×

Forever Safe caretaker’s life has revolved around animals

Lesley Kerr has worked at the Forever Safe Farm Animal Education Center in Salem for more than two years and traced her route to the animal sanctuary at 3155 McCracken Road through the Miami Seaquarium, San Diego Zoo and a U.S. Navy special operations unit. Kerr is pictured with Toki, the Seaquarium's four-ton, 20-foot long killer whale in 2013 where she worked for 10 years and was a senior trainer. Today, Kerr is a senior animal caretaker at the Forever Safe Farm where her experience, trained eye and love for animals help make the center a premier tour stop for families, children and animal lovers. (Photo contributed by Lesley Kerr) The Forever Safe Farm Animal Education Center, Inc. will hold its annual Fall Open House from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at 3155 McCracken Road in Salem. Guests are invited to bring an item from the Forever Safe wish list like canned fruits or vegetables, wheat bread, paper towels, blankets, carrots or scoopable cat litter and take a tour for free. The wish list is on the Forever Safe Facebook page. Forever Safe animal caretakers, Lesley Kerr, left, and Liz Wilfong of Canton, are pictured with Jack, a myotonich goat, also known as a fainting goat, and getting him into the Halloween spirit with a purple wig. Kerr, former mammal trainer and performer at the Miami Seaquarium for 10 years, has worked for Forever Safe for more than two years where a diverse number of animals including five camels, llamas, horses, deer, cows, pigs, dogs and birds are permanent residents. (Salem News photo by Larry Shields)

Lesley Kerr has worked at the Forever Safe Farm Animal Education Center in Salem for more than two years and traced her route to the animal sanctuary at 3155 McCracken Road through the Miami Seaquarium, San Diego Zoo and a U.S. Navy special operations unit. Kerr is pictured with Toki, the Seaquarium’s four-ton, 20-foot long killer whale in 2013 where she worked for 10 years and was a senior trainer. Today, Kerr is a senior animal caretaker at the Forever Safe Farm where her experience, trained eye and love for animals help make the center a premier tour stop for families, children and animal lovers. (Photo contributed by Lesley Kerr)

SALEM — When she was in high school, Lesley Kerr took horseback riding lessons and volunteered at a veterinarian clinic in Howland.

“One thing about my childhood,” said Kerr, who is an animal caretaker at the Forever Safe Farm Animal Education Center in Salem, “I went to SeaWorld and one year I got picked out of the audience and kissed by a sea lion. It was called the ‘Clyde and Seymour Show.'”

A swimmer ever since she can remember, Kerr said, “I was always very confident and comfortable in the water.”

A family vacation to the Outer Banks of North Carolina put her in the Atlantic Ocean and she later made it into the Pacific Ocean.

“I always swam.”

The Forever Safe Farm Animal Education Center, Inc. will hold its annual Fall Open House from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at 3155 McCracken Road in Salem. Guests are invited to bring an item from the Forever Safe wish list like canned fruits or vegetables, wheat bread, paper towels, blankets, carrots or scoopable cat litter and take a tour for free. The wish list is on the Forever Safe Facebook page. Forever Safe animal caretakers, Lesley Kerr, left, and Liz Wilfong of Canton, are pictured with Jack, a myotonich goat, also known as a fainting goat, and getting him into the Halloween spirit with a purple wig. Kerr, former mammal trainer and performer at the Miami Seaquarium for 10 years, has worked for Forever Safe for more than two years where a diverse number of animals including five camels, llamas, horses, deer, cows, pigs, dogs and birds are permanent residents. (Salem News photo by Larry Shields)

It’s the love affair with swimming and aquatic mammals that led her indirectly to the Forever Safe Farm and Animal Education Center (www.foreversafefarm.org) at 3155 McCracken Road in Salem.

She graduated from Howland High School in 1989 and when asked in school what she wanted to do, her reply was unusual. Very unusual.

“I wanted to be a dolphin trainer,” she said, “most didn’t think it was attainable. There are less that a thousand in the world … but I always wanted to do it.”

She asked Seaworld for the best way to break in.

The recommendation was to take courses in zoology and biology, and acquire any  experience she could dealing with animals.

“I was already on the way with the veterinarian clinic,” Kerr said and while earning her zoology degree at Kent State University she worked in a pet store.

After graduating she latched on to a position with the Dolphin Research Center (DRC) in Florida where she put in 40-hour volunteer weeks for nine months. That’s volunteer time.

At night she worked as a hostess in a bar with a second job in a bathing suit shop on weekends.

During this time before the Internet, she tediously sent out resumes by mail, and waited for replies.

The Indianapolis Zoo called in 1995, but it fell through and then Cedar Point called with a seasonal summer position in Sandusky.

She earned her first paycheck at Cedar Point working as a marine mammal handler assisting two permanent trainers and learning to do shows, seven a day, along with two other young women.

While gaining valuable show experience her family was regularly part of the audience.

“My dad came every weekend,” she said, “mom did too … very supportive parents.”

Later, in August of 1995, she received a call from the Miami Seaqaurium (www.miamiseaquarium.com), one of the oldest and bigger oceanarium operations in the world, which attracts over a half-million visitors a year.

“They asked me to fly down and interview,” Kerr said, on her own money, and she had the job contingent on passing the tests, so there was a bit of a gamble involved.

