Dr. Eleanor Spicer Rice—a North Carolina-based entomologist and author of books on ants and spiders, who, as the product of a family activity, has developed a passion for pigeons and attendant expertise—recounts the objectives propelling her to get a PhD, and...
Danielle Hall—a wildlife ecologist, who, drawing on her professional expertise and her longtime personal passion for animals, has stepped into an intense human-versus-animal battle that’s erupted over vultures in a Tampa neighborhood—explains what a wildlife...
Liz Marshall—a documentary director whose latest film, “Meat The Future,” examines the realm of “cultivated meat,” generated in a lab setting, from animal cells, but these animals remain unharmed—explains the criteria she considers when deciding what topic or...
Dr. Steven Amstrup—chief scientist for Polar Bears International, a polar bear conservation organization; before joining PBI, he was a research wildlife biologist with the United States Geological Survey at the Alaska Science Center in Anchorage, Alaska, where he...
Steven M. Wise—founder and president of the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP); an attorney, author, and legal scholar, Wise is leading NhRP’s pioneering effort to free an elephant named Happy from the Bronx Zoo through a writ of habeas corpus, aiming to change her...
Dr. Lisa Wiese—associate professor of Nursing at the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing at Florida Atlantic University (FAU), and co-author of a study conducted recently at FAU, which found that interacting with a robotic pet can serve as a boon to the health of...
As we’ve done twice before, today’s show involved setting aside the customary “Talking Animals” format in order to present the extended feature, “Ask The Trainer,” in which listeners are invited to call or email questions about their dogs or cats, particularly...
Dr. Jennifer Conrad—a veterinarian and founder of The Paw Project, and a tireless crusader against declawing cats for many years; I first interviewed her about it on “Talking Animals” in 2005, and she’d already been working on the issue for some time—recounts the...
Kitty Block—President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), as well as CEO of Humane Society International, HSUS’ global division—discusses getting a precocious start working in animal welfare, in that her Mom was an animal activist. Block...
Coleen Ellis—an expert on pet loss and dealing with the kind of grief that results from losing an animal companion—recalls how the loss 18 years ago of her beloved dog, Mico, coupled with then working in the human funeral profession, inspired her to start the first...
