Dentists, veterinarians treat animals at Wildlife Waystation in Sylmar

SYLMAR, Calif. (KABC) -- A team of dentists and veterinarians with the Peter Emily Foundation headed out to the Wildlife Waystation in Sylmar to do some volunteer treatment on eight exotic animals.

An 11-year-old, 483-pound Siberian Bengal hybrid tiger received seven root canals, which took a team of seven dentists about three hours to complete.

The animals at the Wildlife Waystation are all rescues. They come from all sorts of unfortunate backgrounds, including laboratories, circuses or they were simply unwanted pets.

"We have lions and tigers, hyenas. We have a huge colony of chimpanzees that came out from biomedical research and there is more of those animals to come," said Martine Colette, founder of the Waystation.

The professionals with the Peter Emily Foundation volunteer their time and skills to ensure the animals live a more comfortable life.

For the Wildlife Waystation, which is a non-profit that operates solely on donations, the foundation's help is much appreciated.

"They bring in this big group of dentists and assistants and save us a tremendous amount of money by doing some very complicated dentistry. The Wildlife Waystation's animals want to say a roar of thanks to the Peter Emily Foundation," Colette said.