these two groups. The original difference was that Tutsi individuals owned more than 10 cows. The differential treatment and classification adopted by Europeans began to trigger conflict between the two groups. Prior indicators, including extensive propaganda, were ignored by the United States and United Nations. The museum includes two stained glass windows that depict the evidence that genocide was imminent and failure by other nations to prevent this tragedy. Genocide isn’t unique to Rwanda, though, and the displays describe the commonalities on their sad origins in other countries throughout history. Outside the museum, there are several mass graves where fresh flowers are placed on a routine basis.
I was originally hesitant about traveling to Rwanda because of this history, but am very glad I took the chance. The Rwandan government has worked hard to turn around and instill pride in the country. Their economy is one of the fastest growing in Africa with construction of new businesses and hotels in Kigali. Moreover, the government has placed a ban on plastic bags and hired teams of individuals to keep the country clean. One Saturday a month, all Rwandans, including the President, are expected to participate in clean-up day, which becomes a convivial social event. While there is still sadness in the eyes of many individuals I met, I also saw hope of something better, which was inspiring to witness.
We were soon off to learn about the mountain gorillas that are now the pride of the country. During Dian Fossey’s time, she battled to prevent poaching of these magnificent and intelligent creatures. The country now realizes the worth of preserving and propagating the mountain gorilla populations. In a reasonable and safe way, they developed a tourist industry to view the various troops of gorillas. It currently costs $750 to spend one hour with the mountain gorillas. The government has restricted access to prevent gorilla habituation and stress from too many tourists.
We spent two days with different troops. While waiting in the morning to find out which troop we were responsible for trekking, we were entertained by local dancers. I regrettably made the mistake of indicating I felt fit to track the one of ten groups that was at the furthest distance.
The group that was involved in trekking the first day was called “Snow” in Kinyarwanda. I believe they received this name because they inevitably reside high in the mountains, which used to have snow. As we set off on our hike, many children came out to say “MooRahHoh”- hello in Kinyarwanda and asked for us to take their picture. We were informed that we should easily return before lunch, and therefore were only provided a package of peanuts. Unfortunately, it took us longer to hike through the forests that transitioned from bamboo to masses of stinging nettles and did not return to the hotel until 6:30 p.m. After more than three hours of hiking and our eyes finally fell upon our first mountain gorilla, the silverback of the group. Even knowing that this was the ultimate goal, we were not prepared for this amazing experience of being so close to a creature in the wild that resembled us.
We had the opportunity to meet the rest of the troop, including several 3 to 4 month old babies that were quite entertaining. The enclosed photos and videos only provide a sliver of the spectacle that we were privileged to be part of these two days of gorilla trekking that made our hunger and continued burning sensation on our face and legs from stinging nettles well worth it.
