It is my privilege to live and work within the confines of the most unique animal protection organization in the world—with the greatest collection of issue experts and social reformers working on issues related to companion animals, farm animals, wildlife, horses, the use of animals in research and testing, and so many other human-animal concerns. Every day my colleagues do their best to make real the commitment of our founders to help all animals, everywhere.

Michelle Riley/The HSUS
We've made strides for animals in California and elsewhere.

Our detractors constantly try to define us, saying we should focus more on one area or another—or more likely, they just think we should stop doing what we’re doing. Groups like puppy millers and factory farmers fear change, and they don’t like the criticism from a powerful organization like The HSUS or the prospect of having to do better when it comes to the care and treatment of animals. But that’s what we insist upon, and that’s what we work for.

This morning, Tracie Cone of the Associated Press wrote a story about my colleague, HSUS California state director Jennifer Fearing, highlighting the fact that The HSUS’s broad work has driven a wave of new policy-making in California since our landmark Hallmark slaughter plant investigation in Chino, announced in January 2008. We not only passed Prop 2 in the wake of that downed animal investigation, but our work also helped to secure about 30 positive legislative outcomes in the state—laws relating to downers, cockfighting, tail docking of dairy cows, shark finning, the sale of battery cage eggs, and many other subjects—with Jennifer so ably steering these measures to passage with our allies both within and outside of the Capitol. "Of all the animal organizations, HSUS has the money and the political savvy to be problematic for my clients going forward," said Michael Boccadoro, a poultry industry lobbyist, in the AP piece. "They are on another level. We are aware of it and are watching in terms of their actions."

Late last week, NBC in New York City ran a piece on our investigation of more than 100 pet stores in New York (see video) and their link to some of the most notorious puppy mills in the Midwest. We’ve long linked mills to pet stores, and this exposé from reporters Katy Tur and Tom Burke makes that connection incontrovertible.

 

In Phoenix, the CBS affiliate worked with The HSUS on a shocking piece about captive hunts (watch the video here). The piece by investigative reporter Morgan Loew showed gut-wrenching footage of HSUS undercover investigations of these canned hunts and an unconscionable defense of this sordid industry from Safari Club International.

Today, the New York Times posted a piece about our campaign to end the use of chimpanzees in invasive research. The piece is slated to run in the Science Times section of the newspaper tomorrow. Passing federal legislation to phase out the invasive use of chimps and retire them to sanctuaries is one of our top priorities.

That’s just a small sampling of what we’re doing at any one time at The HSUS. But it shows how millions of Americans are learning of our programs and campaigns to educate the public, shine the spotlight on cruelty, and galvanize support for changes in the treatment of animals. Awareness is an antecedent to lasting reform, and that’s the end goal of all of our work.

A couple of weeks ago, I took a very special trip to Chimp Haven outside of Shreveport, Louisiana. It’s a sanctuary—one of several—for chimps retired from research, with 140 chimps roaming throughout a beautiful, humane, and safe facility.

Our federal government, along with a number of private labs, has used chimpanzees for invasive research for decades. The HSUS exposed abuses of chimps in a 2009 investigation at the New Iberia Research Center, also in Louisiana, and the largest of the chimp research centers in the country. One chimp at the facility had been in a laboratory since 1958—when Dwight Eisenhower was president of the United States.

Ironically, we discovered that not too long before I got to Chimp Haven, five chimps from New Iberia—Karen, Ladybird, Penny, Terry, and Jerry—had been released to the sanctuary after spending decades in laboratories.

At Chimp Haven in Louisiana.

The chimpanzees’ retirement came none too soon for Jerry, who reached the sanctuary with masses in his mouth so large he had trouble eating and drinking. Thanks to the outstanding veterinary care at Chimp Haven, the masses have been removed and his quality of life has improved.

