Arin Greenwood is a “Talking Animals” favorite and a friend of the show. She’s also currently Senior Writer at the Animal Legal Defense Fund, formerly animal journalist extraordinaire—she was the animal welfare editor at The Huffington Post, and a regular contributor to The Washington Post, The Today Show website, and The Dodo, among others. 
She’s also a novelist, whose books tend to have animal themes. Hoping she would draw on that considerable accumulated knowledge and expertise—and plain ol’ passion for animals–I invited her to join me in studio to discuss a variety of new stories and timely animal issues. These included the seizure earlier in the week of about 350 dogs from a Tampa breeder (puppy mill), with the animals winding up at the already overcrowded, over-taxed 
Hillsborough County Pet Resources shelter. We touched on another disturbing Florida story, where the ASPCA had stepped in to assist on a cruelty case as authorities had seized more than 75 animals, including dogs, cats, and horses in Lake Butler. Welcoming calls and other comments from listeners, we also addressed what Arin considers some of the more creative new gambits employed by animal shelters at various locations across the country to spur adoptions. Noting the decision days earlier by Delta Airlines to revoke its year-old ban on bringing emotional support animals on flights longer than eight hours—but continuing to ban pit bull dogs as service or support animals—led us to examine the broader folly of trying to identify pit bull-type dogs by their appearance, part of the inherent problem underpinning Breed Specific Legislation (BSL). Having nearly run out of time, we alluded briefly to two major Washington Post pieces: A deep dive into what all happened to the so-called “Michael Vick dogs,” while the other delved into the dramatic decline of the North American bird population. (https://www.aringreenwood.com, https://www.facebook.com/aringreenwood <– If you care about animals & animal issues, you should absolutely be following Arin on Facebook.)
ALSO: I spoke with Aja Nikiya, founder of Compassion Kind, which has played a central role in rescuing animals, for example, in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, and in the Bahamas after Dorian’s devastation. She’s also a producer of “Linchpins of Dead Dog Island,” one of two documentaries (along with “The Last Pig”) being screened Oct. 5 at Jimmie B. Keel Regional Library in Tampa. She’s also slated to be a speaker at this year’s Tampa Bay Veg Fest, Nov. 9 at Perry Harvey Sr. Park in Tampa. (https://www.compassionkind.org, https://www.linchpinsfilm.com, http://www.thelastpig.com, http://www.tampabayvegfest.com/)
COMEDY CORNER: Brian Simpson’s “Missing Dogs ” (https://www.instagram.com/bscomedian/)
MUSIC: Rebekah Pulley’s “Talking Animals Theme,” instrumentals
NAME THAT ANIMAL TUNE: We didn’t play “Name That Animal Tune” today
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