Shanghai has become a lot more animal-friendly, but then there are still people who treat pets like personal decorations.

For Englishman James Holder, a life spent helping animals began in rather inauspicious circumstances.

One of Shanghai's few expat veterinarians, Holder still remembers seeing his first surgical procedure when he was just 14 while undertaking work experience at his local vet clinic in Norfolk, eastern England.

"It was my first day there and they were castrating a mastiff. It was a big dog, it must have weighed at least 45 kilograms," he recalls. "The sterility of the room and the smell (hit me). I stood up against the wall but slowly slid down. The veterinary surgeon said, 'okay, you'd better leave'."

But the young Holder was not to be discouraged and it was shortly after, while accompanying a vet on a trip to an abattoir, that he realized he wanted a career as a vet.

"There was blood, guts and milk and there was me in my wellies (Wellington boots) and I thought it was great because I was helping to find out what was going on," he says.

Holder's current life as an expat in Shanghai continues a pattern that dominated his upbringing. His father was a pilot and was regularly posted abroad.

"Between the ages of seven and 14, I experienced four cultures as vastly different as England, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Germany," he says.

Holder attended boarding school in England and says he took every opportunity to work at the veterinary practice in his holidays and spare time.

He went on to complete his veterinarian studies at University of Bristol in west England. In 1998, he joined a practice in the small town of Droitwich, south of Birmingham.

The mixed-practice saw both domestic pets and agricultural animals, causing the young vet to regularly test his theoretical knowledge and sometimes reach for the textbook.

"It was very James Herriot-like, people would come in with all kinds of things from their pet pig, foxes, swans, hampsters to the standard dog, goat, sheep and dairy cow," Holder says.

While saying he enjoys treating all animals, Holder says he has a natural affinity with dogs because he has owned them all his life. During his time in Droitwich he also gained "a love for the peaceful nature of the dairy cow."

After two years, Holder moved on to a busy London small animal practice where he says he learned to "love and appreciate cats."

With his student debts paid off and another two years under his belt in London, Holder started hatching plans to travel abroad.

These plans included working with elephants in Sri Lanka for three months.

But an ex-girlfriend's suggestion that he give China a try landed him in Shanghai in October 2002 for a three-month stint. The elephants of Sri Lanka never saw Holder again because he settled in Shanghai permanently, marrying his West Australian wife Melanie and having two children - Daisy, 3, and George, 18 months.

In the Paw Veterinary Clinic where he works in Shanghai's Changning District, Holder sees mainly small animals. Unlike his British animal clientele, these include more reptiles, like tortoises.

In the more than six years he has been in Shanghai, Holder has seen a dramatic shift in attitudes toward animal welfare.

"It is just the beginning but over the last five to six years things have changed an massive amount, with clients getting more serious about their animals and driving vets to get more serious about doing their job," he says.