By Charlene Gatt
AT 3AM on Christmas morning Braybrook paramedic Shaun Harris received a call-out from the Keilor Downs police.
But this was not your average ambulance run.
A Labrador had been hit by a car along Ballarat Rd and needed medical assistance. The police officer diverted traffic until Mr Harris arrived in his pet ambulance van and gave him a police escort to the freeway, but unfortunately it was too late and the dog died.
Luckily for Mr Harris, who started up the 24-hour pet ambulance service 15 months ago, not all cases are so tragic.
In fact, some are downright comical, such as the time he and housemate Iain Lapworth had to capture two billy goats running down Ballarat Rd, or the time they had to shoo kangaroos off Calder Raceway before a race started.
Mr Harris started up the service after his dog BJ died because he did not have a car to drive him to a vet.
Starting off in a $100 stationwagon, he was given a real ambulance van from the Queensland Ambulance Service after a radio fund-raiser with Derryn Hinch.
The ambulance is now stocked with its own stretcher, medical kits, an IV drip and portable breathing equipment.
“Everything that a human ambulance has, we’re trying to put in,” Mr Harris, a trained paramedic, said.
The pet ambulance does everything from taking pets to vet appointments for clients who can’t get them there, to rescuing wildlife and retrieving dead animals.
And there have also been times when Mr Harris needed his own medical assistance. He has received 175 stitches to his arms in the past year because of nips and scratches from some over-enthusiastic and narky pets and animals.
Mr Harris said he hoped to one day get a bus that he could convert into surgical units that could be used for major incidents such as bushfires.
Anyone wanting to volunteer, donate or contact the service can call 1800 738 000.
