Animal Transportation with Temperature Monitoring

11-01-2019

Graham Garen from the Wales Ape and Monkey Sanctuary recently contacted Sensormetrix to provide a temperature data logger to record and display the temperature while transporting exotic animals. His sanctuary is located in the Brecon Beacons National Park. The sanctuary rescues and provides a home for many types of unwanted animals, especially primates such as chimpanzees, baboons, spider monkeys, capuchins and marmosets.

Graham Garen the proprietor of the sanctuary, regularly travels the length and breadth of Europe to rescue unwanted animals. Recently covering 4,000 miles to collect a chimp from Bulgaria to bring back to Wales, Graham also travels to rescues many others such as Freddie below.

FREDDIE ..... Born around 1970 and caught in the wild, was kept in a circus. In 1991 at the age of 21 he was sent to Belfast Zoo, who immediately passed him on to the Causeway Safari Park. His new owners became bankrupt and the Park closed in 1996.

Until we rescued Freddie on January 31st 2001 he lived a miserable existence and shuffled around in a hunched position. Today he is a healthy and happy chimp and his appearance belies his former hardships.

The animals rescued are often in a distressed state so Graham wants to make sure the journey to their new home is as comfortable and as stress free as possible.
Graham contacted Sensormetrix to source a temperature monitoring device and logging solution. We provided the sanctuary with a COMET S0121, I asked Graham a few questions to see why our solution was so suitable for this requirement.

Sensormetrix: What type of animals do you transport?
Graham Garen: ...We transport mainly Zoo type wild animals.
Sensormetrix: Why did you feel it was so important to monitor your animals so closely?
Graham Garen: ...We are a rescue sanctuary so the last thing we would wish for our animals is to be stressed by transport they have had enough of this in their lives.
Sensormetrix: What's the legal requirement in regards to temperature monitoring and logging for transporting animals?
Graham Garen: ...It is a requirement for Commercial activities but for the transport we do it is not.
Sensormetrix: What's the recommended safe temperature range when transporting these types of animals?
Graham Garen: ...We like to transport this type of animal on Vet advise around 20 -23 degrees similar to a home environment.
Sensormetrix: What requirements were you looking for in temperature monitoring?
Graham Garen: ...We were aware what we wanted to do and basically it was to be able to monitor the internal temperature of the animal compartment visually from the driving position.
Sensormetrix: Was the S0121 suitable for you requirement and how have you found it?
Graham Garen: ...The SO121 as it happens fulfilled everything we needed and more, with the added data logging we can prove to anyone with concerns or if inspected that the animals were transported in a suitable environment.
Sensormetrix: Did Sensormetrix provide you with a suitable solution and service that suited your requirement and budget?
Graham Garen: ...We as a charity are always careful with purchasing equipment and whilst I had opted for what I thought would be sufficient for our needs and a cheap option I was persuaded to look at the advantages of the COMET SO121 over what we had chosen, it was not a great increase in cost but a much higher specunit, Temperature monitoring is something new to us so we opted to accept the Professional advice from Steven at Sensormetrix and it proved on some recent rescues to have been the right decision to accept the professional advice.