Dr. Steven Tauber–Associate Professor and the Chair of the Department of Government & International Affairs at the University of South Florida, whose just-published book is “Navigating The Jungle: Law, Politics, and the Animal Advocacy Movement”—discusses how, because he experienced allergies and asthma as a child, he did not grow up with any animals.
As an adult, Tauber began living with dogs, including his current best friend, Carmella, and over time, he explains, began to merge his growing interest in animals with his academic and research interests, which include judicial politics and behavior, race and politics, American government, and Constitutional law. He recalls how, upon contemplating that there was a notable hole in research at the intersection of some of these interests, he embarked on the path of writing “Navigating The Jungle,” which arrives as the first empirically-based analysis of how political forces shape animal law outcomes. Tauber addresses how, despite that some animal rights activists maintain that whoever is President doesn’t materially affect their triumphs or losses, some of the findings in his 
book demonstrate that it can make a tremendous difference if the President is Republican or Democratic. He also describes Steven Wise and Wise’s Nonhuman Rights Project (for which Tauber is a consultant) and that organization’s pioneering work, echoing a case study in the book in which the media coverage—and response on “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report”—of a NhRP suit is compared with that of a PETA suit. Tauber comments as well, through the prism of his book and its relevant findings, on the bear hunt scheduled to begin Oct. 24, and what legal steps could be taken to prevent it. (http://gia.usf.edu/faculty/stauber/)
COMEDY CORNER: Richard Jeni’s “Fred Robster” (www.richardjeni.com)
MUSIC: Rebekah Pulley’s “Talking Animals Theme,” instrumentals
NAME THAT ANIMAL TUNE: Jethro Tull’s “Mother Goose”
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