A Maltese dentist had studied to clean and treat huɱaп teeth, however for the past 20 years he worked on treating the teeth of wild animals.
Dentist Paul Cassar recounted on Rasimbras programme who he assisted in India in the rescue of around 900 bears from practices which confined them to great cruelty, during which their jaw is broken. He says that he fears patients more at his clinic than animals he cures on the other side of the planet.
Dr Cassar has treated big and ferocious animals such as bears, lions and hyenas.
Based in the United Kingdom as a trustee of the International Animal Rescue he contributed for the removal of the illegal practice of dancing bears for people’s enjoyment and which until recently was spread in ɱaпy areas of India.
“When they catch these bears, they grab a red-hot iron rod and place it in the nose. They tie them with a sort of dog strap and with a hammer, they break the large teeth; the canines”, Dr Cassar said.
The NGO spent over 600,000 pound sterling to buy the licence and freed some 900 bears from the sufferings. “We have taken away the licenses to handle the bears, so there are no more licences. There are no more dancing bears in India. They are all in our sanctuaries being looked after.”
Paul Cassar has operated on bears to treat their teeth while the International Animal Rescue assists owners of bears to change their traditional lifestyle.
“We re-trained them to do other things. So that they could earn money. Some of them ended up working up in our sanctuaries looking after the bears. We set up schools for the children so that they could learn arithmetic, literacy and numeracy”.
As a dentist, Paul Cassar also treated animals kept in zoos. “When an animal is in a zoo, they are kept locked; it is not their natural environment and therefore they start biting the cages metal wiring and break their teeth”.
He stresses that dentists’ intervention leads to a change in the animals’ behaviour. “Almost 100 hundred per cent. All the animals after they are relieved of their suffering, they became more active, they were less aggressive, they ate more freely, they were much happier animals after they had their teeth sorted out.”
Paul Cassar says that he doesn’t fear the animals. “When I treat persons here at the clinic, they may bite me; however all the animals are drugged and asleep and cannot do any harm!”