Saleen MartinUSA TODAY
An Oklahoma chiropractor who works with both humans and animals has gone viral thanks to a video of him making some adjustments for a giraffe in need.
The giraffe, named Gerry, has a private owner who noticed he was chewing abnormally. His owner called Joren Whitley after meeting the chiropractor at an event.
Whitley saw Gerry on Feb. 16 and posted a video of the adjustments he made on April 16. Since then, the clip has amassed over 682,000 views. In the video, he felt Gerry’s jaw and moved it from side to side.
“I noticed that (his jaw) had more range of motion to one side than the other side,” Whitley told USA TODAY on Monday. “I facilitated that movement with an adjustment and then I went and I checked his cervical spine … When I found areas that didn’t move very well, I put a little bit of motion into it.”
After making the adjustment with Gerry’s jaw, he noticed his joints moved a lot better. The giraffe’s responses to Whitley also changed.
“He was wanting to be closer to me,” Whitley said. “He was putting his head on me. He was wanting more attention, more affection. It was like I was giving him a hug and he was like ‘This is awesome.’ He was like ‘Thank you’ and he just wanted to be loved on.”
Social media users ate up the video, commenting about how they've learned something new.
"Giraffe kisses…who could ask for more," wrote one TikTok user.
Whitley said he can often tell if his adjustments have helped his animal patients because he watches for pupil dilation and changes in their nervous systems as he works with them.
Whitley has been going viral since before he posted the video with Gerry, he said, adding that social media has allowed him to show people how chiropractors can help animals just like they help people.
Chiropractor always knew he wanted to work with both animals and people
Whitley has been a chiropractor since 2016. He is licensed through both Oklahoma’s veterinary and chiropractic boards.
He knew he wanted to work on people and animals at the same time, so while he studied for his chiropractic degree, he took classes that could help him do so.
“Whenever I first started animal chiropractic, people knew it was a thing that we did for horses,” Whitley said. “For small animals, dogs, cats, farm animals and stuff, that just wasn't something people really thought about doing.”
He said he knows of quite a few animal chiropractors and recalls working with zebras, lions, buffalo, bears, skunks and more himself.
Many veterinarians in Oklahoma love what he does and they often refer patients to him.
Some people want him to see their dogs because they’re hesitant to jump or move a certain way. Some bring their animals in because they are limping or can no longer use their hind legs.
“One of the lions I worked on, it couldn't go up and down hills anymore,” Whitley recalled. “It was just becoming so arthritic … As soon as I worked on it, he was able to go up and down the hill. I've got stories for days.”
Some people think chiropractic work is ‘pseudoscience’
Although Whitley has helped many animals, not everyone is a fan of animal chiropractic work, he said.
He even had issues when he first uploaded one of his videos online. He was working with a tiger and the video was taken down because people reported it as animal abuse. He had to show his credentials to continue uploading his videos, he said.
Two of his main goals include educating people and normalizing animal chiropractic care.
A great deal of resistance against animal chiropractic care stems from veterinarians, he said, stressing that they don’t all feel negatively towards people in his line of work.
“There are veterinarians that absolutely hate animal chiropractic and bash it every second they can,” he told USA TODAY. “It is a select few who are very, very loud and say that there is no science behind what we do. It's dangerous. We hurt animals.”
Those “really loud voices” are passing their beliefs onto future generations, he said.
Their beliefs date back to the 1940s, when the American Medical Association had a committee on chiropractic care that restricted patient referrals and more. The committee made claims such as “Chiropractors will kill you,” “It's all quackery” and “It's all pseudoscience,” he said.
The International Chiropractors Association has called the committee and its actions an attempt “to contain and eliminate the profession.”
A group of chiropractors sued the AMA and won, but the arguments have put “a blemish on the profession for a long time,” Whitley said, adding that the public’s view of chiropractic care is slowly changing.
Viral chiropractor says people like him can help veterinarians and vice versa
A large part of the issue surrounding chiropractic and some veterinarians is that they don’t understand what chiropractors do yet they also don’t want to give chiropractors the chance to talk about it, he said.
He also said the two groups can help each other because chiropractors know the depth and force that needs to be used when working with animals.
“The veterinarians (have) the knowledge of anatomy,” he said. “They know the physiology … If given the chance, we could have really, really in depth conversations about how the body functions and how we as chiropractors can help.”
Those interested in seeing more of Whitley’s work can visit www.linktr.ee/oklahomachiro.
Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Follow her on Twitter at @SaleenMartin or email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.
