Jennifer Chatfield—an animal safety monitor with Movie Animals Protected—traces her history of loving and caring for animals, extending back to her childhood and into young adulthood, when she worked as a racehorse groom. She recounts how, after deciding to leave the horse racing world behind, she began her career as an animal keeper at the Los Angeles Zoo: it began with a gorilla named Caesar, with whom she forged a long, singular relationship—her tenure at the Zoo spanned 30 years, much of which was devoted to caring for gorillas, though she ultimately worked with a wide array of species. After retiring from the Zoo, Chatfield explains, she put in a three-year stint with the American Humane Association’s L.A.-based Film & TV Unit, the controversial and often-criticized enterprise known for conferring the “no animals were harmed” phrase in the end credits of movies or TV shows. Responding in part to a summary of the 2014 Hollywood Reporter expose—calling attention not just to lapses in reporting onset animal injuries by AHA employees, but also noting they systematically hid animal deaths to preserve relationships with powerful Hollywood producers—Chatfield describes how Movie Animals Protected, a new entity and AHA competitor, seeks to employ a different approach to monitoring the safety and humane treatment of on-set animals (www.movieanimalsprotected.com)
ALSO: We spoke briefly with Dr. Will Tuttle, educator, speaker, author of “The World Peace Diet: Eating For Spiritual Health And Social Harmony”—and past guest on “Talking Animals”—about the lectures he was slated to deliver in the coming days in Tampa, Sarasota and Clearwater. It.” (www.worldpeacediet.com)
COMEDY CORNER: Andy Ritchie “Balthazar” (http://andyritchiecomedy.com)
MUSIC: Rebekah Pulley’s “Talking Animals Theme,” Dandelion Collective’s “The Bear Who Wanted To Fly,” instrumentals
NAME THAT ANIMAL TUNE: Heart’s “Barracuda”
AUDIO ARCHIVE:
Listen Online Now: