The Animal Wellness Podcast

How One Small Team Took Down Greyhound Racing--Episode 13

GREY2K USA is a husband-and-wife advocacy team that grew through time, smarts and a lot of help to reduce the number of dog-racing tracks in the U.S. from 50 or more to now just four. This is the story of how they did it and what other animal-welfare groups can learn from their incredible success.
Also: Wayne Pacelle and Marty Irby from Animal Wellness Action update us on how the Netflix sensation "Tiger King" is helping the Big Cat Public Safety Act on Capitol Hill, and now that two housecats have tested positive for COVID-19 in New York, we review the risks as well as CDC guidelines for pets.
To learn more and to sign up for email updates about animal wellness, visit https://animalwellnessaction.org/.
 
Music from https://filmmusic.io: "Fearless First" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com); License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Saving Lives--Human and Animal--with better FDA testing--Episode 12

COVID-19 has exposed again that our government's testing requirements for new drugs and vaccines are inefficient, slow, cruel to animals and deadly to humans. Guest Tami Drake (Center for Responsible Science) says that the 90-year-old requirement for in vivo trials is one reason we may be several years from developing a vaccine against this virus, if we are able to develop one at all. 
The solution? Pivot now to using recent, groundbreaking science that enables better prediction of results by using organs on computer chips.
Hosted by Joseph Grove with co-hosts Wayne Pacelle and Marty Irby from Animal Wellness Action.
To learn more and to sign up for email updates about animal wellness, visit https://animalwellnessaction.org/.
 
Music from https://filmmusic.io: "Fearless First" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com); License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Caged Hunts and the Spread of Chronic Wasting Disease--Episode 11

Acclaimed wildlife writer and outdoorsman Ted Williams joins us to talk about caged hunts, where people pay up to five-figure sums to shoot grotesquely overbred animals in confined areas, all for an interesting story and a display on a wall. Not only do these operations—banned now in 20 states—represent the antithesis of hunting as a "sport," they are contributing to the spread of CWD, a brain-eating disease that has shown itself capable of infecting humans.
Also with host Joseph Grove are Wayne Pacelle, founder of Animal Wellness Action, and Marty Irby, the executive director of the Washington D.C.-based nonprofit.
To learn more and to sign up for email updates about animal wellness, visit https://animalwellnessaction.org/.
Music from https://filmmusic.io: "Fearless First" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com); License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Pets and the Corona Virus--Episode 10

While the pandemic wreaks havoc for humans, our pets are so far immune to it. We visit with Dr. Annie Harvilicz, DVM, president of the Animal Wellness Foundation and secretary of Animal Wellness Action, to dispel rumors about pet-human/human-pet transmission of the disease and to learn what's being done to help pets when human companions lose their jobs and can't afford a trip to the vet.
Also: Wayne Pacelle, founder of Animal Wellness Action, and host Joseph Grove discuss how the novel Corona is a harbinger of things to come, and Marty Irby, executive director for the group, updates listeners on the Horse Racing Integrity Act and the delay of the Kentucky Derby.
To learn more and to sign up for email updates about animal wellness, visit https://animalwellnessaction.org/.
Music from https://filmmusic.io: "Fearless First" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com); License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

The Ongoing Horrors of Trapping--Episode 9

"Sport" trapping—an exercise in barbaric cruelty with no modern justification—remains a pernicious vestige of a by-gone era across much of the United States. Its horrors are well-documented: Animals who chew off their own appendages to escape. Slow, excruciating deaths. Orphaned younglings. The inadvertent triggering by protected species, family pets and even children.
In this episode, we speak with Brenna Galdenzi, the founder and president and co-founder of Protect Our Wildlife Vermont, an all-volunteer, grassroots, nonprofit that represents more 2,500 members and supporters across the state. She talks about her efforts to combat the malevolence of trapping by fighting for tougher laws, the enforcement of existing ones and education. Visit her website for more information.
Wayne Pacelle, the found of Animal Wellness Action, the sponsor of this podcast, outlines the many victories that have been made in the fight against fur, from the total ban of "sport" trapping in California to the many retailers who have pledged to go fur-free.
To learn more and to sign up for email updates about animal wellness, visit https://animalwellnessaction.org/.
Music from https://filmmusic.io: "Fearless First" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com); License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Corona Virus and Horse Racing Integrity Act Update--Episode 8

The coronavirus now making headlines across the world is, like the SARS epidemic in 2002-2003, an example of a disease originating in a non-human animal and ending up in the human-animal population. The zoonotic virus likely crossed the interspecies boundary at a "wet market" in Wuhan, where live exotic animals are sold as delicacies to affluent citizens.
The outbreak, says Animal Wellness Action founder Wayne Pacelle, is yet more evidence that animal welfare is very much related to human welfare, and that despite the apparent dual nature of life--mankind and animal kind on either side--it is very much one world indeed, and that we ignore the fact to our imperilment.
Also: Marty Irby, the organization's executive director, updates listeners on the legislative progress of the Horse Racing Integrity Act and the Wild Bear Protection Act.
To learn more and to sign up for email updates about animal wellness, visit https://animalwellnessaction.org/.
 
Music from https://filmmusic.io
"Fearless First" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com); License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
 

Fixing the Lethal Abuses in Horse Racing--Episode 7

About 1,000 racehorses a year die in contests they never asked to join. Doping and the overuse of therapeutic drugs are largely to blame, along with harmful overbreeding, making the vaunted Sport of Kings too often a spectacle of suffering and death. About 12 percent of the horses slaughtered for human consumption are former racehorses.
Guests for this episode are Arthur Hancock III and Staci Handcock, owners of Stone Farm in Kentucky, which has raised countless Thoroughbreds, including three winners of the Kentucky Derby. They join co-hosts Wayne Pacelle and Marty Irby to talk about two pending pieces of Federal legislation: The Horse Racing Integrity Act and the SAFE Act. Both have potential to help our equine friends but need the support of Churchill Downs, marquee trainers like Bob Baffert and others to be passed and signed into law.
For more information on the catastrophic extent of modern horseracing, read this October 2019 article by Patrick Battuello in the Washington Post, "The Time for Horse Racing Has Passed."
To learn more and to sign up for email updates about animal wellness, visit https://animalwellnessaction.org/.
 
Theme music from https://filmmusic.io. "Fearless First" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com); License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Checkoffs and The Abuse of Animals...and Farmers--Episode 6

The government requires most farmers to contribute to funds that are often used against their better interests. The results hurt family farms and lead to the increasingly brutal, mechanized treatment of animals. Legislation is pending that would require more transparency and purity of purpose for the use of what amounts to an $800 million yearly tax on agriculture.
Joining Wayne Pacelle and Marty Irby to discuss this legislation is special guest Mike Eby, chairman of the National Dairy Producer’s Organization. Eby promotes more humane and sustainable agriculture and has been published in The Daily Caller vocalizing the call for reform of the USDA’s checkoff programs, and he is currently one of three candidates vying for president of the National Farmer’s Union.
To learn more and to sign up for email updates about animal wellness, visit https://animalwellnessaction.org/.
 
Theme music from https://filmmusic.io. "Fearless First" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com); License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)