Mark Ofua is a wildlife veterinarian in Lagos, Nigeria. He runs Saint Marks Animal Hospital and a pangolin orphanage.
According to him, when humanity protects and conserves wildlife and biodiversity, we are in fact protecting ourselves.
Dr Ofua, through Saint Mark’s Animal Hospital, has been waging a battle against the illegal wildlife trade and bushmeat markets.
As a veterinarian and conservationist, Ofua has a life passion of saving animals and spreading the gospel of conservation. He also rescues, rehabilitates and releases injured and orphaned wild animals.
This passion of his has led him to venture into bushmeat markets to rescue animals meant for sale and consumption as exotic delicacies.
Ofua has been nicknamed the “snake man of Lagos” because of his conservation work involving snakes. He has also worked to save pangolins, monkeys and birds. His work also involves organising workshops on wildlife conservation in schools and communities throughout Nigeria.
He uses such forums and more to speak out against the illegal wildlife and bushmeat trade while also agitating for improved wildlife in Nigeria.
Ofua said his passion for animals began when he was a child.
He said, “Growing up, I had always been the odd child out… I was a child who would bring home the eggs of animals to hatch them and see what came out. I brought lizards, scorpions… many different creatures into the house, and my siblings were always scared because you never could tell what I’d bring in next.
“At a young age, I think I was four, I had an encounter with a snake – a cobra. I was out in the yard… it raised itself and spread out and I practically froze in fear. I thought that was the end for me because of the stories I had heard, but instead – for what seemed like an eternity – we both froze, looking at each other, and then it just coiled up and slithered away.
“It had all the opportunity in the world to bite me, but it did not. I kept wondering why, so I started asking questions and that started my love and respect for wildlife.”
Ofua continued: “I’ve been teaching people to overcome their fear of snakes and it has earned me the moniker, the Snake Man of Lagos.”
Since then, Ofua sought information and had experiences that contradicted what he had been made to believe about animals.
“I remember I used to have a collection of Gerald Durrell’s books – the guy who founded some of the zoos in America… he documented his travels through Africa and I grew up reading those books. I was fascinated by the animal world and what interested me most was that what I had been told in this part of Africa was almost the direct opposite of the truth…
“We believed, for example, that snakes are evil killing machines and I realised they are not – they are only acting in self-defence. We believe bats are evil, owls are machinations of evil, witches and all that, but I got to realise these were not true.”
His enthusiasm for animals increased with such knowledge, making him to decide to build a career caring for animals.
“I started at a small animal clinic and, at a point in 2012, I took over the practice where I worked and I had an opportunity to follow my interests because now I was working for myself. While this was going on, I began making forays into bushmeat markets – we have them scattered all around here in Lagos – to see what’s out there, purely out of interest.
“Sometimes I’d see injured animals and I would rescue them and take them to the clinic. But after having treated them, I couldn’t keep them. So I would release them. Gradually, I started the animal rescue practice.
“At one time somebody brought a dog to me and said, ‘This dog is too old to continue his job as security’. I asked the guy, ‘Can I keep the dog as mine’? A week later, an old guy came to me and asked for a dog, but said he didn’t want a puppy. He needed something he could keep up with. I was like, ‘Wow, I have the perfect dog for you’. And that’s how the shelter got started.
“As the years went by, the rescue sanctuary became more and more formalised… we are currently involved in the rescue of wildlife across the country.”
However, one animal stood out for him.
“I would still go to the bushmeat markets to rescue animals, and that’s when I came across an animal I’d never seen before. It was a pangolin.
“My first experience with the pangolin – when I saw it on the bushmeat trade table – was more like a spiritual moment. There is something about the animal when it looks at you… It’s a soulful moment. It speaks to your spirit.
“In one of my forays into the bushmeat trade, I witnessed a pangolin giving birth on the table and it was a very emotional moment for me. I was crying bitterly and, of course, the market people were laughing at me crying over an animal. I asked what they were going to do with the baby because it was useless to them.
“Nobody could buy it, nobody could eat it… they usually just threw them away to die or something, so I asked if I could take it. I took it home and I raised it and that was what gave birth to the pangolin orphanage where we take in pangolins that are born into the bushmeat trade and we take them in… we raise them and then release them into the wild.
“I can tell you that in the last two years, serious law enforcement has been going on with regard to the pangolin because of the awareness that we have created.”
Ofua’s efforts go beyond rescuing and releasing animals.
His work embodies conservation in its purest form, creating hope for animals that are all too often neglected. Through his commitment, he provides these animals with the opportunity to not only recover physically but also to play a vital part in educating people about the horrors of the illicit wildlife trade and the value of practising environmental consciousness.
He observed that, “The work that I do, I see it as a drop in the ocean. Since 2012 I have been doing this work because of my love and my passion. A new car or a new dress will give you very fleeting happiness, but I realised that when I rescue, treat successfully and release an animal back into the wild, the joy it gives me is deeper and longer lasting… it is something that cannot be described with words. It’s not something that money can buy!”
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