Above: Dr. Louis Fredette, veterinarian, and Thomas Wilson Lawlor and Mrs. Lawlor picnicking on the banks of a river, with the attentions of a uniformed chauffer, June 11, 1931. (SPRA 2000.30.03, Fonds 147)
For various reasons, animals play important roles in our lives. Pets become members of the family and livestock are a source of food and, especially before mechanized farm equipment became widely available, labour. Whatever the case, people are concerned about the health of the animals in their care.
The earliest mention of a veterinarian coming to Grande Prairie is in the May 5, 1914 Grande Prairie Herald, which announced that Dr. Duff was setting up a veterinary surgeon office in Grande Prairie. Thomas Duff was an amateur veterinarian and divided his time between practices in Grande Prairie and Lake Saskatoon.
Dr. Louis Fredette first came to Grande Prairie in spring of 1918. He had graduated from Laval University in Quebec in veterinary science and by this time had 15 years of experience practicing in Edmonton and Hudson’s Hope. He sold his practice to Dr. Little and Dr. Shawl in July of the same year and left for Edmonton. However, Dr. Fredette returned to Grande Prairie in July 1923 and this time stayed in the area, serving the South Peace as a veterinarian until a few years before his death in 1950.
Although there is relatively little information about the nature of the work of early veterinarians in the South Peace, newspaper articles offer a few hints. Several mention veterinarians being available for farm calls and Dr. Fredette’s obituary mentions that his practice took him all over the South Peace. This suggests that early veterinarians may have spent much of their time providing care for livestock.
When a veterinarian was not available, doctors would also offer veterinary services. Dr. Ethelbert Reavley studied medicine at McGill University and settled in Spirit River in 1910, where he took up a homestead and opened a medical practice. A photograph from our collections shows Dr. Reavley operating on a small animal, perhaps a dog. Although no mention is made of Dr. Andrew Murray Carlisle having treated animals during his years as a doctor in the South Peace, several photographs show Bomber, the family’s dog, with his leg in a splint. Perhaps Dr. Carlisle also provided medical care for his family’s pet.
Booklets like Dr. George Bell’s First Aid for Sick Animals contained information that helped farmers themselves provide basic medical care for their animals. Most of this booklet is dedicate to caring for horses and cows, with smaller sections covering pigs, dogs, sheep, and poultry. The focus is clearly on livestock, the animals that would have contributed in practical ways to a family’s livelihood, and not on pets. The Archives’ copy of this booklet belonged to Jeanne Pivert, who used its advice to look after her animals.
This article first appeared in the September 2021 issue of Telling Our Stories.