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UI vet's practice is simply wild
(Note: Wolves are in Illinois -- no matter how cute the reporter
dresses up the story. "...figures the one shot near Peoria wandered
into Illinois, which has plenty of wild deer to eat, from
Wisconsin or Michigan after the leader of its pack sent it
packing" -- how nice, but not necessarily accurate. Peoria is in
north-central Illinois, a hundred miles from Iowa and Missouri, 125
miles from Indiana. It seems that USFWS is making sure that wolves are
everywhere -- to justify their jobs, perhaps?)
June 13, 2004
By Greg Kline
kline@news-gazette.com or
217-351-5215
The News-Gazette
P.O. Box 677
Champaign, IL 61824-0677
To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@news-gazette.com
A guy who raises deer north of Peoria calls Cliff Shipley one day and
says he and a buddy have shot a strange-looking coyote, so Shipley
tells him to bring it over for a look.
The University of Illinois veterinary medicine professor and
veterinarian takes one look at the carcass in the pickup truck and
says: "Yeah, that's a wolf."
State officials say no way. It has to be a coy-dog, a coyote and dog
cross. There aren't any wolves in Illinois.
But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decides to take a look at its
remains and, sure enough, pronounces it a wolf, shot in Illinois or
not.
They should have listened to Shipley. He helps out at Wildlife Prairie
State Park near Peoria, where they keep some wolves, and he works on
deer, elk, reindeer, bison and other exotic livestock, not to mention
the occasional snake, turtle, lion, tiger, zebra, camel or
ostrich.
He would like to examine an elephant or a rhino some day.
"He's probably one of the best all-around veterinarians I've ever
met and willing to tackle anything," said UI Professor Ted Lock,
who headed the section Shipley worked in at the UI College of
Veterinary Medicine's Large Animal Clinic before operations were
combined.
Shipley gets raves likewise from animal owners with whom he works,
including Mark Hardy at Hardy's Reindeer Ranch in rural Rantoul.
"Not only is he good at dealing with the owners," Hardy
said, "he is good at what he does. That's kind of a rare
thing."
The exotic animals are interesting but a sidelight. He spends about
half his time working with horses and also tends to more common farm
animals, such as pigs and sheep. He is known as a livestock
reproduction expert and for promoting good herd health practices.
At Sandy, Veronica and Loren Burroughs' High-Point Farm south of
Sidell, Shipley is in his element -- at the back end of a horse,
hand and arm encased in a long plastic glove and inserted, well, in a
place where the sun doesn't shine -- when his cell phone rings.
Eyes still on the $15,000 portable ultrasound machine resting nearby,
still making points to the senior veterinary students he inevitably
has in tow on "house calls" like this, he doesn't miss a
beat.
"Dr. Shipley," he says, answering the phone with his free
hand and then consulting with the caller on the proper place for a
shot needed by a four-footed patient, one somewhere less up close and
personal than the horse in which his arm is encased.
Call over, Shipley pronounces the mare before him ready to breed.
"I've been wrong before, but it was once, and it was a long time
ago," Shipley tells the horse's owner, Bev Spesard of Chrisman.
He has, by his own admission, a slightly warped sense of humor. In his
office at the UI, there are, among other things, antique pictures of
horses on the wall and a can labeled "Certified Bull."
While instructing the students, however, he's all business. Timothy
Jones, a fourth-year student from New York, said Shipley can be blunt
and intimidating to some students. But Jones and fellow student Amy
Podhrasky of Millstadt said he's also a walking, talking instruction
manual on the practical aspects of being a veterinarian.
"He was in private practice, so he brings his practical expertise
to it," said UI Professor Dawn Morin, head of the new combined
section Shipley works for at the UI clinic.
A native of Nodaway, Iowa, Shipley was a veterinarian in Iowa and
practiced and taught in Virginia before coming to the UI 13 years ago.
He and his family live on a 15-acre spread they built south of St.
Joseph along the Salt Fork River -- or drainage ditch, depending
on whom you talk to -- which has put Shipley in the news
recently.
When the Champaign County Board appointed him to the Upper Salt Fork
Drainage District in December, the county's mostly urban hard-core
environmentalists celebrated, and its mostly rural farmers cringed. A
dispute between the two sides over the extent of a dredging project
proposed on the waterway remains unresolved.
Shipley, who hasn't exactly been welcomed by his fellow drainage
commissioners, refers to himself as a "redneck
environmentalist." He hunts, for one thing, and is pretty good at
it, judging from the big deer heads proliferating on the walls in his
home. He also recognizes the need for drainage work, although he
thinks there may be less intrusive and expensive ways of accomplishing
what's needed.
Heck, he's even a farmer, kind of, worried about the early evening
deluge of rain falling on his newly cut hay and the herd he has out
back. They're elk, a bull and four cows about to calve. Wildlife
Prairie State Park sells its excess animals, and Shipley thought it
would be interesting to have some. He put in a bid and won.
He's not worried about wolves. He figures the one shot near Peoria
wandered into Illinois, which has plenty of wild deer to eat, from
Wisconsin or Michigan after the leader of its pack sent it packing.
"We're not being invaded," Shipley said. "I don't think
anybody has to lock up the small children tonight or anything."
Cliff Shipley
Home: Rural St. Joseph, Illinois
Age: 49
Family: Wife Vicki, who has her doctorate in human nutrition and
toxicology; son Clint, a junior at St. Joseph-Ogden High School; and
daughter Abriel, a sophomore at SJ-O.
Occupation: University of Illinois veterinary medicine professor and
veterinarian with the UI's Large Animal Clinic.
Quote: "My two favorite teams are Iowa State and whoever's
playing Iowa." – The Iowa State grad on his contempt
for the Hawkeyes.
Copyright 2004 News-Gazette.com
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