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Our Friendly Staff Will Welcome You and Your Pet
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Dr Stephen Cutter B.V.Sc(hons)
Principal Veterinarian Stephen is our head vet and practice principal. Stephen grew up in the Territory but moved to Melbourne with his family as a teenager. After graduating from Melbourne Uni in 1995 he set about returning to the territory. Stephen's main passion was the dog health programs in indigenous communities he established. Initially he migrated backwards and forward between started migrating backwards and forward between the top end and melbourne for a few years. He originally moved to Darwin to work with community dog health programs and his first clinic in Darwin was set up to support that work. The Ark is a result of many changes and was established to get back to that original vision. Stephen is passionate about many different aspect in his work, Wildlife, animal welfare and dog health programs are just some of the areas that Stephen works in on a daily basis.
Stephen is Chairperson of the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee in the NT. Wildlife Rescue Darwin, PAWS Darwin and the Prison program are all results of the passion he has to achieve changes in the community. stephen@thearkvet.com
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Lisa Hansen
Practise Manager Lisa and Stephen began working together approximately 5 years ago. They have opened several animal hospitals under the name of the Ark animal Hospital. In March 2007 they saw an increasing need to open another organization committed to animal welfare. This became known as The Ark Animal Welfare Services Limited. An organization encompassing Wildlife Rescue and PAWS Darwin(which is an adoption center for preloved pets) Lisa never without an injured or rescued animal within her care has spent most of her adult life dedicated to animals. The work she does through the animal welfare service is all for non profit and often comes out of her own pocket.
Lisa's favourite animal in her care at the moment is Anthony the Fruit Bat. A young orphaned bat that cries for dummy(a small marsupial teat)when he loses it. lisa@thearkvet.com
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Dr Rebecca Burgess B.Sc, BVMS
Veterinarian Rebecca is our most efficient Veterinarian employees. During her time with the Ark she has displayed not only exellence with her Veterinary skills,but also has been the driving force behind developing the vision of the Arks "PAWS" animal adoption program. She continues her committment to the program by operating as Chairperson, and strives to give as many animals (that are stray or that have been surrendered to the Ark) as possible a fresh start with a new home.
Rebecca has also worked at a wildlife santuary in Bolivia (with monkeys, boa constrictors and pumas) as well as gibbon sanctuary in Thailand. Rebecca@thearkvet.com
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Dr Tom Dunnett Veterinarian
Managing Veterinarian Humpty Doo Clinic Dr Tom joined the team from the Humpty Doo veterinary Clinic in October 2007. He was originally from New Zealand. Tom's laid back personality and commitment to his job have seen a rapid growth at Humpty Doo Vet Clinic. He is keenly interested in many aspects of Veterinary science and has a growing interest in wildlife and exotic animals. An interesting case he had recently was a blue tongue lizard which had been bitten by a freshwater crocodile. (Both were someone's pet). Tom is also involved in Indigenous dog health programs.
Tom and his wife Susanne have numerous pets including ducks who add excitement to their lives.
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Dr. Sarah Renshaw Veterinarian
Veterinarian Sarah is an excellent and caring veterinarian. Sarah grew up in Darwin and after living/working in the Pilbara and Kakadu has returned to join us. Sarah loves wildlife and orthopaedic surgery.
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Dr Anita Hicks B.V.Sc
Veterinarian Anita has recently joined our staff after working on a lion park in Africa. Anita is currently studying for her Masters in Wildlife & conservation medicine.
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Dr Jan Allen
Veterinarian Jan joined the Ark in April 2007. Previously she worked in North NSW and more recently as an Australian Volunteer in Samoa for two years. Jan's special interest is in the Dog Health Programs that she is involved with in the Aboriginal Communities and Third world countries. Jan@thearkvet.com
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Geoffrey
Vet Nurse & snake catcher Geoff has been at the Ark since its opening, He is one of the longest serving employees and has been a great support to the building of the Ark clinics. Geoff has a strange sense of humor and he uses it often. His ability to challenge everyone with unique quiz questions means we all learn lots of obsolete general knowledge about people and places we would never have previously thought about. His best quote to date:
"We don't need gravity either but we have that."
His favorite thing to do is to try and find questions that Stephen doesn't know the answers to.
