A brand new show on Animal Planet is sure to tug on your heartstrings this weekend.

  • Show focuses on prostheses for animals
  • Show host Derrick Campana makes prostheses
  • First episode airs Saturday, June 9

Only a handful of people in the world make proestheses for animals, and the host is one of them.

"That's what I live for," Derrick Campana said. "That's why I do this job, is to see a dog like Chi Chi running with four prosthetic legsright at me, with a smile," he said. 

Campana's journey began thanks to a black lab named Charles.

"Yea, crazy story, really," he told Spectrum News. "I was doing this for people since there was no field of vet orthotics and prosthetics back in the day, and a vet brought this black jab named Charles to my human office and needed a prosthesis ... and I made a prosthesis for him. Just the fulfillment I got from doing this -- just that tail-between-the-legs, wagging and him running. I knew I was completely hooked," Campana said.

But he also works on bigger animals -- bigger and wild.

"So, Jabu (is) a 5-ton bull elephant Botswana (with a) life-threatening injury," he said. "He fell into a termite hole. He has an angular-limb deformity which is actually life-threatening because he's out in the wild all day, everyday, and there's so many threats around him," he said.

''I fabricated this leg brace to regain his confidence and help with his leg so he doesn't go lame and go down. It's an amazing transformation to see, and I can't wait for everyone else to see it," Campana shared.

"Dodo Heroes" debuts 9 p.m. Saturday, June 9 on Animal Planet.