Robert P. Laurence

San Diego Television

The Discovery Channel discovers camels in Ramona

By Robert P. Laurence
Posted on Sun, Oct 25th, 2009
Last updated Sun, Oct 25th, 2009

There's a guy in Ramona who claims you can cure dysentery by eating camel turds.

Really. Gil Riegler swears it's true. "We know all sorts of stories about camels," Riegler says.

He should. He and his wife, Nancy, operate the Oasis Camel Dairy, which they claim is the only one in the United States. They're the focus of Tuesday's episode of the Discovery Channel's "Dirty Jobs," a documentary series that's pretty well explained by its title. (9 p.m. Oct. 27 on Discovery)

If you're still not clear on the concept, host Mike Rowe has previously visited with abandoned-mine pluggers, toilet recyclers, animal renderers, pig wranglers and roadkill collectors. "I explore the country looking for people who aren't afraid to get dirty," says Rowe, a sturdy, easy-going guy with a try-anything attitude.

During his day on the Rieglers' ranch, he tries milking camels, treating their callouses with motor oil, riding them, and taking their temperatures with a rectal thermometer (which they don’t seem to mind).

The Rieglers take care of 18 camels on their 34-acre slice of rural Ramona, a wide open space with plenty of room for a one-humped dromedary to roam. The odd thing, though, is that they can't legally sell their raw milk for human consumption, even though camel milk is tolerated by the lactose-intolerant. They do sell camel milk for consumption by sick and injured horses and alpacas, which benefit from its anti-viral and anti-bacterial powers. And, adds Gil: “It’s the closest thing to human mother’s milk.”

They also make and sell camel milk soap, and rent out the critters for parades, pageants and parties.

"They really are nice animals," says Nancy, who seems to be a woman of infinite good cheer. But she knows that camel milking is a risky occupation, placing the milker in danger of camel kicks or worse. They're milked twice a day, yielding about a gallon of milk each time.

The way to do it, she explains to Rowe, is to sneak under the camel with a bucket just as the baby camel is suckling, ease the baby aside and start pulling on the teat. The milker has 90 seconds, says Gil, "to get the milk as fast as you can."

"Just watch that you don't get kicked or peed on or anything bad," Nancy warns Rowe. "This is pretty much the only place that milks camels." Then one of the camels kicks over a bucket.

The camels are presumably happier when mating, a ritual filmed at length, with the female plopped down on the ground and the male ... well, see for yourself.

As for that story about dysentery: The way Gil Riegler tells it, German soldiers in Arabia during World War II were suffering something awful from dysentery when they noticed native Arabs were not. The cure, the Arabs told them, was to consume camel turds (each is about the size of a big gumball).

The Germans tried it, and it worked. Or so he says.

About the author: Robert P. Laurence was television critic at the San Diego Union-Tribune for 21 years. He previously wrote about politics, jazz, rock 'n' roll and all manner of news. He graduated in journalism from San Francisco State University, and earned an M.A. in political science at San Jose State. He's lived in San Diego since 1971.
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