VETS TO THE RESCUE! UE!

From reindeer to donkeys, The Yorkshire Vet’s festive special meets poorly creatures as part of a Channel 5 animal campaign

Rudolph and his chums are widely perceived as lovable heroes, happily pulling Santa across the skies on Christmas Eve to deliver gifts to youngsters worldwide. But the reality is a little different, according to new documentary The Yorkshire Vet: 12 Days Of Christmas. In the show, we’ll see just how aggressive reindeer can be, ready to use their antlers in anger at any time.

‘They have antlers for a reason, and male reindeer can use them to good effect, as we discovered while making our programme,’ says vet Peter Wright, one of the stars of the regular Yorkshire Vet series on Channel 5. ‘Put it this way, they’re not quite the docile creatures you see on Christmas cards.’

The two reindeer he meets, one of which requires ointment for an eyelid injury, are just some of the animals featured in 12 Days Of Christmas, a festive special of Peter’s popular show. As usual, he’s joined by fellow vet Julian Norton, and between them they’ve contrived to find animals to match the words of the popular song – with a few essential alterations. ‘We haven’t necessarily got three French hens and two turtle doves, but we’ve tried our best to reach those numbers with similar animals,’ explains Julian. ‘So we have 12 huskies for example, but one is suffering from a condition that wastes away the muscles in his head, giving him a balance problem.’ The vets hope steroid tablets will help keep his sledpulling career on track.

‘We’ve got 11 braying donkeys,’ adds Julian, ‘and I help teach potential new donkey adopters everything they need to know about grooming and caring for the animals so that they lead happy lives. We also have nine feisty ferrets, seven pregnant sheep with their lambs due just after Christmas, four calling birds and a partridge – albeit one with an eye infection suffered when he caught it on the pear tree he sits in!’

The show, narrated by All Creatures Great And Small star Christopher Timothy, forms part

of Help The Animals, a series of programmes across Channel 5 throughout the week aimed at raising awareness of and funds for animal welfare charities such as the RSPCA and The Donkey Sanctuary.

Peter also appears in The Yorkshire Vet’s Donkey Day Out, in which he takes two Yorkshire Vet regulars – 90-year-old farmer Steve Green and his wife Jean, 67 – on the trip of a lifetime. The couple – who keep donkeys on their farm – visit donkey sanctuaries in London and Devon. ‘They were surrounded by donkeys,’ says Peter. ‘They thought they’d died and gone to heaven.’ n

PRESENT TIME Peter Wright, 38 years a vet and a former trainee of Alf Wight – aka James Herriot – as Santa Claus with some of his little helpers on the show.