Sadly, Terry—who was 45 and in failing health—passed away soon after her arrival. We are grateful that she was able to spend her last days in a caring and safe environment, but her death highlights the urgent need to allow the remaining elderly chimpanzees to live out the rest of their lives in peace and comfort at a sanctuary—before it's too late. You can help by asking New Iberia to retire these chimps.

Chimp Haven has big, open enclosures and even forested areas where the animals can roam and climb. Despite their mishandling by people in prior settings, they still retain so much personality. I was throwing fruits and vegetables to some of the chimps, and one caught the tomato and then playfully threw it back at me, like some mischievous person.

The HSUS strongly supports the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act (S. 810 / H.R. 1513) to phase out the use of all chimps in laboratories. Congress should enact this legislation, either through its deficit reduction work or as a free-standing bill. Not only will this bill stop the wasteful warehousing of these remarkable animals in labs, but it will also benefit American taxpayers with $30 million in savings annually.

These animals have already made their sacrifices. Now, on Veteran’s Day, it’s time for us to exhibit decency and mercy and let them live their lives in peace. The United States exists as the only industrialized nation in the world to still subject chimps to invasive research. It’s time to show our humanity and to protect these animal veterans.

Yesterday, I wrote about arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court by the slaughterhouse industry and pork producers, working hand-in-hand with the Obama administration, to nullify a California law to stop cruelty to farm animals too sick or injured to walk. There was widespread news coverage about the case, and most reporters interpreted the reactions of the justices as favoring the slaughterhouse industry and the Obama administration over the state of California and HSUS and the other animal protection groups. It will be several months, in all likelihood, before the high court issues its ruling.

The HSUS

It’s not the only legal forum where we are battling the pork industry. Last week, The HSUS filed a complaint against Smithfield Foods for claiming that it keeps pigs in an “ideal” environment where their “every need is met,” and not surprisingly, it drew broad media attention and outrage. Our 2010 undercover investigation revealed a very different story at a Smithfield subsidiary: breeding pigs nearly immobilized in narrow crates, some biting the bars until their mouths bled, and animals with open sores and abscesses.

Since Smithfield is a top supplier of pork to McDonald’s, we’re urging the fast food company to move away from gestation crates in its supply line and urging Smithfield to make a specific commitment to phase out this extreme confinement.

Many of you were upset by the Smithfield news and wrote in with your comments:

It's painful looking at the pigs in their gestation crates, with blood on the cement before their eyes. Without using words the way we do, they're communicating their pain and agony. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I walk into my barn and wrap my arms around Howard, my 500-pound pink pig, sharing with him what the McDonald's pigs will never have. If a picture is worth a thousand words, how else may I convey pigs feel like we do? —Deborah Gilson

McDonald’s will move to change their supply metrics when their customers—ourselves—tell them to. Doing the "right thing" is not on management radar, and likewise will never be regarded as worthwhile by supplier Smithfield. Buying McDonald's products supports cruelty. Only when patrons stop doing so, will company management take notice. —Peter Hood

I thank you and The HSUS for filing this complaint. I only wish the majority of the public could be made aware of the plight of all factory farm animals. By whatever means the public is informed, that is the way to go. A public campaign against all businesses/corporations that benefit from the suffering of these animals must happen to make a forceful change in the way farm animals are bred, raised, and slaughtered. Slaughtering factories have their own horror stories which must be addressed also. —Ann Whittaker

I'm a meat eater and I eat ham. But I began boycotting Smithfield as soon as I got wind of this story, nearly a year ago. —Stacey Diehl

Today, eight of the nine Supreme Court justices spoke up or peppered lawyers with questions about the precedent-setting animal welfare case before the Court today—the second animal cruelty case to come before it in as many terms. The case, National Meat Association (NMA) v. Harris, centers on a challenge by a slaughterhouse trade association to the provisions of California’s anti-cruelty law relating to the abuse of downer livestock. State lawmakers enacted the measure in the wake of an HSUS undercover investigation documenting terrible cruelty at a cull-cow slaughter plant in Chino, where downer cows were rammed with forklifts and dragged by chains into the slaughter area. The HSUS and four other animal welfare groups intervened in the case in support of the law and the state of California, which is the named defendant in this proceeding.

