| Thursday 20 September 2007 |
|
Reindeer ranch starts to rebuild
A tick-borne blood disease has wiped out most of Madison County's reindeer population. And if the area's lone reindeer rancher can't rebuild his herd, this epidemic could have a dispiriting impact on Christmas. During the holiday season, Reindeer Inc.'s animals are contracted out to pose for pictures with Santa Claus at shopping malls throughout the country, including Madison Square Mall. They've been rented out for parties, a movie, a Garth Brooks commercial for Wal-Mart, and once, for the Mariah Carey video, "All I Want for Christmas is You".
"At first we thought it was the heat," said ranch manager Larry Holder of Reindeer Inc. in northeast Madison County. "But when we lost five in one day, we knew it was something else. It was enough to make this grown man cry. I've known some of these animals for years and years, and then they're just laying there on the ground, dying, and there's nothing you can do."
As of Wednesday, 23 animals from the 30-head herd died in a month's time. The reindeer began dying the second week in August, said Holder, 45. It's not unusual to lose one or two a year, given that the South isn't their natural habitat. Those who have been bred and born here fare better in the heat than those who have been transplanted from chillier climates.
Still, the rate at which they were falling was bizarre, and economically devastating. Each reindeer costs between $3,000 and $5,000 - not counting what it costs Holder to drive to pick them up - and they aren't insured. "We had coverage on them through Lloyds of London at one time," Holder said. "But after two or three died, they dropped us."
Local veterinarians and animal doctors at Auburn University tried to help the animals at Reindeer Inc. - which was started in 1979 by Bobby Baldwin of Huntsville - but it took some time for blood work to show what was going wrong. "They were eating normal, acting normal, and then they'd start staggering," Holder said. "Within 45 minutes, they'd be dead."
He took off for Auburn one day in August with two animals, and before he reached the university, one reindeer was dead, and the other died within minutes of getting there. But getting there with one alive for a short while was enough to help find the answer.
"The vet said you can tell more about blood from a living animal than about blood from one that's dead," the ranch manager said. Dr. Misty Abrams Edmondson "was able to figure it out." Holder said the animals had suffered from babesia, which is brought on by repeated tick bites. It isn't transmitted from deer to deer, he said.
Once the source of the illness was determined, Holder said work could begin on eliminating the cause. The area where they graze has been sprayed for ticks, and he's bought guineas to eat the parasites. "I've been told guineas eat ticks better than about anything," he said.
The portion of the herd that hadn't been killed was put on antibiotics, "and we haven't had one die in days." He and Baldwin are grateful for that, but even conservatively, they've lost $70,000 worth of animals, not counting medical bills.
"Me and Mr. Baldwin had some serious talks about just quitting," he said. "It'll take years to recover. We had to make a decision: Do we quit, or do we keep buying deer? But you can't just walk away. If you've ever seen the joy on the face of a kid the first time he's seen a reindeer, you'd know what I mean. And there's a 92-year-old woman who comes out every Christmas when we bring them to Atlanta, and she tells me that we make her whole year."
Now that they know what was causing the animals to die, they're ready to rebuild the herd at the second oldest reindeer ranch in the nation. Holder left the ranch at 5 a.m. Wednesday, driving to Kalamazoo, Mich., to buy some. They've gotten some from Texas. They'll keep buying until they have about 30, which is what they need to meet their contractual obligations.
But getting the reindeer isn't enough. Then they have to train them. "We'll work them for a couple of months to figure who can do what," Holder said. "Some won't pull a sleigh no matter what, and some don't want to be petted. You have to work with their personalities." (The Huntsville Times)
|
