Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched: Life and Lessons at the World's Premier School for Exotic Animal Trainers,   ISBN:9780143111948

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I've loved animals all my life and was encouraged by my grandmother at a very early age to expect a career working with them. By the time I was about seven, she decided that maybe I should be a National Park Ranger. She loved animals too.

But not only did I never realize this early dream of working somehow with animals or at least nature including the animals in it, but I never made any progress at all. My elementary school education and high school education didn't teach me anything about working with animals or nature. It's pretty difficult to think about how to break into a career working with animals when you've got no real information and you don't know anybody that does.

Sometimes nowadays I think about how happy I would have been working with animals, just being around them at a minimum. The reason I bought this book was that I was impressed that there was a college that actually provided a hands-on education. It's too late for me now, but I couldn't help wanting to learn how it's done. Kicked, Bitten and Scratched was not only a very interesting book, but it can inform young people with no other information resources about the Exotic Animal Training and Management Program at California's Moorpark College.

The author describes well the trials and tribulations of being a student at Moorpark College, but all career preparation involves hard work and difficult things that one must get used to, and this is a hands-on education. Clearly it is not easy to work with animals as a profession as so much is expected and one's knowledge base must be quite extensive. The best rewards of working with animals probably come afterwards when one is working in an appropriate job. I believe and I hope there will always be good jobs for people that work with animals. After all, the importance of animals to our lives and the planet cannot be underestimated.

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Review first posted on my blog: [...]

The book "Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched" gets the point across hot off the press. Jobs in animal care are tough!

The author, Amy Sutherland, gives an in-depth year long report of life at the affectionately titled EATM (Exotic Animal Training and Management Program). Sutherland, a successful reporter and author, has already published three well-received books and numerous articles appearing in the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and Cooking Light. Sutherland's writing style may initially seem aimed at the Oprah book club crowd, but moments of a fair and honest reporter work their way into K, B, & S. An example would be the in depth look at the life of Dr. Gary Peddie, the then-current Director of EATM.

Sutherland does her research and digs out the dirt about working with animals most of your waking hours. Amongst profiles of the overstressed students and staff at EATM, Sutherland successfully describes the behaviors of the animals with which the trainers work. Being nearly trampled by a camel, walking big cats, and making wolves howl on command are described in an organic layout that allow the reader to feel and respond to her situations.

I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the topic or has ever asked the question, "what would it be like to train an exotic animal?" Fortunately, "K, B, & S" is short enough where you shouldn't lose interest, yet long enough that all of your questions feel answered.

Overall: 4/5

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Not yet read. Book arrived in timely fashion and in excellent condition for used book. Glad to use this shipper again.

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Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!
Few books about exotic animals pass muster, in my view- too many of them are outdated, cruel, inaccurate, boring, or just plain disgusting to the enlightened modern trainer. Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched, by Amy Sutherland, is just the opposite- written with an intuitive voice and a novice's knowledge, the narrator carefully ferries the reader through a fascinating and detailed story.

EATM, the Exotic Animal Training and Management program at Moorpark College in California, is one of the, or perhaps the, most advanced and respected exotic animal training schools in the world, and most definitely in the country. Alumni can be found at the heart of sanctuaries, zoos, performances, and Hollywood animal companies. The program is two years of the school of hard knocks for its few students, as they not only study anatomy, behavior, nutrition, and medicine, but shovel poop, scrub cages, and, as the title suggests, put up with frequent maulings of one sort or another.

Sutherland approached the college one fall with very little experience in the field of animals and training. She had recently acquired a dog, and had found a clicker training instructor who taught her the fundamentals of operant conditioning and behavior management. Armed with that little knowledge, she traveled to California and proceeded to shadow, from start to finish, both the first and second year classes at EATM.

The book is arranged chronologically, so that it has the loose form of a narrative, but its true matter is more timeless and personal than a mere diary. The true focus of the book is the careful detail with which Sutherland follows a small handful of students from beginning to end. As the reader progresses, they become immersed in the school's atmosphere, in the program itself- the characters become the reader's classmates, and the politics and trials of the program become very familiar indeed.

Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched isn't a manual for the uninitiated- you can't read it and then, say, go forth and train a tiger. However, as a fairly well versed trainer, I was refreshed by the accuracy of the information; with the knowledge I already possessed, I could not only verify the techniques and behavioral facts that I was familiar with, but I felt that I could trust the facts I did not know.

The animals become characters too, in a way. As medical or behavioral crises arise, the reader begins to file away facts about each and every animal at the zoo- likes, dislikes, problems, behaviors, attitudes- as though they weren't a thousand miles away. This brings one even closer into the brotherhood of EATM's students, and the carefully rendered portrayals of student and animal are wonderful to behold.

Another interesting highlight of the book is that one can actually go and read the program's website to see the news of the zoo, performance times, animal acquisitions, and pictures of every character in the book. All the students and all the animals are there, and I was surprised to realize that, after reading the book, I recognized them all.

While the flood of animal and student names can be a little confusing- I found myself paging backwards to try and find what species Zulu was, after I drew a complete blank- the characters come through bright and clear, and after a chapter or two the reader cares immensely about each and every one. A fascinating, informative read that had me hooked from the first chapter.

Plot: Medium
Characters: High
Giggles: Medium
Factuality: High
Difficulty: Medium

More book reviews every Monday at Tome Rat Reviews: tomerat.blogspot.com

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I have always been amazed when I go to the Zoo or to a Circus to see trainers and their wild animals! I always wished I had been an animal trainer and would experience the thrill of an animal responding to my orders. Sutherland 's story of the training of trainers taught me the extreme measures that students go through to learn the necessary steps they must take to get the simplest of responses.
These necessary steps are told with humor and color so I felt I was there at the school and in some cases glad I wasn't.
Sutherland has a rich vocabulary that descibes the people and animals in a way I won't forget them. I felt sad at the end when I realized my day did not include reading Kicked, Bitten and Scratched so I'm rereading it again this year.