The HSUS
A downer cow being pushed by a forklift at a California
slaughter plant.

The NMA argues that California’s law is preempted by the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) and is therefore invalid. In this case, as well as in the daily enterprise of turning pigs into meat, the NMA is aligned with the National Pork Producers Council, which has tried to proffer the notion to members of Congress that downer pigs are just “fatigued” and that they will get up if you give them enough time to recover from the trauma of long-distance transport and mistreatment and their underlying genetic unsoundness.

The agribusiness industry got yet another valentine today from the Obama administration, which also argued that the California law should be struck down. This is the same Obama administration, through its USDA, that provides hundreds of millions in subsidies to the hog industry and that has engaged in endless lobbying and shuttle diplomacy to open up trade agreements with South Korea and Columbia in order to boost U.S. pork exports. In this case, the Obama administration not only demonstrated it has no problem with the fact that tens of thousands of pigs show up at slaughterhouses so battered and beleaguered that they cannot walk, but also that the states do not have the authority to prohibit the slaughter of horses for human consumption, because the FMIA preempts any state from taking such an action at federally inspected slaughter plants.

Again, the meat industry—which includes the slaughter plants, the stockyards and auction houses, and commodity groups like the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the National Pork Producers Council—fights animal welfare regulations at every turn. In the quarter-century of my involvement with animal protection, I am not aware of any of these groups ever supporting any animal welfare measure. Now, the very groups that fight every animal welfare advance at the federal level say only the federal government can regulate the care of animals at slaughter plants. It’s a pretty convenient argument when you think about it: tell the Congress that no more rules are needed because the industry can self-police, tell the courts that the only the federal government can regulate conduct here, and tell the states to mind their own business. The animals are left with almost nothing in the way of protections.

If the Supreme Court strikes down this law, then we may not only see California’s anti-cruelty law gutted, but we may also see anti-horse slaughter laws in California, Illinois, and Texas shot down, too.

I have been a close observer and a participant in just about all of the major battles in Congress over animal welfare for the last two decades. If we have to wait for strong farm animal welfare rules, or even food safety rules, from the Congress and the USDA, we’ll be waiting for an awfully long time. Both the Congress and the USDA are in the grip of agribusiness. As such, the states have a vital role to play in protecting animals from cruelty; frankly, it’s their last resort.

It’s important to remember that this is the same cast of characters that allowed the abuses of downer cows at Hallmark to occur. California lawmakers would have seen no reason to upgrade their anti-cruelty laws but for the abuses they saw on their television screens–abuses conducted by the meat industry and overseen by our own USDA at a federally inspected slaughter plant. Before our footage came to light, all of these parties told us that the animals were fine and that the industry and the government were doing a superb job. Our video put the lie to all of their false claims and preening overconfidence.

What transpired in the U.S. Supreme Court today, in terms of the fatuous argument of the meat industry and the obeisance of the Obama administration, was a little like watching sausage being made: it was something you’d rather avert your gaze from because the reality is just too unsettling to stomach.

There are about 3,500 local animal shelters in the United States (representing about a fifth of all animal protection organizations or agencies), and no single entity runs them all—or could possibly run them all. Three-fifths are private charities, and the remainder are municipal or county facilities, typically referred to as animal care and control operations. They have been and remain part of the critical infrastructure for animal welfare in America, and it’s one reason why, for the 15^th year in a row, we’re celebrating National Animal Shelter and Rescue Appreciation Week this week.

Bruce E. Stidham
Adopt your next cat, dog, rabbit, or other pet
from your local shelter or rescue.

