Jane O’Hara—the animal advocate and artist whose paintings explore animal issues, depict their plight, and explore our relationships with them--recalls growing up in a family where animals didn’t have much of a presence, but she liked them. O’Hara notes that art...
Christophe Cox—co-founder and CEO of APOPO, a Tanzania-based nonprofit organization that trains African giant pouched rats to detect landmines and to detect tuberculosis—recounts the genesis of the organization, when co-founder Bart Weetjens began contemplating...
Scott Hardy—co-founder of Hardy Hayes Refuge, a mom-and-pop rescue-rehab operation with sizable ambitions, and accomplishments to match—outlines his lifelong love of animals, describing a childhood where the insights gleaned from trying to treat a locust as a pet...
Kathy Stevens—founder and director of Catskill Animal Sanctuary, which sprawls over 148 acres in New York’s Hudson Valley, providing refuge to about 300 farmed animals rescued from cruelty, neglect, and abandonment—recalls a childhood growing up on a horse farm in...
Ronnie Graves—owner of Veterinary Inclusive Prosthetics And Orthotics, in Bushnell, Florida, which, for more than 20 years, has created custom prosthetic limbs for animals suffering from injuries, illnesses, or birth defects—recounts how he got started in the...
For this edition of “Talking Animals,” I scrapped the usual format to present two discussions about sexism, sexual harassment and misconduct within the animal welfare world—against the backdrop of what seems like an endless flurry of disturbing reports about this...
Dr. Gregory Berns—author of multiple books, including The New York Times bestseller “How Dogs Love Us”—discusses his new book, “What It’s Like To Be A Dog: And Other Adventures In Animal Neuroscience.” A professor of psychology at Emory University (and an M.D.),...
John Corry—a veteran filmmaker and producer whose credits include “Forks Over Knives”; he also produced “PlantPure Nation,” a documentary screening at the 8th Annual Tampa Bay Veg Fest, Nov. 4 at Cotanchobee Fort Brooke Park—recalls how he began his career...
Dr. Jillian Johnson—a chiropractor and owner of Farmhouse Chiropractic, a Tampa-based mobile practice that involves treating humans and animals (her slogan is “chiropractic care for you and the horse you rode in on”)—recalls being a fervent animal lover since she...
Dr. Eleanor Spicer Rice—an entomologist and writer who lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, and who just published four new guides on ants—recalls growing up having a fascination with ants (and other insects), but unlike most kids, she never lost that for bugs. Spicer...