“The swim test was very rigorous,” she said, explaining she was certified in SCUBA diving in college and her volunteer experience at the DRC helped.

The test included a 400-yard free-style swim immediately followed by a breath-holding, 130-foot underwater swim, without surfacing.

“And if you passed that, you had to do a nice dive,” she explained, “one that makes it look like you can swim.”

In other words, you had to show good form … and then upon surfacing, candidates had to retrieve a couple diving weights from 12-feet of water.

Then it was 15 push-ups.

Kerr didn’t pass.

“But, they were impressed with the interview and,” she explained and the job hung on the provision that “I pass the swim test in a week.”

She practiced the breath holding, her weak spot.

“I passed on the second day. I wasn’t not going to pass it,” she said.

Kerr joined the Miami Seaquarium in September 1995, with routine 40-hour work weeks, one holiday off, and learned all the shows with seals, sea lions, dolphins and the killer whale.

It could take several years to become qualified to work with a killer whale, she said, noting the criteria is daily, ongoing and you’re under constant observation, she said.

There are “not that many” people in the world who work with killer whales, Kerr said, adding, “You’re not going to be moved to killer whale trainer unless you have experience.”

She got her first taste of working with “Toki,” Seaquarium’s killer whale.

Diving into the water with a 20-foot, 8,000-lb Orca will inspire a healthy respect for the mammal and make you critically aware of your surroundings. Every inch.

The youngest, most poised, athletic and confident of trainers, once in the water with such a huge mammal, regardless of experience, know the spectacular splashing and apparent cavorting, holds a dangerous potential with each show.

“You can’t get complacent,” Kerr said, noting that at one time she was the senior trainer in the water with 27 trainers, and had to watch out for them.

As for apprehension, Kerr smiles. You can’t afford to let them get the better of you. She has put a lot of thought into it.

“It’s not fear, it’s respect and understanding of the animal species you are interacting with. As trainers we are aware of the dangers of situations we may be in.

“When you work with animals you are trained slowly and thoroughly for the safety of yourself and the animal. Reading your animal is very important in the animal care career, and even with the animals you have at home.

“Understanding their typical behaviors and individual personalities lets you know on a day-to-day basis what to expect from your animal.

“Understanding animal behavior is a huge part of the job, and always being aware of your environment and what is happening around you.”

She left the Seaquarium in 2001, with an impressive marine animal training resume and moved to San Diego, got married and for a short period worked for the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal program beginning in September 2001.

The job, with the Navy’s Shallow Water Intruder Detection System (SWIDS) program, required a top secret clearance.

But a few months into the program, in February 2002,  while transferring sea lions to Georgia for an east coast demonstration, she suffered a serious accident.

Loading a plane with sea lions, a forklift ran over her, turning her 31-year-old life completely upside down.

She nearly lost her left leg. Two weeks in the hospital, five surgeries, a year of rehab and she still has nerve and muscle damage.

“They thought I would lose my leg,” she said, “never in a million years did I think I would do marine mammal training again.”

She got a part-time job taking care of horses and another job at the Helen Woodward Animal Center before landing a position with the San Diego Zoo in 2004.

There she qualified for the zoo “loan” program where she worked in different areas with rhinoceroses, giraffes, Qualas, a panda, anteaters, spectacle bears from South America, sloth bear, spotted hyenas and visayan warty pigs.

There were less than 50 of visayan warty pigs in the world when she worked with them.

Then in 2009, a “big moment came” when one of her best friends from the Miami Seaquarium attended a conference in San Diego. They met for breakfast.

At the time, Georgia opened an aquarium with a dolphin facility and picked off several Seaquarium trainers.

Kerr recalls asking her friend, “Are you saying you have a lot of openings?”

The friend replied, “Would you come back?”

Her friend knew about her injury and in early 2010 Kerr returned to the Seaquarium as a trainer and quickly advanced to senior trainer of the harbor pools.

“I did shows. I didn’t think I’d ever do dolphins, then totally out of the blue …” the spotlight narrowed and Kerr was asked to work with Toki for the second time.

As one of the few people or performers ever to dive into the water with such powerful mammals, Kerr, always thoughtful, said, “A lot of people think it’s a glamorous job. But any job in animal care is emotional, physical and demanding. It takes a lot of dedication and the people who choose to do this are some of the most amazing I’ve ever met.

“I’ve worked hard to get to where I was, but I’m very lucky to have done what I have. I’ve put in hard work, but never worked a day,” she said.

A love of swimming, a childhood kiss from a sea lion and a little girl from Warren was on her way in pursuit of her dream.

Kerr’s dream was to train dolphins but she reached far beyond. She trained her dolphins and other marine mammals, and performed with a killer whale, a pinnacle that, any way you cut it, few have reached.

A few years ago she moved back to be close to home. Her mother lost her vision, she has an her older sister with Down’s Syndrome and her father was taking care of them.

“I have the best parents,” she said, and after being away for 20 years she wanted to be closer.

“I missed my parents, just felt it was time,” she said.

She was hired at Forever Safe Farm Animal Education Center in 2014 and took a part-time position at the Akron Zoo for a time. Today she works full time at Forever Safe.

lshields@salemnews.net

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.39/week.

Subscribe Today