Meet Freeland Dunker, Academy Veterinarian

Since starting to work as a veterinarian at the Academy 30 years ago, Freeland Dunker’s job has included everything from treating dolphins for respiratory issues to removing a shoe from Claude’s stomach—while a fire alarm was going off. Before coming to the Academy full time, he worked at the San Francisco Zoo, where some hazards of the job included getting kicked by a giraffe.

Freeland became interested in becoming a veterinarian while studying natural resources management at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. “My goal at that point was to be a park ranger,” he said. “But while taking classes, I became more and more interested in the biology of the animals rather than just the management.”

Hoof specialty

After vet school, Freeland spent seven years in private practice, treating cattle, horses, sheep, dogs, and cats. While working at an equine surgical hospital in San Diego, his boss was the consulting veterinarian at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and Zoo. Freeland's expeiences helping his boss got him more interested in working with exotic animals, leading him to an internship at the Riverbank Zoo in South Carolina and eventually a full-time position at the San Francisco Zoo.

One of Freeland’s major accomplishments at the San Francisco Zoo was curing an elephant of human tuberculosis (TB) with a unique treatment that was not for the faint of heart. The human treatment for TB is oral antibiotics, but the volume of the pills to treat the elephant was too large and difficult to hide in food to be an effective method of treatment. Instead, for a year and a half, the zoo had to treat the elephant with antibiotic suppositories (yes, inserted in the rectum). Unfortunately, the elephant was euthanized 10 years later due to a decline in quality of life from decreased mobility, but a necropsy revealed she had no evidence of active tuberculosis.

Freeland’s other memorable experiences at the zoo involved giraffes: One kicked him in the face and another fell on him while it was being sedated for an exam.

In 1993, while still working at the zoo, Freeland began working one day a week at the Academy, where he took care of the marine mammals, including harbor seals and Pacific white-sided dolphins. He transitioned to working full time at the Academy in 2008, as it was preparing to open in the new building with a large enough collection to warrant an in-house, full-time veterinarian.

Seahorse surgery

On the opposite side of the animal size spectrum, one of Freeland’s most difficult surgeries at the Academy involved a dwarf seahorse whose babies were stuck in its pouch. Freeland had to surgically remove the babies using a magnifying glass while the seahorse was sedated (using anesthesia in the water). The babies did not survive but the male adult did.

Perhaps Freeland’s most memorable experience was removing a children’s glitter ballet-style shoe from Claude’s stomach shortly after the new building opened. “We had Claude in the hallway under anesthesia because he was too big to fit into the hospital,” said Freeland. While he was performing the exam, the fire alarm went off, as it did frequently during that period after the building opened. “So we were sitting on a sleeping alligator while members of the public were walking by to get to the loading dock.”

The majority of Freeland and the Animal Care Department’s job is maintaining the ongoing health of the living collection, which involves performing physical examinations, administering treatments, and conducting necropsies to determine causes of death after an animal passes. His team also oversees the commissary and nutrition plans for the aquarium's animals.

Penguin orthopedics

What Freeland enjoys most about the job is working with the biologists, combining their knowledge about behavioral needs with his insights about medical needs. For example, one of the new penguin chicks had a problem with its achilles tendon that prevented him from walking normally. After working with an outside surgeon to solve the problem, Freeland also consulted with the Academy biologists to find out how long a penguin can go without swimming and develop an exercise plan for his recovery.

“We put a boot on him to stabilize his tendon after surgery. So right now he’s going without the boot during the day,” Freeland says. “He’s doing fine.” And so are many other creatures at the Academy, thanks to Freeland and the Animal Care team.

Academy anniversary (full time): January 7, 2008

Favorite Academy animal: “I don’t have a favorite per se but more of an appreciation for invertebrates, corals, and sea anemones.”

Favorite part of your job: When there is a successful outcome with an animal case and the sense of satisfaction everyone has with that.

First job: Loading and unloading freight cars at a distribution center for J.J. Newberry’s (a five and dime store) in Burbank, California.

Ronna Kelly is director of communications.