About once a year, I jettison the chief component of the “Talking Animals” format—a long form interview with a single guest—to offer a debate or some other multi-guest panel discussion. As part of that periodic effort to rejigger the program, and a parallel desire...
Raymond J. Lesniak—veteran State Senator of New Jersey, who has a distinguished track record of working on behalf of animals and animal welfare—explains that he didn’t really harbor any political ambition while growing up, sort of wandering into that realm after...
Dr. James Keen—a veterinarian and scientist, and surely one of this era’s most significant whistle blowers in the animal welfare realm--describes the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC), a 55 square-mile livestock research facility in Nebraska, where Keen had...
Thomas Ponce—the 15-year-old activist and founder (at age 12) of Florida-based Lobby For Animals—recalls the circumstances that triggered his precocious interest in animal activism, as well as how hearing about the importance of lobbying at an animal rights...
Michele Lazarow—a Hallandale Beach city commissioner and activist who has helped pass numerous laws across Florida preventing pet stories from selling dogs that come from puppy mills—recounts the dreadful experience she had in 2004 after buying her dog, Alfie, from...
Richard Couto— founder, chief executive director and lead investigator of the Animal Recovery Mission (ARM), the Miami-based organization that made international news recently by leading what’s been called “the largest tactical strike on extreme animal cruelty...
Catherine Doyle--Director of Science, Research and Advocacy for the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), and a noted, veteran elephant advocate —explains what’s behind her longtime passion for working to improve the welfare of captive elephants, while noting,...
Dr. Steven Tauber--Associate Professor and the Chair of the Department of Government & International Affairs at the University of South Florida, whose just-published book is “Navigating The Jungle: Law, Politics, and the Animal Advocacy Movement”—discusses how,...
Nellie McKay — singer-songwriter-activist and true Renaissance woman—discusses her adopted pit bull, Bessie, which gives way to addressing her longstanding zeal for the importance of adopting shelter dogs over buying or breeding dogs. Noting that she had just sat...
Nathan Runkle—founder and president of Mercy For Animals—recounts the horrific incident (a fellow high school student that Runkle said slammed a baby piglet on a concrete floor during class) that prompted him to create the organization in 1999. He discusses Mercy...