The HSUS has always been a leading voice for animal shelters in America. We promote adoptions (through the Shelter Pet Project advertising campaign with the Ad Council and Maddie's Fund, and so many other programs), assist local groups in responding to animal emergencies (whether natural disasters or human-caused crises like ramshackle puppy mills or hoarding cases), conduct professional training (through Humane Society University or Animal Care Expo), publish Animal Sheltering magazine (the bible within our field), and offer online resources and grants and other services. We provide both direct support through a variety of means and we also aim to professionalize the field, with the goals of eliminating the euthanasia of healthy and treatable dogs and cats and promoting the best possible care for companion animals everywhere.

It’s bizarre timing then for the latest misleading attack from the so-called Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), which claims that The HSUS should basically go out of business and pass all its resources to animal shelters (as if the other animals at risk or in crisis—the 99 percent who are not in shelters—don’t matter one whit). In hearing this claptrap, you’ve got to consider the source. It comes from none other than Rick Berman, a Washington public relations operative and lobbyist whose entire business is centered around attacking some of the most important charities and government agencies in America. He’s a man who knows nothing about animal shelters or protecting pets, but whose campaign against The HSUS is funded by animal abuse industries he won’t even identify.

Here’s a phony group that defends seal killing, puppy mills, factory farming, and just about every other major abuse of animals, but masquerades as some sort of friend of animal shelters–even though it has no programs or spend formulas to benefit any animal care organization in the world. While his phony CCF and HumaneWatch attack HSUS, Berman uses other front groups to attack Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Michelle Riley/The HSUS
Learn how to support your local shelter.

The problems facing animals are incredibly varied and complex, which is why The HSUS tackles large-scale issues that affect billions of animals: puppy mills, factory farming, animal fighting, the killing of seals and other animals for the fur trade, the trade in wildlife, duplicative or unnecessary testing and research on animals, captive hunting, and so many other abuses. These are essential fronts of action and campaigns for animal protection. At the same time, we provide direct care for more animals than any other organization in the country—more than 57,000 animals so far this year—partly through our network of sanctuaries and our national and international veterinary services programs.

If animal protection is to succeed, we need both a focus on community-based animal care and rescue, but also national and international campaigns to help animals in crisis and to prevent cruelty before it occurs. If either strut were removed from the animal protection superstructure, our movement would be damaged at its core.

Most donors to animal protection charities give to multiple charities—both local and national, and that’s fortunate for animals. This week, we send a special shout-out to these local animal sheltering and rescue groups and urge your support for the best of them.

To get you started, take a look at our fun new video about shelter pets and our list below of ways to support your shelter or rescue group.

 

How you can help:

-Adopt a shelter pet. Find your next pet online at theshelterpetproject.org.
-Promote pet adoption. Become a fan of the Shelter Pet Project on Facebook at facebook.com/shelterpetproject.
-Volunteer. Helping animals at a shelter or rescue organization can be an incredibly rewarding experience. Look on local groups’ websites for opportunities or visit VolunteerMatch.org.
-Donate funds or supplies. Shelters and rescues are often in need of towels, toys, and other supplies for the animals. You can also start a collection of pet items from family, friends, and coworkers.
-Foster a pet through your local shelter or rescue. You’ll help free up space at the shelter and give a homeless pet a leg up to get adopted.
-For more ideas, visit humanesociety.org/sheltersrock.

The HSUS’s Pets for Life NYC initiative is designed to help people resolve problems that might otherwise lead them to relinquish their pets to animal shelters. By providing hands-on assistance and solutions for people having problems with their pets or experiencing life crises affecting their ability to care for their animals, the program keeps pets with their families and strengthens the human-animal bond. It’s part of the broader effort in New York City to eliminate the euthanasia of healthy and treatable dogs and cats, and to showcase a valuable new tool that can be put to use in communities around the nation to help keep people and their pets together.

