Andria Gibbon--founder and president of Protecting Paws for Life, a nonprofit Florida organization dedicated to helping more domestic violence shelters become pet-friendly--recalls, as a young woman in New Jersey, her transformative first foray into animal rescue,...
Dr. Crystal Heath--a veterinarian who’s bristled at inhumane treatment of animals throughout her career, and before, dating back to her childhood as a 4-H kid discovering the goats she’d raised would be slaughtered—recalls growing up in a rural part of Northern...
Kirk Johnson—paleontologist, Sant Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and onscreen narrator of “Walrus: Life on Thin Ice,” a documentary that airs Oct. 22 in the season premiere of the PBS series “Nature”—recalls a research opportunity...
Stephanie Boydston--founder and director of Love Life Animal Rescue & Sanctuary, a refuge in Myakka City, FL devoted to rescuing, rehabilitating and re-homing farmed animals—recalls a childhood in Long Island, NY amidst a string of foster animals, reflecting...
Father Andrew Heyes, Rector of St. Clement’s Episcopal Church in Tampa—a uniquely canine-centric man of the cloth, rarely going anywhere without his Doberman, Humphrey, at his side, sometimes including the altar—recalls growing up in Northwest England with the...
Marsha Panuce—founder of Donte’s Den, a distinctive sanctuary in multiple ways, including that it extends across 50 acres (in Myakka City, FL), and primarily houses dogs—recalls growing up loving dogs, including pilgrimages with her Dad every Father’s Day to the...
Adam Sugalski--who leads the efforts of Bear Defenders, a coalition dedicated to ending bear hunting across the United States; their singular focus currently is opposing the bear hunt that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has proposed for...
Tanya Smith--Founder and President of Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, a 459-acre sanctuary in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, chiefly housing abused, abandoned, and neglected big cats—recalls a precocious first foray into big cat rescue…at age 11. She explains that...
Jessica Farrer--a marine biologist who serves as Research Director at The Whale Museum, and part of the team of scientists working temporarily in Antarctica Peninsula, profiled in “Expedition Killer Whale,” a new installment of the PBS series “Nature”—recalls...
Dr. Marcie Fallek--a veteran veterinarian and author of the memoir, “Little Miracles Everywhere: My Unorthodox Path to Holistic Veterinary Medicine”—recalls what prompted her to attend veterinary school in Italy. Fallek enumerates the significant challenges of...
