Sylvain Clairoux

Little Ray and I met long before the zoo. I had a pet store that the teenage Little Ray would shop at for his early reptile needs. Reptiles were fairly new in the pet industry and it quickly became clear to me that this kid new much more than me on the subject, therefore I would look to him for advice. Through the years as he became more known as the reptile guy in the city he would offer seminars in my store. We had an iguana adoption program and he would promote my store. When he finally opened the zoo, the store advertised for him and supplied food for his animals, we had a great partnership.

Competition in Ottawa quickly caught up to me and I had to close my store in 2004, the last year had been very hard and now after 15 years in the pet store industry I was looking for a job. During my years in the store I became very interested in birds but never had much time outside of work. I finally took up bird watching, studied wild birds, and even took a falconry course. I got offered a job with Hagen, a pet supply company. It offered a good pay, company car and benefits. This could have been a great career but I hated it, the pet trade had no appeal for me anymore.

I have built and renovated several stores and am pretty handy with tools. After leaving Hagen, I volunteered with Little Ray with some projects around the zoo. This eventually became a part time job as I was also doing odd jobs with my brother installing floor coverings. During this time Little Ray had begun acquiring several raptors and needed someone to care for them and also do some training. He offered me this position which I accepted, by that summer I was doing flight demonstrations. Between the birds and renovations, I had a full time job for the summer. My biggest fears are spiders and tarantulas, unless I could conquer those fears, I wouldn’t be able to do reptile shows. As it turns out, I had the opportunity to try and I must have done something right because here I am 3 years later still educating people about reptiles, birds and other animals except spiders.

I worked with companion animals for a big part of my life but wild life is my true passion. I consider myself lucky to get to work with these animals and get great satisfaction in knowing that the work I do gets us one step closer to saving this great planet.