Geoffrey took on the role of snake catcher fairly recently. The challenge of being on call 24 hours a day every day can be difficult but fortunately he is as nocturnal as most of the animals he is called in to rescue. His favorite time for a call out (not) is 6:30 in the morning, too early to be awake, to late to go back to sleep.
Best thing about his job: he gets to drive a lot and his mates all want to go along with him.
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Aaron
Veterinary Nurse & Snake Catcher Aaron has a very diverse and varied job. Aaron is our main "bush" nurse. He gets to visit a wide variety of remote indigenous communities with the vets to help treat the dogs there.
When in town Aaron gets to work at the ark as a veterinary nurse and he is one of our snake catchers with reptile rescue. Aaron@thearkvet.com
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Geraldine
Veterinary Nurse Geraldine or "Gee" is an extremely enthusiastic staff member. Gee has a constant stream of babies (orphaned or injured wallabies, possums, birds etc) Gee is very good at caring for them and has now had many grow up and be released back into the wild. (which is a very bitter sweet moment for Geraldine.)
Geraldine's favourite part of being a Veterinary Nurse is assisting the Vets during surgery. Geraldine@thearkvet.com
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Lana Veterinary Nurse-Level III
Veterinary Nurse Lana is a recent staff member to the Ark team, joining us on the 13th of May. She has recently moved here from South Australia where she came from the Head Nurse position at the Hills Veterinary Centre, where she had worked for 6 years.
She will soon be commencing Kitten Kindy for all those cat lovers, and weight loss clinics for owners that love to spoil their dogs and cats a little too much.
Lanas' passion is surgeries with a keen interest in orthopedic and thoracic procedures.
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Connor Certificate II in Animal Studies
Kennel Assistant Connor began volunteering with the Ark through his school based training course in May 2007. He showed a keen interest in the Animal Care Industry and began studying his Certificate II in Animal Studies through Katherine Rural College. Connor is now an employee of the Ark Animal Hospital and continues his studies doing Certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing along side doing year 12. He hopes to become a Veterinarian and come back and work for the Ark again.
UPDATE: Connor has left us to go to study vet science in Western Australia, he promises he is coming back to work for us once he is a vet!
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Caroline Teacher, Trainee Veterinary Nurse
Trainer, educator & Vet Nurse Caroline has recently joined the team at The Ark after initially being a volunteer within the Wildlife Rescue Hospital and a Wildlife Rescue Carer. Caroline is a qualified teacher who now plays an educator role. She runs the Wildlife Rescue training courses and other courses we hold. Caroline also gets to visit schools as part of our pet pep program. Caroline is also studying as a Veterinary Nurse.
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Hannah
Veterinary Nurse Hannah is an enthusiastic and hardworking member of our team. Hannah's cares for a wide range of orphaned wildlife but possums are her favourite. Hannah has raised 7 possums so far. One of her favourites has been a little fellow that she named George. Hannah also finds the surgeries the best part of her job
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Lisa (Lou)
Veterinary Nurse Lou works at our Humpty Doo clinic. Lou started work with the Ark when it was still Palm City Vets, she worked at our Yarrawonga clinic for 12 months then moved out to be senior Nurse at Humpty Doo Vet Clinic. Lou loves her job as a vet nurse and has raised many baby wallabies during her time with the Arks. Her favorite babies are antilopines. she has numerous cats and 2 dogs. lou@thearkvet.com
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Tracy Certificate II in Animal Studies, Diploma in Pet Grooming.
Veterinary Nurse Tracy has recently started working with us, but has been a vet nurse for 2.5 years. Tracy also used to run her own business as a pet groomer for 3.5 years.
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Lana T Cert IV Veterinary Nurse, Cert IV in Remedial massage.
Veterinary Nurse Lana is an extremely enthusiastic staff member. She has a particular passion for the strays, the homeless as well as the extremely sick. She makes it her mission to ensure that the "hopeless cases" have hope.
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Renee
Humpty Doo Vet nurse Renee is a bright and cheery personality, Renee is passionate about animals and very good at her job. One of her favourite customers is a big boofhead dog who comes to visit the Humpty Doo clinic of his own accord. Daily, he walks in and takes his place at reception (in the aircon) and only goes home after he has had a treat. Renee has her dream dog all picked out and checks the adoption lists daily to see if it has arrived yet.
