David Crawford, co-founder and executive director of Animal Help Now

by | Aug 11, 2021

David Crawford—co-founder and executive director of Animal Help Now, a Boulder, Colorado-based national organization considered the 911 of wildlife emergencies, a somewhat glib, though not inaccurate, description—observes that he didn’t have a particularly profound bond with animals as a kid, but developed that connection as a young man. Crawford relates some of the pivotal moments in forging that connection, including witnessing a deer getting hit by a car, and taking a job in a slaughterhouse. Other steps in that direction include Crawford’s participation in Rocky Mountain Animal Defense, an animal rights organization that, he says, dissolved after a 10-12 year run. Crawford recalls that the end of that organization loosely evolved into an effort by some former members to catalog every species in that area, which in turn, evolved into a precursor of the Animal Help Now website, though with information provided about domestic animals, including pets and farmed animals. The further transformation, Crawford recounts, was deciding to de-emphasize domestic animals in favor of concentrating on wildlife and expanding the scope of this deep resource nationwide. He responds to my real-time description of visiting the Animal Help Now website on my laptop in the studio, and the numerous, two-tiered list of Tampa resources this yields, and explains how he arrived at the criteria to determine which resources would be included—how they’re vetted initially, and how they’re updated subsequently. We also touch on the virtues of using this information on the Animal Help Now website, or app, in a scenario where there’s, say, a mother raccoon and her babies are in you’re attic—there’s a good, humane way to proceed, and ways that for some people, unwittingly, are not. (https://ahnow.org/#/, https://www.facebook.com/AnimalHelpNow, https://www.instagram.com/animalhelpnowapp/)

COMEDY CORNER:  Joe Zimmerman’s “Animal Attacks” (http://www.zimmermancomedy.com)

MUSIC: Rebekah Pulley’s “Talking Animals Theme,” Carrie Newcomer’s “My Dog,” instrumentals

NAME THAT ANIMAL TUNE: We didn’t play “Name That Animal Tune” today.

AUDIO ARCHIVE:

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