Mark Ofua is a wildlife veterinarian in Lagos, Nigeria. He runs Saint Marks Animal Hospital and a pangolin orphanage.
According to him, when humanity protects and conserves wildlife and biodiversity, we’re in reality defending ourselves.
Dr Ofua, via Saint Mark’s Animal Hospital, has been waging a battle towards the unlawful wildlife commerce and bushmeat markets.
As a veterinarian and conservationist, Ofua has a life ardour of saving animals and spreading the gospel of conservation. He additionally rescues, rehabilitates and releases injured and orphaned wild animals.
This ardour of his has led him to enterprise into bushmeat markets to rescue animals meant on the market and consumption as unique delicacies.
Ofua has been nicknamed the “snake man of Lagos” due to his conservation work involving snakes. He has additionally labored to save lots of pangolins, monkeys and birds. His work additionally entails organising workshops on wildlife conservation in faculties and communities all through Nigeria.
He makes use of such boards and extra to talk out towards the unlawful wildlife and bushmeat commerce whereas additionally agitating for improved wildlife in Nigeria.
Ofua mentioned his ardour for animals started when he was a baby.
He mentioned, “Growing up, I had all the time been the odd youngster out… I used to be a baby who would carry home the eggs of animals to hatch them and see what got here out. I introduced lizards, scorpions… many alternative creatures into the home, and my siblings had been all the time scared since you by no means might inform what I’d usher in subsequent.
“At a young age, I believe I used to be 4, I had an encounter with a snake – a cobra. I used to be out within the yard… it raised itself and unfold out and I virtually froze in worry. I assumed that was the top for me due to the tales I had heard, however as a substitute – for what appeared like an eternity – we each froze, taking a look at one another, after which it simply coiled up and slithered away.
“It had all the opportunity in the world to bite me, but it did not. I kept wondering why, so I started asking questions and that started my love and respect for wildlife.”
Ofua continued: “I’ve been teaching people to overcome their fear of snakes and it has earned me the moniker, the Snake Man of Lagos.”
Since then, Ofua sought data and had experiences that contradicted what he had been made to consider about animals.
“I bear in mind I used to have a set of Gerald Durrell’s books – the man who based among the zoos in America… he documented his travels via Africa and I grew up studying these books. I used to be fascinated by the animal world and what me most was that what I had been advised on this a part of Africa was almost the direct reverse of the reality…
“We believed, for example, that snakes are evil killing machines and I realised they are not – they are only acting in self-defence. We believe bats are evil, owls are machinations of evil, witches and all that, but I got to realise these were not true.”
His enthusiasm for animals elevated with such data, making him to resolve to build a profession caring for animals.
“I began at a small animal clinic and, at some extent in 2012, I took over the follow the place I labored and I had a chance to comply with my pursuits as a result of now I used to be working for myself. While this was happening, I started making forays into bushmeat markets – we’ve got them scattered throughout right here in Lagos – to see what’s on the market, purely out of curiosity.
“Sometimes I’d see injured animals and I’d rescue them and take them to the clinic. But after having handled them, I couldn’t maintain them. So I’d launch them. Gradually, I began the animal rescue follow.
“At one time any individual introduced a canine to me and mentioned, ‘This dog is too old to continue his job as security’. I requested the man, ‘Can I keep the dog as mine’? Per week later, an old man got here to me and requested for a canine, however mentioned he didn’t need a puppy. He wanted one thing he might sustain with. I used to be like, ‘Wow, I have the perfect dog for you’. And that’s how the shelter bought began.
“As the years went by, the rescue sanctuary became more and more formalised… we are currently involved in the rescue of wildlife across the country.”
However, one animal stood out for him.
“I’d nonetheless go to the bushmeat markets to rescue animals, and that’s once I got here throughout an animal I’d by no means seen earlier than. It was a pangolin.
“My first expertise with the pangolin – once I noticed it on the bushmeat commerce desk – was extra like a non secular second. There is one thing concerning the animal when it seems at you… It’s a soulful second. It speaks to your spirit.
“In one in all my forays into the bushmeat commerce, I witnessed a pangolin giving beginning on the desk and it was a really emotional second for me. I used to be crying bitterly and, in fact, the market individuals had been laughing at me crying over an animal. I requested what they had been going to do with the newborn as a result of it was useless to them.
“Nobody might purchase it, no one might eat it… they normally simply threw them away to die or one thing, so I requested if I might take it. I took it home and I raised it and that was what gave beginning to the pangolin orphanage the place we absorb pangolins which are born into the bushmeat commerce and we take them in… we increase them after which launch them into the wild.
“I can tell you that in the last two years, serious law enforcement has been going on with regard to the pangolin because of the awareness that we have created.”
Ofua’s efforts transcend rescuing and releasing animals.
His work embodies conservation in its purest kind, creating hope for animals which are all too usually uncared for. Through his dedication, he supplies these animals with the chance to not solely recuperate bodily but additionally to play an important half in educating individuals concerning the horrors of the illicit wildlife commerce and the worth of practising environmental consciousness.
He noticed that, “The work that I do, I see it as a drop in the ocean. Since 2012 I have been doing this work because of my love and my passion. A new car or a new dress will give you very fleeting happiness, but I realised that when I rescue, treat successfully and release an animal back into the wild, the joy it gives me is deeper and longer lasting… it is something that cannot be described with words. It’s not something that money can buy!”
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