Dr. Dani McVety—a Tampa native and veterinarian who co-founded Lap of Love Veterinary Hospice in 2009, and it’s since become the nation’s largest network dedicated solely to end of life veterinary care--recounts the history of the enterprise, launching Lap of Love...
Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald—a veterinarian for 35 years, featured on Animal Planet’s “Emergency Vets,” which aired for 11 seasons—recounts his pre-vet, 25-year stint working security for Rolling Stones tours, and how that period ended when Keith Richards urged him to get...
Lori Shepler—an award-winning former Los Angeles Times photographer who now presides over CityTheKitty.com, among the most informative and influential websites dealing with feline declaw surgery--traces that unlikely path. Shepler recalls how the cat who later...
Moshow—the Portland, Oregon-based artist and online phenomenon who specializes in rapping about cats—recounts starting to rap at 16, but stopped because, although he grew up in the projects of Baltimore, felt his raps (heavily influenced by gangsta rap) were...
Alison Eastwood —the actress, director and animal advocate whose Eastwood Ranch Foundation recently launched FosterFurkids.com, a website that connects rescue groups and animal shelters with a nationwide network of pet fosters and transporters—discusses a childhood...
Dr. Jennifer Conrad—the veterinarian and founder of The Paw Project, which has long educated the public about the painful and crippling effects of feline declawing, and who, as of this interview, has made more appearances on “Talking Animals” than any other...
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...
Luan Dean—the Director of Mission Advancement at SPCA Tampa Bay—explains the scope of her duties at the organization, which began in 1940, while describing the work undertaken there in the earliest days, some 70 years ago. Dean also briefly traces SPCA Tampa Bay’s...
This represents a highly unusual edition of “Talking Animals,” chiefly, because it features far more guests at one time—eight—than any other show in our 13-plus year history. The overall topic was Pasco County’s Inmate Labor Program, which allows inmates to “work”...
Dr. Laurie Marker—the founder and executive director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), speaking by phone from the CCF base in Namibia—recounts her childhood, growing up near Los Angeles, and how animals were central to her life even then, though it was mainly...
