Mark Meyers--founder and executive director of Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue, the largest donkey rescue operation in the U.S.—recalls how it all began, when he and his wife brought home a donkey named Izzy as a companion for their horse. That was nearly a quarter...
Susan Hanus--executive director of Cat Depot, a unique feline-only shelter in Sarasota—recalls when she first became a cat person. Hanus has remained staunchly feline-friendly ever since, though, she explains, she stopped living with them when it turned out one of...
Jane O’Hara, the animal advocate and artist--whose paintings tend to celebrate animals or explore animal issues—recalls a regular upbringing, amidst conventional companion animals. Only some years later, O’Hara adds, did she start researching animals, reading some...
Dr. Eric Eisenman discusses founding International Veterinary Outreach (IVO), which provides veterinary services and training to rural areas in countries sorely lacking both.
Ed Yong—a science journalist, staff writer at The Atlantic, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for his coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and author, most recently of An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
Rebekah Keat and Siri Lindley—highly vocal (and highly effective, as it turns out) advocates for ending horse slaughter—recall a pivotal horse, Savannah, who served as a catalyst for their advocacy. Lindley remembers having some of the equipment for a horse, and...
Phil Jenni—executive director of the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center (WRC) in Minnesota, considered the world’s busiest wildlife hospital—addresses how that “world’s busiest” title is determined, noting that it’s the product of admitting approximately 19,000...
Patrick Battuello—the founder and president of Horseracing Wrongs, an organization formed in 2013, and based in Albany, New York, which seeks to end horse racing--describes an unexceptional childhood when it comes to animals, growing up in a family that loved dogs....
Erin Amerman—the founder of Critter Creek Farm Sanctuary, which across two facilities located in and around Gainesville, FL houses some 150 cows, making it, they say, the country’s largest cow sanctuary, while providing refuge to other rescued farm animals,...
Diane Delano—founder of the Wild Horse Rescue Center, a Webster, Florida facility that rescues, rehabilitates, and finds new homes for wild horses—recalls growing up amidst a family of horse lovers, and she started riding at age three. This was in the Catskills,...
