U.S. Army veteran and Ennis, Texas resident Gerrod Boothe 3D-prints prosthetics for injured animals.
When Ennis, Texas resident Gerrod Boothe heard through his wife that her co-worker’s hen had lost her leg in a predator attack, he knew just what to do to help the chicken get back on her feet.
After scouring the internet to find any 3D printing file that might give him a foundation to start his work, he downloaded and dug into a file he found, taught himself coding, made modifications to the file and printed off a prototype to test a prosthetic that just might be all the little hen needed to return to her days of grazing for seeds and grit all on her own.
The first one fit, sort of, but Gerrod has had to return to the drawing board to make modifications for a better model. His accomplishment so far is no small feat as he’s yet to find a file for a prosthetic leg for a mature chicken anywhere in the world and has had to modify a file that he found for a much smaller bird. Gerrod is working on his master’s degree in psychology, not computer science, and his work in the U.S. Army was as a mechanic for combat vehicles, so all that he’s come to understand about 3D-print files and the underlying code is totally self-taught.
Gerrod had become familiar with 3D printing already, creating a variety of items like a Pokeball for his son who enjoys the game, Pokémon. The chicken prosthetic was all-new territory, though, and presented a huge challenge as chicken legs aren’t simple spheres or straight lines.
In the army, Gerrod was an all-wheel recovery mechanic who’d go out and retrieve bombed and disabled vehicles. He spent a year in Iraq and another year in Afghanistan during which time he was shot at while on a recovery mission but his plates protected him. He also experienced numerous IEDs but was fortunate enough not to sustain any major injuries.
Back in the U.S., though, he was hit by a suspected drunk driver as he returned home one evening after getting off of work. The other driver fled the scene, leaving him on the road as good as dead. Gerrod survived the accident but lost his leg which had to be amputated above the knee. As an outdoorsman and someone unfond of staying in one place, he bristled at the prospects of being confined to a wheelchair.
“Between Iraq and Afghanistan, I experienced a lot of terrible things and then come home to get hit by a drunk driver,” Gerrod says.
Soon, though, he was fitted for a prosthetic and began the transition to returning to life with a semblance of the mobility he once enjoyed. Ten years later, though, he says he’s still making the transition. His experience lends itself to some of what motivates him to help the little hen, but make no mistake — he’d have been just as concerned about the creature even if he’d never been in the crash.
“It kind of resonated with me in the sense of like, I don’t like seeing animals hurt or not being able to live their lives as they were created to live,” Gerrod says about hearing the news of the hen’s circumstances.
In researching the details for creating the bird prosthetic, Gerrod found that for the most part, birds with injured legs are euthanized. Having enjoyed an outright friendship with some ducks he once knew before moving to Ennis five years ago, he knew just how enjoyable of a companionship a person can forge with a bird — just like with a dog or a cat — so he wanted to help his wife’s coworker and the hen anyway he could.
“I had quite a few ducks. But my first two I had named Pitri and Tristyn — Pitri from The Land Before Time cartoons as a kid. He was the very first duck that I got because I felt bad. But, I loved those ducks. Those ducks were awesome. They let me pet them and walk up to feed them by hand. So, I knew what it was like with a bird of that that caliber,” Gerrod recalls. “I just figured with this, if you get a bird and you don’t want to put it down because you care about the birds like I cared about my ducks, I’ll help.”
He was limited to birds at first because of the size of the printer he had, but recently got a larger printer up and running which allows him to help with larger animals like dogs and cats. He says he’s not doing this for the money and has no plans to start an organization or a company centered around the work. It’s just his avocation.
His major goal in life for know is getting his credentials to become a licensed professional counselor, helping people in need, especially those who’ve suffered life-changing traumatic events. As with the animals he helps and the people he wants to help, for Gerrod it’s all about individuals living a fulfilled life. If he can play a part of someone or some animal enjoying life to the fullest, then he feels he’s living life to the fullest. His philosophy for people is the same as his approach to animals.
“I’ve always had this connection with animals because my family has always had some — cats, dogs, horses,” Gerrod says. “It most likely comes from my mom telling me as a kid that animals were not put here to be abused or hurt and only want to be loved.”