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Tom
Snake catcher Tom is a enthusiastic and skilled snake catcher. Tom has worked in a number of zoos and wildlife parks across Australia.
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Sandy
Puppy Preschool trainer & PAWS walk coordinator Sandy is a qualified Veterinary nurse & groomer and dog show judge. Sandy has over 30 years experience in training dogs and is a second generation dog trainer. Sandy is very experienced and is a wealth of knowledge and a great asset to our team.
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Tess Bachelor of Applied science (majoring in wildlife biology)
Wildlife care coordinator & Veterinary Nurse. Tess is a very experienced wildlife carer and has worked in a number of zoos across Australia and has been a wildlife carer for many years. Tess brings a wealth of knowledge and skills to our wildlife rescue program.
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Pam
Book Keeper Pam is in charge of keeping us on track financially (quite a challenge).
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Vicki Studying Certificate II in Animal Studies
PAWS shelter manager Vicki joined the Ark team in October 2007, while studying Certificate II in Animals Studies. Vicki has a real passion for all fields within The Ark Animal Hospital, running the PAWS shelter for dumped and orphaned animals, with herself rescuing a PAWS dog "Nala". She also raises abandoned wildlife with her most recent success story being "Dozer" the agile wallaby which she released back into the wild at Nina's Wallaby Sanctuary.
Vicki's passion for preloved animals is helping PAWS Darwin to grow, this growth has seen a jump of 3 adoptions a week to 17 in the week just past. In the future she hopes to help PAWS grow to a 20 dog kennel facility and 20 cats, and this is well on its way.
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Brian
Pound Manager AWS Brian, who is also Lisa's dad, is currently managing the Darwin City Council pound contract held by Ark animal Welfare Services. He has long been committed to the Ark and all it stands for. Both he and his wife Sandra have been heavily involved with the prison program and with Wildlife Rescue. Their support for all the Ark does is invaluable. Brian loves his football and his dogs. He has a knack with baby birds and there are many free ranging birds at his home who blatantly refuse to move on and often insist on helping Brian with a whole rang of jobs including cementing and welding. One of his releases is an adult Sulphur crested cockatoo who comes down daily to open the pet birds cages and steal their food.
(oh and he plays Father Christmas for the animals for us each year).
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Jessica
Animal Care attendant
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Rebekah
plays in the snake room Even though she is only 14 Rebekah has a knack for reptiles and her favourite jobs are those involving snakes. She is quite put out that she is not allowed to be the snake catcher because of her age. Rebekah is planning on being a Vet one day. She is also Lisa's daughter.
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Kristy
Kennel Assistant AWS Kristy has been working for The Ark Animal Hospital and The Ark welfare Service for about 6 months, she is passionate about animals and works hard to rehome as many as she can. Her job at the pound means that she gets to deal with many different dogs and cats daily. She has been mostly responsible for the car of an old labby x mum and the 10 puppies she had while in the pound. Her own househould has both kids and animals the best of combinations.
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Corrie
Kennel Assistant AWS Corrie started work with us at the pound we manage, in just a short space of time she has become very much one of the team. Only this week she decided to adopt a new friend from the pound. She along with Kristy and Priscilla work very hard at finding homes for as many animals as she can. if you dog was lost and needed care, you would be very happy to know Corrie was looking after it.
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Cameron
Kennel Assistant AWS Cameron is a versatile young man and works for both the Ark Vet and the pound. he is currently studying year 12 and wants to be an architectural engineer. Cameron has a very soft side. Although he often complains about how many animals his mother has (Lisa), he is often found to be more softhearted than any one else. When he was much younger he was responsible for one of the original adoptions that led to the starting of PAWS Darwin. A litter of kittens had come in with their mother from the RSPCA to be euthansed and he sat gooey eyed over them until Stephen agreed to let him take them home. All the kittens and their mother went on to be adopted out bar one - Enzo who currently resides with Brian and Sandra.
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Emily
Emily is another staff members daughter and even though she technically is too young to work for us she regularly comes in to help with the kennels and the wildlife. Emily is so good at her job that we often forget she is only young. Every time she comes in she talks her parents into letting her take something home to care for.
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Marie
Animal Care attendant Marie works at the Darwin Pound, her job includes lots of cleaning and the care of the animals at the pound. Along with Kristy and Priscilla she is committed to returning as many animals home as possible.
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