Friends of Fossil Rim
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Which brings me to the purpose of those ear tags. Do you remember seeing the nurse at your doctor's office grab your file whenever you go in for an appointment? In order to treat you the doctor needs to know your medical history. Have you had this problem before (is it recurring)? What other meds are you on (will new prescriptions be incompatible)?

Everything your doctor knows about your past will make current treatment more likely to succeed.

The same is true with the animals. The major difference is that they don't have a first and last name to file their records under so we use ear tags. This is how the vets check that particular animal's records. To also make it easy for animal care staff to identify animals when they need to move them to another location we put the male's ear tags in the right ear and female's tag in the left. Even from a distance with binoculars at least the sex of the animal can be determined.

Endangered animals are tagged as soon after birth as we can get to them. If the animal is not endangered then they are not likely to get tags unless they have been through our vet's hands and keeping up with that individual becomes necessary for medical purposes.

Next time you drive through and notice the ear tags just remember the animals are really not for sale.