As a thank you to Evie for sharing her story, Anitha donated to Save Animals Facing Extinction.
This not-for-profit organization works to protect endangered wildlife by ensuring strong laws are in place and severe penalties are levied against criminals who deal in wildlife trafficking. To learn more about them please check out their website:
After a break that included a not so fun surgery and a very fun trip to Sumatra, Anitha is thrilled to be back podcasting. Here she chats with Zach Skow, the founder of Marley’s Mutts and the Pawsitive Change Program.
Marley- the inspiration behind the name Marley’s Mutts
Zach openly talks about his health struggles and how volunteering at a dog shelter literally saved his life. As a way of giving back to the dogs who helped him when he needed it, Zach created Marley’s Mutts, a rescue dedicated to saving the lives of animals in over-crowded shelters.
Zach also talks about the incredible partnership between Marley’s Mutts and California’s state prisons to create the Pawsitive Change Program. This program, pairs incarcerated individuals with at-risk shelter dogs (at-risk of being euthanized). For 14 weeks, dogs and humans work together building trust and skills that happily result in the dogs being adopted into loving homes and the incarcerated humans acquiring marketable skills, that will increase their chances of success when they are released from the prison system.
To learn more about Zach and Marley’s Mutts and the Pawsitive Change program please check out these sites:
Twelve-year old Jack Dalton joins Anitha to talk about the many ways he helps animals, including his favourite animal, the Orangutan.
Through his YouTube Videos, public speaking engagements, fundraising efforts and writing a picture book, Jack has raised funds and awareness for critically endangered orangutans. In fact, as of March 2023, Jack has helped plant over 13,000 trees to reforest habitat for Orangutans and other animals, raised over $13,500 for education and orangutan rehabilitation, presented to over 5000 people worldwide and has had over 217,000 views of his fun and educational YouTube videos.
Jack talks about why palm oil trees are the main reason Orangutans are critically endangered. He shares incredible information about C16 Biosciences, a company that has created a synthetic palm oil from yeast!
Jack also shares his recent experience travelling to Sumatra and Borneo and what it was like to see Orangutans in the wild.
As a thank you to Jack for sharing his story, Anitha donated to the Orang Utan Republik Foundation. This organization is dedicated to saving Orangutans of Indonesia through educating local people about the plight of Orangutans and how working together to find sustainable ways of utilizing the forests will benefit both people and animals.
To learn more about all the amazing initiatives Jack is involved in and buy his book, check out his website: https://www.kidconservationist.com/
As a thank you to Normani for sharing her story, Anitha donated to Give Kids The World Village. This non-profit resort located in Florida, provides cost-free getaways to critically ill children and their families. To learn more about this organization, please check out their website: https://www.gktw.org/
Izzy Hirji wears many hats—wildlife vet, world traveller, photographer, conservationist, vegan, and television celebrity! He joins Anitha to share his incredible adventures as he follows his hero, Dr. Jane Goodall, in making the world a better place for all beings.
Izzy begins the episode by talking about his childhood fear of dogs and how he not only overcame that fear, but now travels the world, treating all kinds of wild animals.
A fabulous episode for kids and adults, alike—packed full of beautiful, touching and often funny stories about the life of a wildlife vet.
As a thank you to Izzy for sharing his story, Anitha donated to Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary. This sanctuary provides healing and recovery for primates who have been rescued from laboratories, roadside zoos and other terrible circumstances. In addition to all the amazing and kind things Dr. Izzy is involved with, he also makes time to donate his veterinary skills to treat and care for these residents.
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/
An exciting start to 2023, Anitha talks to Jake Davis, a lawyer working to seek legal protection for non-human animals.
Anitha met Jake at a conference about the plight of animals in captivity. The conference was hosted by Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS Elephant Sanctuary) and Jake was one of the speakers.
Jake chats with Anitha about his journey from a child who loved animals, to now, using his legal expertise to help change the status of animals from mere ‘things’ (who don’t have any legal rights) to ‘legal persons’ who have the fundamental right to such things as freedom from captivity.
Jake is a staff attorney with the Non-Human Rights Project and his clients include elephants, great apes, dolphins and whales.
Anitha loved hearing Jake optimistically talk about the progress the Non-Human Rights Project is gaining as they seek to free their clients from captivity.
A great episode for anyone looking to start the year with hope.
To read the article Jake mentioned about why zoos are bad for animals, click on this link:
As a thank you for sharing his story, Anitha donated to the Non-Human Rights Project. To learn more about what they are doing to help animals, check out their website: https://www.nonhumanrights.org/
To learn more about PAWS Elephant Sanctuary and the work they are doing, click here: https://www.pawsweb.org/
Like many people, the pandemic inspired Monique Monelle and her husband to take up a new hobby during lockdown. But their new ‘hobby’ was wonderfully unusual. They were inspired to rescue ex-battery hens.
Monique talks about what it was like when the hens first arrived, how she and her husband take care of them when they’re not feeling well, and how she fell in love with their unique personalities.
Animal lovers and anyone interested in starting their own rescue will love this heartwarming episode.
To follow Monique and her growing number of rescue animals, check out their website and Instagram account:
As a thank you to Monique for sharing her story, Anitha donated to Fresh Start For Hens. This organization is run completely by volunteers who rehome ex-commercial hens into pet homes, like Monique’s, throughout England and Wales.
Anitha Rao-Robinson 