Pets for Life NYC is available to help people in need seven days a week with the support of more than 50 volunteers and donated services from 23 dog and cat behaviorists, 40 foster parents, several pro-bono attorneys, and more than 25 reduced-cost veterinarians and boarding kennels. As a safety net offering a wide range of services, our team members get their share of interesting and often challenging calls for help. But one day in early October, a not-so-typical call came their way.

Photo: Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation

The caller stated that she wanted to find a new home for her capuchin monkey, who had been living in her apartment since 1988. Mr. Charlie, as she called him, was showing increasingly challenging behavior.

Mr. Charlie had spent most of the past 23 years in a large bird cage, without the needed companionship of his own kind. For capuchins who are intelligent and highly social, this was a form of solitary confinement. They lead busy, active, stimulating lives and spend most of their time in trees. They are native to Central and South America, not New York City apartments.

Charlie’s early life in Honduras played out like the lives of millions of other exotic animals throughout the world, removed from their native forests at birth and sold into the international wildlife trade—most likely in violation of national and international laws. Charlie somehow landed in someone’s Brooklyn apartment before he had turned a month old. This private ownership of exotics is something that we at The HSUS and Humane Society International are working so hard to discourage and to prohibit through public education and the rule of law.

Charlie’s story does have a happy ending, as Pets for Life NYC immediately went to work seeking permanent sanctuary options and coordinating with the proper authorities and with HSUS staff experts, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and two wonderful wildlife rehabilitators from Long Island. Late last week, after a medical exam and necessary health certification, Charlie left New York for a new life at Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation, a sanctuary in Kendalia, Texas. The sanctuary is home to many animals, including two other capuchin monkeys who have been rehabilitated after years in captivity.

It would have been better all around for Mr. Charlie had he never left his home in Honduras, and the trade that removed him represents the kind of cruelty and opportunism we’re working hard to prevent. But Pets for Life NYC and the broad and caring sanctuary network that looks after the animal refugees of the international wildlife trade stepped up and found a good solution. After 23 years, Mr. Charlie will enjoy the feel of grass on his toes and the experience of climbing a tree. And, when he’s ready, Charlie will meet other capuchins. We’re wishing Charlie well in this new phase of his life.

If you would like to volunteer with Pets for Life NYC or support its life-saving work, please visit www.humanesociety.org/pflnyc. If you want to support animals in sanctuary, itself a great and pressing need, please consider supporting one of our HSUS sanctuaries or another member of the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries. And if you want to prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future, urge Congress to pass the Captive Primate Safety Act.

If I told you that pigs confined in gestation crates—cages barely larger than the animals' bodies, in which they don’t have enough space even to turn around for nearly their whole lives—were living in “ideal” conditions where their “every need is met,” you’d probably have a quarrel with that. The rhetoric and the reality just don’t comport.

The HSUS
An HSUS investigation documented conditions at a
Smithfield subsidiary in 2010.

Yet that’s exactly what Smithfield Foods—the world’s largest pork producer and McDonald’s primary pork supplier—asserts on its website. If you think that’s false advertising, know that The HSUS agrees, and it was in response to this and other related false claims that we filed a legal complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week. The story was picked up by the Associated Press, TIME, the Chicago Tribune, Virginian-Pilot, and more. The best headline, though, comes from James McWilliams in The Atlantic: “McFib? The Conditions at McDonald's McRib Pork Supplier.”

McFib sums it up nicely, as an HSUS undercover investigation released less than a year ago reveals exactly how Smithfield’s breeding pigs actually live. (You can watch a Washington Post animation on the issue here.)

McDonald’s was in some ways ahead of its competitors on animal welfare issues in the late 1990s. In recent years, though, the company has lagged, especially when compared to its competitors like Burger King. On the issue of gestation crates, McDonald’s states that moving sows “from gestation stalls to group housing” is “a decision that’s best for the welfare and well-being of those sows.” McDonald’s own advisor, Dr. Temple Grandin, has unequivocally stated that gestation crates “have got to go.” And in a 2001 Washington Post article, McDonald’s referred to this issue as being “towards the top of our agenda.”

