Dr Cooper’s harsh thoughts on people who DON’T like animals

Australia’s beloved vet Dr Harry Cooper says there is something wrong with you if you don’t like animals.

“I’d be concerned about you if you don’t like animals because animals are really important, they’re part of our extended family bond,” he said.

And Aussies have gotten to see just how special the bond between human and pet is in his new Channel 7 show, Animals Aboard with Dr Harry.

The series, which aired last Wednesday, goes behind the scenes of the multi-million-dollar animal travel industry to unearth a goldmine of stories hidden in cargo holds and travel crates.

The 79-year-old said he pitched an idea for a show focusing on animals way back when he was working for WIN network in Hobart but it was shut down.

“Many years ago when I first started in this industry I had an idea for a TV show, I approached a pair who ran the WIN TV in Hobart, I put together a dossier about how many dogs and cats we had in Australia and how much money we’d spent. . . I gave it to them to read it, briefly, I might add and they said, ‘Honestly Harry who’d want to watch a show about animals?’”

“And that’s been my motivation all my life, people love animals, very few people don’t love animals and if they don’t, well I’m sorry but there’s something wrong with you.”

Cooper lives at home on a 125-acre property in Port Macquarie with his wife Susan and a variety of animals including dogs, “fancy” chicken, geese, Welsh ponies and a rainbow lorikeet called Christabelle, who can say “shut up”.

“We sit on the front veranda and watch the wallabies as the sun goes down watch birds in my garden,” he said.

Cooper, who narrates the show rather than star in it, had this advice for families anxious about sending their furry friends on a plane.

Take it from the man himself who has decades of experience dealing with animals and transporting them all over Australia and the globe.

“If you have a chance to acclimatise them to the crate they’re going to be in before they go, it really helps,” he said.

“Practice makes perfect, the animal needs to regard it as a safe place rather than a frightening place, it’s called conditioning.

“Make it comfortable, with their bedding or your smell, with your clothing and a pheromone spray acts as calming agent.”

He said the show revealed the complexities involved from moving animals from A to B and showing the emotional trauma.

“Which is far more in humans than animals I think because in many ways you’re splitting up the family,” he said.

The touching stories of zoo animals being relocated was “something different” for the animal aficionado.

“To move a giraffe from one place to another, you don’t just put it in the boot of a car, you have to send it in some special way by road and need a special trailer to get it in. . . it’s a very tall animal and they panic so easily, so the whole methodology about getting these animals safely to one place to another makes the whole show interesting,” he said.

“It’s a bloody good show.”

Catch Animals Aboard with Dr Harry on Channel 7 and 7plus.