“We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals”, as the old saying goes. If that’s so, we can say with certainty that Pete Wedderburn is a good man, with a good heart. Team VIP visited the vet’s beautiful country-chic home in Bray, Co. Wicklow, where he lives with his wife Joyce and their many animals – over 20, in fact, from dogs and cats to birds and fish – and we were touched by their innate kindness.
The love for their pets is evident all over their home; from the microchip sensored cat food bowls (to avoid greedy dogs lapping up their dinner) to the memorial site in a corner of their garden, dedicated to all the animals they’ve lost over the years, whether it was Spot the family dog, or “an abundance of guinea pigs”. Their pets’ names are wonderfully unique; the three cats are called Sushi, Cous Cous (both 16) and Peig (3), while their two doted-on dogs are Finzi (8) and Kiko (11), which translates to “be happy”; fitting name for a creature so full of life, despite getting on in years! A happily occupied henhouse takes up a portion of the garden – adjacent to a fruit and vegetable patch and greenhouse – with fresh eggs produced daily for the couple’s breakfast. A pair of ducks, who comically travel everywhere side by side like a Pixar movie duo, weave amongst the clucking hens, and fish swim nearby in a pond.
Soon, Pete plans on managing beehives, at which point he will be able to claim he owns thousands of pets! Post-shoot, we settled down for a chat at the garden table, warmed by overhead heaters, to get to know Pete a little more. How did someone with a love of animals go onto become a celebrity vet, with regular tv slots and newspaper columns? Read on to find out…
Pete, we have loved visiting you at home, with all your gorgeous animals. It’s clear that it is very much a team effort between you and Joyce in minding them all?
Absolutely, it would not be possible without her, because I’m very busy with work and as much as I love having animals at home, they’re a lot of work involved. People should never get them without realising what is involved; they all need to be fed and watered, groomed, cleaned up after and exercised, every day…forever! But for me, I think, I was born to be with animals. I knew they were my passion from a very young age.
How young?
Well, when I was four years old, I wanted to own a pet shop. Then, when I got to the mature age of five, I decided I wanted to go a step further and become a vet! A lot of vets will tell you that they feel that they are born with that desire, and just can’t do anything else. I always had pets; I got my first kitten and puppy when I was six, I had pet snakes, gerbils…then once you become a vet, animals just come your way! Most of the pets we have, they landed into the clinic as strays and you have to find somewhere for them to go…
How many pets would you say you’ve taken in then, over the years?
Well, it’s ongoing – last week for example, we took in a pigeon that had been attacked by a cat and needed to recover. Then there are hedgehogs; once we had four hedgehogs here, they were brought in as orphans. If hedgehogs don’t reach a certain weight, 500 grams by the middle of October, then they’re not big enough, and haven’t got enough fat stores to be able to get through the winter and hibernate. So that means that you have to keep them in captivity for the winter and release them in the spring. We’ve had a baby deer here, too, running around the garden!
As well as fostering animals until they’re healed, you have had many family pets, and they clearly have all meant a great deal to you, Joyce and your kids – it’s touching to see you gave them all a proper burial in the garden.
Yes absolutely, and the thing with smaller animals like gerbils, they’ll only live 2-3 years, rabbits and guinea pigs will live 5-7 years, maybe 10, so it means that over a long period of time, there have been lots of them!
Is the love for animals something that bonded you and Joyce when you met?
Very much so. She originally trained as a midwife, then did a certificate for Agriculture and so always had that interest in farming animals. Plus, her mother used to breed cats, so she grew up very comfortable being around animals. Lucky for me!
What about your kids, did they inherit the animal loving gene!?
Yes, big time, growing up they had their favourites; one daughter had the snake and guinea pigs, the other went for rats! They’re in their 20s now, and it’s tough to own animals at that age when you want to go travelling and so on, but they’ll always check in here.
And when you set out to become a vet – was what you’re doing now what you had in mind?
Well, first I thought I wanted to be a zoo vet, I actually worked at Edinburgh Zoo as a student. Then I worked in Africa for a while as I was qualifying and I wondered about working overseas as a vet in development, which would have been very interesting but challenging. I ended up working in a mixed practice, which looks after everything – dogs, cats, pigs, sheep, cattle, horses. I did that for four years, but felt the farm work was gearing too much towards animal production, rather than the animals being treated as animals in the own right. And I realised what I wanted to do was pet work. I love meeting the individual animals, and witnessing the relationship between people and their pet, and the joy that they bring them.
How did you go from that to being Ireland AM’s Resident Vet as well as regular radio slots and newspaper columns?!
Well, I realised early on that one of the biggest problems for animal welfare is very simple: a lack of knowledge and lack of information. I decided I wanted to work in media to spread that information; it started off with local radio and newspapers – I’ve had a column in the Bray People for the past 25 years – and then I started to do some tv, back in the ’90s on a show called Echo Island with Blathnaid Treacy, Derek Mooney, Dara O’Briain presenting, and I really enjoyed it. As you go on, you get experience, you make contacts, and opportunities arise – like when Ireland AM came along. Then, in recent years, I’ve had the internet to reach even more people.
