Kathy Finelli—the director of Gainesville Rabbit Rescue, a nonprofit founded by two university of Florida students nearly 20 years ago—recalls her first rabbit: someone’s pet bunny that somehow ended up in her backyard; she contacted Gainesville Rabbit Rescue...
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...
Tracy Voss—the co-founder of TracysDogs, a San Antonio, Texas-based organization that pulls dogs from high-kill shelters, rehabilitates them, then adopts them out to families across the country, transporting the dogs in their 32-foot trailer—discusses growing up as...
For this edition of “Talking Animals,” we broke format and did something a little different: Setting aside our customary approach of a long-form guest interview and, often, a shorter second interview, I opened the phone lines and invited listeners to Call In To...
Patti Ragan—the founder of The Center For Great Apes, a 120-acre sanctuary in Wauchula, FL that houses nearly 50 chimpanzees and orangutans—recalls how she first became interested in great apes. That history, Ragan explains, dates back to 1984, when he volunteered...
Dr. Keith Lindsay—the conservation biologist whose career reflects a longstanding dedication to studying elephants—recalls how he got started in 1977 at the Amboseli Elephants Research Project, in southern Kenya, by something of a fluke. He notes that he returned...
Jo-Anne McArthur—the acclaimed photojournalist who specializes in documenting animals and their stories---explains how her work, compared with that of most other photographers with similar specialties, is informed by more than just a love for animals, but a...
Fern Levitt—the director of “Sled Dogs,” a documentary that provides a behind-the-scenes examination of both the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race and commercial operations in Canada and the U.S. that provide opportunities for recreational dog sledding—recalls how one...
Ronnie Lee—the veteran British animal rights activist, who in 1976, founded the Animal Liberation Front (ALF)—muses about how to reconcile a lad whose childhood, in its basic contours, resembled many people’s childhood, yet he went on to become a firebrand...
Denice Heatherly—co-founder of Music City Animal Advocates, a non-profit organization whose stated goal is “to create an animal-saving culture in greater Nashville and surrounding counties” —describes her formative years, when her grandmother was a serious animal...
