August
13, 2008: Amy Shever--founder and director
of 2nd Chance 4 Pets, an animal welfare organization
that seeks to reduce the number of family pets unnecessarily
euthanized due to the death or incapacity of their
human companions--discusses her extensive animal shelter
experience and other rationales behind creating 2nd
Chance 4 Pets, and
more ->
Our
August 6 show with Richard Belzer
Another recent guest,
Richard Belzer (with Bebe)
Actor-Comedian-Animal Adoption Advocate
August
6
GUEST: Richard Belzer--the veteran comedian-actor
perhaps best known as Detective John Munch on "Law
& Order SVU," also seen earlier this summer
as a celebrity judge on "Last Comic Standing"--discusses
his role as spokesperson for the North Shore Animal
League America (based in Port Washington, NY, NSALA
is the largest no-kill animal rescue and adoption
organization in the world) and its national "Paws-i-dential"
adoption campaign tied to the Presidential election
and more->
Hosted by Duncan Strauss, "Talking Animals"
started as a weekly, hour-long radio show about animals and animal
issues that was carried on KUCI (88.9FM)-- the college/community
public radio station that broadcasts from the University of California
at Irvine--until the end of October 2005, when Strauss and his family
moved to Florida.
WMNF (88.5FM)--a 70,000-watt, community-oriented NPR station
in Tampa, Florida--now airs a half-hour version of "Talking
Animals" on the first and second Wednesday of each month, 11:30
a.m. to noon EST.
While “Talking Animals” consists of multiple
elements--including animals news, animal songs, animal comedy, and
our quick quiz feature, “Name That Animal Tune”-- the true heart
of the show is the interview we conduct with some notable inhabitant
of some province of the animal world. This has ranged from such
longtime luminaries as Jean-Michel
Cousteau, Temple
Grandin, Peter Singer,
Paul Watson and
Monty Roberts, to
those who run shelters and sanctuaries like Pat
Derby (PAWS/ARK 2000), Tippi
Hedren (Shambala Preserve), Gene
Bauston (The Farm Sanctuary) and Carol
Buckley (The Elephant Sanctuary), plus separate interviews with
three founders of Best
Friends Animal Society; veteran activists like Ingrid
Newkirk and Dan Matthews
(both of Peta), and Chris
DeRose (Last Chance For Animals), as well as veterinarians,
biologists, folks who run rescue organizations, assorted animal
experts, and many more.