Jarrod Male, one half of Pet Ambulance Services, says the “feel good” factor of helping worried pet owners kept him going over the years. Photo: Pet Ambulance Services/Facebook.
For the past 19 years, pet owners could ring Pet Ambulance Services when problems transporting their furry (or feathered or scaly) friends arose.
Owned by Jarrod and Claudia Male, the team would load the animals into one of two vans before driving them to and from the vet or emergency care.
For vet nurse Mr Male, driving the ambulance meant more than going for a typical drive.
“I certainly haven’t made a lot of money out of it – that’s not my takeaway!
“We’ve helped out a lot of people in situations where they would otherwise be overwhelmed by what they had to do, and we’ve saved a lot of animals’ lives in doing so.”
After almost 20 years, he and co-owner, partner Claudia have decided it is time to sell and take up new roles.
It was the creation of Mr Male, who was inspired while working in after-hours emergency care in 2007.
“We were getting calls from clients who would have difficulty … for whatever reason, they didn’t drive, they didn’t have licenses, they didn’t have vehicles,” he told Region.
“Quite often, we would hand over fairly critical patients to the client and say, ‘Good luck’ [in driving from the specialist care to their normal vet]. That was obviously really distressing for the owners, and not the best medical method of transporting a really ill patient.”
Mr Male then tried something new. He brought a van, loaded it with oxygen, medical equipment, and space for an animal, and began ferrying sick pets around.
“That patient generally sat on the bench seat or lay on the bench next to me, and I was driving the vehicle and breathing for the patient at the same time [if that was needed].
“I would call the first few years a little bit cowboy, looking at it now.”
One of the Pet Ambulance Services’ vans will stay in Pialligo to help animals needing specialist care. Photo: Claire Sams.
Over the coming years, they would buy another van and bring on more staff, including Ms Male.
While the service had its start in Canberra, it would grow to accept calls from across regional NSW – as far away as Wagga Wagga, Jindabyne and the South Coast.
“We’ve moved the occasional bird, and Claudia has moved an intubated sheep at one point, but it’s mainly cats and dogs.
“We’ve moved rabbits and guinea pigs as well. It’s small animals, not large animals, as a general rule.”
Calls would also come, asking the ambulance to hit the road and travel to Sydney so animals could see specialists.
“We set up the vans better, and then we could provide a really critical care service to Canberra and the region,” he said.
“Nobody was doing it – definitely in Canberra – and no one was doing it the same way, Australia-wide and potentially worldwide.
“Yes, there was a service providing transport, but not critical care transport [like we were doing].”
One of the ambulances will now be operated by Animal Referral Hospital Canberra (ARH Canberra), a specialist referral service and emergency service located in Pialligo.
“It doesn’t change anything about how we care for patients – it probably enhances our service,” said business manager Matthew Carmody.
“Our clients are all the GP vets throughout the ACT and surrounds, so it just means that they can transport to and from their GP clinic to the hospital without any problem.”
Mr Male is currently training ARH staff in the pet ambulance’s unique service, meaning they could fully take over the service in several weeks.
“We are lucky to have it in the Territory … We haven’t put it on hiatus or anything like that,” said Mr Carmody.
Mr Male also said he was hoping their second ambulance would be taken over by someone willing to offer a similar service.
“I’m hoping that we can sell it locally and it gets used to treat patients that aren’t necessarily going in and out of ARH to service the rest of Canberra,” he said.
Mr Male will now work with ARH Canberra, while Ms Male is set to take a corporate role.
