Elaine West--the founder of Rooterville Animal Sanctuary, a refuge housing rescued farm animals she launched in Melrose, Florida, more than two decades ago—explains the origin of her lifelong love of pigs. West pinpoints a particular pig that a local Humane Society...
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...
Kari Bagnall--founder and executive director of Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary, which offers permanent care to nearly 200 monkeys retired from laboratory research, who are former pets, or have been confiscated by the authorities---recalls the first monkey that...
Kelly McCormick and Glenn Maresca--co-founders of Florida Rescue Farm, a sanctuary in Duette, FL, devoted to rescuing, rehabilitating, and housing pigs, goats, geese, chickens, ducks, cattle, other critters, and no less devoted to cultivating a strong educational...
Michael Schneider, a pilot and founder of Pilots To The Rescue—which flies animals from shelters plagued by low rates of adoption (and, often, high rates of euthanasia), to rescues where foster or forever homes have been arranged—describes the career reinvention...
Howard Baskin—often identified as Advisory Board Chairman of Big Cat Rescue, and spouse of Carole Baskin, the founder of the sanctuary that operated in Tampa for more than three decades—recalls, as a savvy businessman wielding a Harvard MBA, his reaction upon...
Rebecca Reid--Director of Education at Busch Wildlife Sanctuary, a multifaceted operation (wildlife refuge, veterinary hospital, rehabilitation facility, education center) in Jupiter Farms, Florida—discusses the readily observable love for her job, and its probable...
Anton Ptushkin--director of the PBS Nature documentary profiling the efforts of Ukrainian citizens to rescue animals amidst the destruction of the war—describes the sort of travel pieces he produced as a YouTuber, before he morphed into a war correspondent....
Jennifer Langston--founder of Golden Ears Sanctuary and Rescue, a specialized refuge for senior and hospice dogs in Wesley Chapel, FL—recalls growing up in a house where dogs were always present, whether they be fosters, newly-adopted, or the family pooch. Notably,...
Lee Asher--a staunch advocate of dog adoption whose profile has risen dramatically in recent years, owing to a handful of factors, including multiple compelling stories: his ADHD and attendant childhood isolation prompted him to regularly visit his local animal...
