Sabrina Fair Andronica joins Anitha to talk about being a children’s author and an animal lover, and how she combines these two parts of her life.
In her books, Sabrina gently tackles subjects such as dealing with grief over the loss of a pet, animal testing, and misconceptions people have about certain breeds of dogs; in particular Pitbulls.
She visits schools in hopes of inspiring children to be kind to all kinds.
During the podcast, Sabrina mentioned an app people of all ages can use when they are shopping. It’s called Cruelty Cutter and makes cruelty-free shopping simple. The app scans items and provides an instant response about the product’s animal-testing status.
As a thank you to Sabrina for sharing her story, Anitha donated to Moe Dogge Shelter. This shelter, located in Beruit, Lebanon, is dedicated to protecting and caring for street dogs and cats. To learn more about Moe and his passion to help animals, click on this link: https://moeshelter.godaddysites.com/
Chelsea Tanchip has a passion to help kids with disabilities. Though Chelsea and her family emigrated from the Philippines years ago, Chelsea found a way to stay connected with the country and follow her passion through an organization called A Child’s D.R.E.A.M. Foundation. This foundation, provides pediatric therapy for exceptional children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Behavioral Problems, Cerebral Palsy, Developmental Language Disorders, Down Syndrome, Giftedness, Hearing and Vision Problems, Learning Disabilities, Intellectual Disability, or Sensory Impairments.
Chelsea volunteers to organize special events for the children. If you’re interested in participating in an author event, contact Chelsea at chelseatanchip@gmail.com
As a thank you to Chelsea for sharing her story, Anitha donated to Young Focus Philippines. This organization is devoted to improving the mental, physical and social well-being of young people in poor communities by means of education, health care and personal support.
When she was around seven years old, Olivia Pisano received a huge book all about animals. She loved learning about the animals, especially the whales. This interest in whales continued through elementary school, high school, all the way to her PhD.
Olivia joins Anitha to share her incredible story of connecting her PhD with her passion to help whales.
Olivia talks about her research project to use satellite imagery as a way to keep whales safe. She and Anitha also discuss major threats to the whale population, such as entanglement in fishing gear.
As a thank you to Olivia for sharing her story, Anitha donated to the Canadian Whale Institute. This charity is dedicated to protecting marine mammals and their habitats. To learn more about this group, please click here: https://www.canadianwhaleinstitute.ca
Alex at ten years of age, taking photos for BBC Wildlife Magazine
Seventeen-year-old Alex White joins Anitha from Oxfordshire, United Kingdom to talk about his passion to inspire people to appreciate wildlife and nature in their own backyards.
When Alex was seven, he was given a camera, and fairly soon after he created a blog to share stories and photographs of wildlife and nature in his Local Patch. His blog has been declared as one of the top 50 wildlife blogs.
Alex also talks about his exciting stint as a journalist for a BBC wildlife magazine and publishing a book he wrote called Get Your Boots On. It’s all about ways to enjoy nature.
As a thank you for sharing his story, Anitha donated to the Oxfordshire Badger Group Vaccination Project. To learn more about the wonderful work this group is doing to help badgers, click on this link: https://www.oxonbadgergroup.org.uk/
It’s always a joy to meet another author. However, connecting with Michelle Kadarusman was an extra thrill, because not only do we share a love of books and writing, we share a love for animals.
Michelle grew up in Melbourne, Australia with her four siblings. Her parents divorced when she was very young, and her mom, now a single mother and raising five kids, didn’t allow the family to have pets.
But this doesn’t appear to have been a hard rule, since Michelle and her siblings still filled their home with strays. To her relief, once the animals were there, her mom fell in love with the new family members as well. Michelle’s menagerie of strays included cats, rabbits and a dog named Charlie.
In 2000 Michelle moved to Canada and adopted her first dog from the Toronto Humane Society. Buddy was a five-year-old beagle mix. Sadly, Buddy died two years later. It happened when Michelle and her children were walking home from school. Buddy saw another dog across the street. He lunged and broke free of his leash, and he got hit by a car.
Devastated by his death, Michelle knew she wanted to bring another dog into their family.
“Dogs add colour to our lives,” she says.
In 2003, India, a Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy, joined Michelle’s family, and then seven years later, they adopted Hannah, a shepherd mix rescued from Aruba.
Left to right: Hannah & India; Hannah & Michelle
Given her love of animals, it’s no surprise that in 1996, while living in Surabaya, Indonesia, Michelle’s desire to help animals extended beyond rabbits, cats and dogs. She helped rescue an orangutan.
Her brother, Andre, was also in Indonesia at the time. He was working for an Australian construction company based in Jakarta. His work involved travelling to remote areas. At one of those locations he came upon a captive orangutan, held in a tiny cage, who was being used as an attraction at a restaurant.
Michelle’s brother didn’t know what to do. It is illegal in Indonesia to have an orangutan in captivity. But this was before Google and finding a rescue organization to save the orangutan was very difficult.
Michelle’s brother contacted her, wondering if she could help. Michelle had recently had a baby and belonged to a mom’s group. She told the other mothers about the plight of the orangutan. Luckily, one of the women knew someone who volunteered at an orangutan rescue. She promised to contact her friend at the rescue and get back to Michelle.
A couple of weeks passed and then Michelle received a call from the woman at the rescue. They were in the area that day and needed the location of the restaurant.
Michelle scrambled to contact her brother. Fortunately, she was able to speak with him. Even though he didn’t know the exact address of the restaurant, as it was located in a remote village, he was able to provide enough details for the rescue team to find the orangutan.
Thanks to Michelle and her brother, the orangutan was saved and taken to a sanctuary. Her seven years of being held captive in a tiny cage had finally come to an end.
Michelle never learned exactly what happened to the orangutan, but is hopeful that her life was a lot better having been rescued.
Not only is Michelle an animal lover but she is also an author. This incident with the orangutan has been brewing in Michelle’s mind for almost thirty years. She is now working on transforming it into a fictional story. She plans on telling the story from three points of view: the main character is a girl who is a budding activist, a boy whose uncle owns the restaurant where the orangutan was kept, and the orangutan herself.
As she writes, Michelle is cognisant of the complexities involved in dealing with animal conservation in countries such as Indonesia. She is determined not to vilify the restaurant owners. She says that her brother returned to the restaurant after the orangutan was saved and the owners were relieved she had been rescued. They too, wanted a better life for the orangutan but didn’t know how to make that happen.
Michelle is a gifted writer. Her 2019 middle grade novel, Girl of The Southern Sea was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award. She has written three award- nominated novels. I eagerly await the release of this story based on her real-life experience helping an orangutan.
When asked the question, what is the one thing she would change in the world, Michelle said, “To change the world we have to look at our own actions first. It’s easy to forget to simply be kind. I try and remind myself everyday to lighten my thoughts and just do what I can.”
For more information about Michelle, please check out her Facebook page:
Anitha Rao-Robinson 