Sunday Herald Sun - Sunday Magazine

December 5th 2004

• Four years ago, Don Bright worked at an alternative animal treatment centre. As a human naturopath and homeopath, he’d transferred his knowledge to healing livestock and pets. Unqualified to diagnose animals, owners would get a veterinary assessment first, then consult him for natural remedies.

  At a Melbourne practice, he met Caroline Pope, an experienced vet nurse and animal communicator. Astounded by her abilities, he’s worked with her since. Between Pope’s readings and his prescriptions, they’ve achieved amazing results. “For three years a vet tried to help this horse but couldn’t find the problem,” recalls Bright. “It was filling up with fluid, couldn’t walk and had allergies. Caroline did a communication and the horse explained her hormones hadn’t been right since having a foal. With homeopathic remedies, we balanced them. The horse is now symptom-free.”

  Pope’s life was transformed when she read Communicating with Animals by Arthur Myers.

  She wrote to American communicators who advised her to study Reiki. Its practice of distance healing taps into telepathic communication, which is what Pope does. During a communication, there’s no actual conversation between herself and the animal, and it’s not even necessary to have physical contact. Instead, Pope receives direct thought transmission. “The animal can tell you a bunch of things,” she says. “Sometimes a dog will show you a body part. Sometimes during a communication you’ll get words, pictures or even transference of a physical sensation that is part of their symptoms. It varies from animal to animal.”

  To date, she’s worked with dogs, cats, horses, chooks, llamas and alpacas — she claims a goldfish once yelled at her through its glass tank. While no animal is beyond a communication, her favourite experience has been with a wedge-tailed eagle. “She was kept in captivity by an elderly man,” she recalls. “I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get the concept of what the eagle was trying to tell me as I don’t know much about birds. But she allowed me into her cage (which was a big thing in itself) and told me she wanted an additional outside area so she could get wet by rain and produce oil on her feathers.”

  Clients often come to Pope as a last resort, when their vet can no longer help. As her work cannot be accredited, it comes in through owner recommendations. But a huge stigma remains. “Animal communication is considered pretty weird and out there,” she says. “Often I will be asked to come when family members are out, and even vets will ask me to come after hours and not tell anyone I’ve been there. If it helps the animal, who cares? But the bottom line is that I wouldn’t be in business if it didn’t work. If you wanted to be cynical, you could fool two or three people, but 90 per cent of my work is through word of mouth, and you don’t get work if wouldn’t get results.”  To contact Don Bright, call 0418 533 352; and to contact Caroline Pope, call 0427 563 239

• By Robyn Doreian