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Couple gives braces, artificial limbs to animals

"Walt's vet wanted to amputate the leg because it was dragging and getting in the way," said Amy Kaufmann.

So Walt's owner consulted his cousin and Amy Kaufmann's husband, Martin.

What unfolded would change the lives of Amy and Martin Kaufmann, both Chippewa Falls Senior High School graduates, and hundreds of animals around the globe needing assistance walking.

The work of the Kaufmanns, who are based in Denver, Colo., has been featured on ABC's Good Morning America, CNN, People magazine and USA Today, and several other daily newspapers.

Walt's dilemma caused the Kaufmanns to start a business providing braces and artificial limbs, called prosthetics, to animals.

"We treat it like a pair of shoes. So you pull it on the morning and take them off at night," Amy Kaufmann said on July 8 in a trip back to Chippewa Falls.

One of their success stories involved Nakio, a dog that lost part of all four of its limbs after they were frozen into a puddle during a Nebraska winter. Nakio is the first dog to receive prosthetics on all four legs, and an online video showing the dog bounding about with no problem has collected thousands of hits.

While others had dabbled in the field before, the Kaufmanns did it better than anyone else and were able to parlay their success to a world-wide presence.

"We have worked with (people from) over 25 countries and 8,000 animals in the last seven years," she said. Those animals have included dogs, cats, cows, horses, alpacas, birds, llamas, goats, sheep and even a baby orangutan that now resides in the Milwaukee County Zoo.

And their OrothoPets business has expanded to Europe (with an office in England), Australia and South Africa. In September, the Kaufmanns plan to open OrthoPets near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and hope next year to open a facility in Japan.

"It's kind of neat to think we're just two kids from Chippewa Falls," Amy Kaufmann said.

The parents of Amy and Martin Kaufmann, George and Judy Szotkowski and Greg and Diane Kaufmann, continue to live in Chippewa Falls.

Martin graduated from Chi-Hi in 1995 and Amy the next year. "I've known him since high school," she said of her husband.

Amy attended Winona (Minn.) State University to get a degree in elementary education, while Martin went to Century College, which is affiliated with the University of Minnesota. While there, he studied human orthotic and prosthetics. He would go on to become a certified Pedortist (some who helps people with lower extremities) at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Mandrill monkey makes 'pedicuring' tool - News : News Paper : News ...

Mandrill monkey makes ‘pedicuring’ tool

A crude “pedicure” carried out by a mandrill at Chester Zoo suggests the monkeys are capable of more advanced tool use than previously thought.

Scientists from Durham University, UK, filmed the mandrill stripping a twig and using the resulting tool to clean under its toenails.

They published the findings in the journal Behavioural Processes.

Mandrills are the fifth species of Old World monkey seen deliberately modifying tools.

Non-human apes, including chimpanzees and orangutans, can adapt basic tools for specific jobs.

One well-known example of this behaviour is termite fishing in chimpanzees, where the animals strip down grasses to make fishing rods that they then poke into termite mounds to snag the nutritious insects.

“It is an ability that, up until a few years ago, was thought to be unique to humans,” said Dr Riccardo Pansini, who led the research.

The new findings, he said, indicate that monkeys’ intelligence may too have been underestimated.

“The gap between monkeys and great apes is not as large as we thought it was in terms of tool use and modification,” he told BBC Nature.

Dr Pansini captured the footage while studying stress-related behaviour in the zoo’s mandrills.

His research during that time helped inform the design of a specially landscaped enclosure, which contained shrubs to give the animals hiding places. The design won an animal welfare award in 2007.

In the footage that Dr Pansini captured, a large male mandrill strips down a twig, apparently to make it narrower. The animal then uses the modified stick to scrape dirt from underneath its toenails.

Though the scientist was excited to witness this deliberate tool modification, he said it was not entirely surprising.

“Mandrills have been seen to clean their ears with modified tools in the wild,” he told BBC Nature. “This was thought to help prevent ear infections and therefore might be an important behaviour in terms of hygiene.”

He thinks the captive setting may have helped bring out this behaviour.

“Animals have more time in captivity to carry out tasks that are not focused on looking for food or mating,” he said. “So in zoos, you can occasionally pick up behaviours that are a little bit strange.

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