Yes, the internet – you recently launched a site called Petfix Club, which you say is the culmination of your career.
It really feels like that. Remember when I was four years old and wanted the pet shop? I have that on the site [laughs]. And through everything I’ve done with animals over the years, I have put all that information on Petfix for people to access. People can also contact me personally for tailored advice, and to figure out whether they need to bring their pet into their vet. If you Google something, there’s so much noise on the internet, and people end up going on sites that are quietly marketed to them rather than giving them trusted, reliable information. So, that was my mission for Petfix, that pet owners can get affordable, high quality vet information at any time.
What’s a most common question that comes into you?
Behavioural questions – people wondering why their pets are behaving a certain way. For example someone asked me this morning about their 11 year old male dog who keeps snapping at their new young dog, and they needed guidance and to understand how the dog’s mind is working. Also when people notice their pet isn’t quite right and they aren’t sure if they need to go to the vet or not – because it is expensive to go when you don’t need to. I had one instance with a young cat actually; the owners noticed he had just gone quiet, and was sitting in the place. He never used to sit still, but here he was sitting all the time in the one spot. I knew instantly that he needed to get to the vet immediately as I suspected it was a blocked bladder, which is very serious for cats. If they had ignored it and said, “ah he’s fine”, he would have been dead in days.
Wow. You mentioned keeping snakes and so on earlier – do people keep many exotic pets in Ireland?
Yeah, I actually had somebody come to me about some African jumping spiders recently [laugh] I wouldn’t be as passionate about those kinds of pets, but I would be passionate about knowing how they should be kept and how to help them in a crisis. The problem is a lot of people don’t actually want to put the time and expense involved in keeping a pet like that how they should be kept; I always recommend if you want a pet to go back to basics and get a dog or cat, they fit in really well with your family. There’s an emotional connection which goes both ways…and you have to wonder if you could have that with a jumping spider [laughs]
Speaking of dogs, the number of people adding a canine pal to their family over the past year has sky-rocketed…
Yes, and lockdown has really intensified the bond, partly because we have no social lives now [laughs] They’re really good at reminding us to live in the moment. They’re natural experts at mindfulness! That’s all they do – they live in the now! There are some concerns, though, about the increasing popularity of becoming a dog owner; the price of puppies has quadrupled and there’s the worry they come from puppy farms. People get it in their head that they want a white fluffy dog, and they don’t need to do that, forget about how it looks. Always do your proper research when getting one, and where it is coming from. The upside of the price increase is that more people may turn to rescue centres.
Another concern is separation anxiety when the world reopens again and we’re not there 24/7 anymore!
Yes! Right now, you should artificially create a separation between you and your pet some times. So they’re used to being on their own at times and it’s not a complete shock. Leave them alone for ten minutes every hour, for example…just so the change is gradual rather than all at once. Having a crate so they have their own private bedroom would help.
Isn’t it funny to see how pampered pooches have become? Years ago they might have been left out in the garden with a kennel – now they have nicer beds than their humans, stylish clothes, luxury treats…
Totally, the way I see it, the whole spectrum has shifted, and what that means is yes some people are dressing their dogs up and arguably over-pampering them – in some people’s eyes – but fewer dogs are just being fecked into a shed and left on their own all day. I can only see that as a good thing!
As an animal lover, how do you feel about eating meat? Is it possible for the two to co-exist!?
My stance is that I’m an intermittent vegan! Every January for the last few years, I’ve done the Veganuary thing, and it always reminds me how much animal stuff is in our food, it makes you look at the label and see what you’re actually eating. But otherwise, y’know, like with our hens – I’m happy to eat their eggs. They don’t miss their eggs! I would have a largely plant based diet, but any meat I do buy, I’d make sure it was free-range chicken, that type of thing. I wouldn’t stop eating meat altogether or stop drinking milk, but I’m just aware, and mindful.
You’ve said you have enjoyed every single day of being a vet.
Yes, I have.
But, there must be tough aspects too. When a pet has to be put down, for example. You have to grow a tough skin for that, we imagine.
It is a really difficult aspect of it. Some days, as a busy vet, you might have to euthanise three animals. One might be a 15 year old dog, and a 20 year old girl comes in that has had that dog since she was five years old…you know it’s the right decision for the animal but it’s hard to witness that grief, absolutely.
Lastly, Pet, you’ve said that you’d love to be Dr. Dolittle and be able to talk to animals. If you could talk to your pets, what kind of conversation would you have!?
[Laughs] It’d probably be like, throw the ball! Throw the ball! Yeah, I don’t think it would be very intellectual, maybe it would be discussing the scents in the air, or a discussion on what is in their food. “What is in that kibble? I think I get notes of…chicken?!”
Interview: Niamh Devereux
Photography: Lili Forberg
Styling: Megan Fox
For all things Pete, head to his website petethevet.com, and follow him on Instagram @pete.wedderburn