In real life it didn't happen in quite this way. David Taylor specifically chose the practice in Rochdale because Belle Vue Zoo was part of its clientèle. After waiting months to have the chance of working at the zoo, he was called to a female chimp on his partner's day off to have a look at an amputated finger, and was dismayed and angered to find that he was called solely to be on record if the chimp died, as nobody could get near her or administer medicine.