Janet Gamble
RSPCA

 My personal vision is “To passionately excel in wildlife care. To make a difference with all species, contributing to conservation, education and  welfare.”

I am State Wildlife Co-ordinator and have been with RSPCA Qld since March 2003.  From 2001 I was senior wildlife officer/veterinary nurse at   Dreamworlds’, Australian wildlife     experience.    From 1987 I was a senior zookeeper/head nurse, Western Plains Zoo. In 1983 I began my wildlife work    professionally as a Vet nurse at Byron Bay.  My qualifications are a Zookeepers Certificate 3 and a Graduate certificate in Applied Science (Captive Vertebrate Management) with distinctions.

My past loves are “my” Maned wolves and African elephants that I left behind in Dubbo.  I was employed as an Elephant keeper for the fourteen years at Dubbo but in 1990 the Zoo hospital/wildlife clinic enabled me to make a bigger difference.

The scariest thing I’ve ever done was to present a Koala to the Queen of England. The bravest thing I’ve ever done is outback Brazil on a fellowship (Maned wolves and Tapirs) by myself and unable to speak Spanish or Portuguese.  The best thing I ever get to do is successfully release rehabilitated wildlife.  One of the most important things I get to do is prevent further suffering by way of euthanasia (although it doesn’t feel like it at the time).  My frustrations mostly lie with wondering if a release was successful.  I am very passionate about post release welfare.   What I don’t get to do enough is to prevent wildlife coming into care in the first place.

I am humbled and thankful to have had many opportunities to work with many species, native and exotic, in both captive and wild situations, too numerous to list and I have so much more to learn.  I don’t often encourage neonates to eliminate or make up milk formulas at home much anymore but have my own 5 acre patch of wildlife haven south of Brisbane and tend to the less time consuming pre-release stages of wildlife rehab.

This gives me the time to contribute to the bigger picture, including QWRC and things like 1300ANIMAL, MACs (Ministerial Advisory Committees), The World of Animal Welfare (www.woaw.org.au), NWRC, etc.