Best Friends Animal Society | Talking Animals

Kevin Nealon, veteran comedian, animal advocate, YouTube hiker

Duncan — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 16:12:04 +0000

Kevin Nealon–the veteran comedian, longtime animal advocate, former “Saturday Night Live” star (amidst a long list of TV and film credits), and host of the YouTube series, “Hiking with Kevin”—explains why his animal advocacy and championing of certain animal welfare organizations has receded in recent years. He clarifies that his objection to the animal abuse […]

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Spencer Conover, Assistant Director of Pasco County Animal Services

Duncan — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 04:00:00 +0000

Spencer Conover— Assistant Director of Pasco County Animal Services (PCAS), whose work has received national acclaim, partly accounting for his being viewed as a rising star in the animal shelter world—recounts growing up in a conventional household regarding animals (they had a dog and a cat), but a pivotal memory was the family taking in […]

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Julie Castle, CEO of Best Friends Animal Society

Duncan — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 04:00:41 +0000

Julie Castle—the CEO of Best Friends Animal Society, the national animal welfare organization, founded in 1984, and based in Kanab, Utah—describes the organization currently in broad strokes, offering notable contrasts to when she scrapped plans for law school and began working there some 25 years ago, as just the 17th employee of this now-sprawling entity. […]

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Peter J. Wolf, Best Friends Animal Society’s cat initiatives analyst

Duncan — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 04:00:22 +0000

Peter J. Wolf—who works for Best Friends Animal Society as cat initiatives analyst, which involves helping the organization shape its community cat policies, and has overseen some of its national cat programs—starts the conversation by answering the almost-inevitable question: How did he move from holding an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering, and a master’s degree […]

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Cathy Unruh, co-founder of MEOW Now

Duncan — Wed, 24 Jul 2019 04:00:29 +0000

Cathy Unruh—a co-founder of MEOW Now (the acronym stands for Managing & Ending Overpopulation Wisely), which is devoted to helping reduce the community cat population in Pinellas County—addresses the impetus for Unruh and her co-founders launching, in 2014, an organization with such a specialized focus. Unruh notes that, employing a long-trusted formula devised by Best […]

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James Terry, about Mega Pet Adoption Event; Photographer Laurie Wolf, about Viral Photo

Duncan — Wed, 01 May 2019 04:00:46 +0000

James Terry—Hernando County Animal Services Manager and one of the organizers of the Mega Pet Adoption Event, to be held May 17-19 at the Hernando County Fairgrounds, offering upwards of 700 dogs and cats—explains how the idea for the extravaganza came together: a coalition of leaders of Florida county animal shelters, in which Scott Trebatoski, […]

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Rachel McCrystal, executive director of Woodstock Farm Santuary

Duncan — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 04:00:08 +0000

Rachel McCrystal—executive director of Woodstock Farm Sanctuary, which rescues farmed animals and provides refuge for them, now housing around 400 animals—recalls a childhood marked by a houseful of animals, featuring a preponderance of rattlesnakes and other reptiles (her biologist dad was a herpetologist). McCrystal points to two pivotal moments in those formative years that presaged […]

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Arin Greenwood & Lee Greenwood, sibling animal welfare advocates

Duncan — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 05:00:05 +0000

Arin Greenwood and Lee Greenwood—siblings who are both lawyers, skillful writers, and engaged in promoting animal welfare, from different platforms—recount growing up in a house that was, unsurprisingly, brimming with animals (though Arin notes a difficult six-year stretch, start when she was 6, when the family went dog-less). The Greenwoods agreed there was no predict […]

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Darcy Dennett, director of “The Champions”

Duncan — Wed, 09 Mar 2016 05:00:50 +0000

Darcy Dennett—the director of “The Champions,” a documentary chiefly about the pit bulls rescued from Michael Vick’s dog-fighting ring—outlines her professional experience that served as a prelude to this, her feature film debut. She explains the passion that propelled her through making “The Champions,” partly born of similar work—and attachments formed with some of the […]

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Francis Battista, Best Friends Co-Founder And NKLA Leader

Duncan — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 04:00:00 +0000

Francis Battista—a co-founder of Best Friends Animal Society, who helped form a coalition of 70 L.A. organizations in 2012, working with Los Angeles Animal Services, launching NKLA, or No-Kill Los Angeles—discusses the history of the city’s shelter landscape. He describes how Brenda Barnette’s arrival in 2010 as general manager of L.A. Department of Animal Services […]

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Kevin Nealon, comedian-actor-animal advocate

Duncan — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:00:57 +0000

Kevin Nealon–the comedian, actor and longtime animal advocate who stars as pot-loving accountant Doug Wilson in the Showtime series “Weeds,” and earlier in his career, enjoyed nearly a decade stint on “Saturday Night Live”–discusses starting to shoot the eighth and what may be the final season of “Weeds,” and why the series may have been […]

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Michael Mountain, previously the president and co-founder of Best Friends Animal Society

Duncan — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 16:00:14 +0000

Michael Mountain, previously the president (he was also a co-founder) of Best Friends Animal Society, discusses his new venture as co-founder and editor-in-chief of Zoe, a newly-launched online news magazine. Michael Mountain, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Zoe, an “online news magazine for people who care about the animals, nature and our […]

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Michael Mountain of Best Friends Animal Society–Special, Show 2

Duncan — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:00:01 +0000

This represents a special one-hour edition of “Talking Animals” that aired on July 9 at 1pm, in addition to the regularly-scheduled half-hour edition that aired earlier in the day at 11:30am… GUEST: Michael Mountain–president and one of the founders of Best Friends Animal Society, which operates the nation’s largest sanctuary for abused and abandoned animals–discusses […]

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libby — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 15:00:37 +0000

Casting aside our usual format of speaking at some length with one guest, today we presented a program looking very specifically at the animals affected by Katrina, through conversation with three people who traveled to Louisiana and environs to rescue, treat, care for and otherwise help the animals there: DR. JENNIFER CONRAD of Animal General […]

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Cyrus Mejia–founder of Best Friends Animal Society

libby — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 14:00:26 +0000

Cyrus Mejia, a founder of Best Friends Animal Society (which operates the nation’s largest sanctuary for abused and abandoned cats & dogs), and an acclaimed artist whose work is central to The Best Friends Art Project–a traveling exhibit that speaks to the plight of homeless animals, and is on view in Los Angeles from Feb. […]

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Francis Battista–Director of Animal Care and Los Angeles outreach

libby — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 14:00:43 +0000

Francis Battista–Director of Animal Care and Los Angeles outreach, as well as one of the founders, of Best Friends Animal Society, which operates the nation’s largest sanctuary for abused and abandoned cats & dogs–discusses his own path to animal activism and advocacy, the evolution of the sanctuary’s operation, it’s Los Angeles outreach approach, including such […]

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Michael Mountain–president and one of the founders of Best Friends Animal Society

libby — Mon, 15 Dec 2003 14:00:15 +0000

Michael Mountain–president and one of the founders of Best Friends Animal Society, which operates the nation’s largest sanctuary for abused and abandoned dogs, cats, and other animals–discusses the history of the sanctuary (located in southern Utah), his own history, and the No More Homeless Pets movement, among other topics. [www.BestFriends.org] COMEDY CORNER: Emo Philips’s “Animal […]

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