Yet a decade later, McDonald’s suppliers—like Smithfield—still confine the vast majority of their breeding pigs in gestation crates, and the company has no plan or timeline for ending its use of gestation-crate pork.

Ten years is a long time for an issue to be at the top of your agenda without taking meaningful action on it. The time is now long overdue for McDonald’s to do the right thing and make gestation crates a part of its history.

Our movement, historically, has been organized largely around animal rescue and shelter, with thousands of organizations grounded in communities to provide relief to animals in need. It's a necessary and critical component of the important work of animal protection.

But that diffuse structure is not the most effective way to turn around the biggest, most entrenched forms of institutionalized animal cruelty, such as factory farming, the fur trade, puppy mills, trophy hunting, animal fighting, and other large-scale abuses. These economic interests are generally committed to the status quo, and they do not easily submit to change within their industries.

Office dog Bella celebrating the Facebook news.

For that purpose, the animals need, more than anything, a big powerful group to attack the worst problems that animals face, pulling together scientists, lawyers, investigators, lobbyists, organizers, and others to drive social reform. There are billions of animals at risk from a variety of forms of large-scale or institutionalized cruelty, and we can't rescue our way out of these problems.

We need to exert collective pressure and to force change for the better for animals—whether in the realms of public policy, corporate reforms, or mass education. And we need to do so at all levels: local, regional, and national. This has been the driving vision of The HSUS since its formation.

It's our goal to organize an army of millions of members and supporters to carry on the battle for animals.

We are more than 11 million strong, in terms of members and constituents, and we are growing. In recent years, we've also invested in our social media outreach, since that's such an important platform to disseminate our message and update people in communities throughout the country. And yesterday, we celebrated a major milestone: our Facebook community has reached 1 million fans committed to animal protection. These 1 million people get updates about our work—from the rescues to the corporate campaigns to the policy work. It's a vibrant, constantly updated forum for people to comment, ask questions, sound off on our work, take action, and find more ways to get involved.

If you haven't already, please join our Facebook community by liking our page at www.facebook.com/humanesociety. The page is updated daily and is a great place to find the latest news about our victories as well as photos and stories about animals. We're celebrating our 1 million Facebook fans with a special slideshow of 1 million reasons we love our pets—you can check out the great photos submitted so far and upload your own here.

You can also follow our work on Twitter at twitter.com/HumaneSociety. Thanks for all your support and your action to help animals, whether it's through online communities like these or at your local level. The animals need a strong, powerful group to take on the biggest battles for our cause, and that’s what The HSUS aims to do every day.

The HSUS touches the lives of billions of animals every year, through our policy work and corporate reform efforts and our initiatives designed to educate people about making the right choices to help animals. We’re also proud of our direct care programs to heal and help thousands of animals in crisis, including at our three wildlife care centers. Every day, our dedicated staff members heal injured and orphaned rabbits, opossums, raccoons, and all manner of other mammals and birds.

Sue cared for many wild animals, like this baby raccoon.

Overseeing such an enterprise, it may not seem like saving the life of a single pigeon is any big deal. But empathy for every living creature is the essence of our work. Each of these little lives matters, even as we are aware that billions are at risk every day and we get on with the task of building a new moral and legal framework to prevent any form of cruelty.

So, as I was driving back to my apartment on a Saturday evening down a busy Washington, D.C., street in September and spotted an injured pigeon hobbling across a busy four-lane road, my heart seemed to skip a beat each time a car whizzed by the bird, barely missing her. I hit the brakes, then stopped traffic, and shepherded the wounded animal to the sidewalk. There my fiancée, Lisa, collected the pigeon, who was unable to fly and barely able to walk.

We took the bird home but worried about her internal injuries. I made a lifeline call to my colleague and friend Sue Farinato, an experienced wildlife rehabilitator. I knew that Sue, who worked in our companion animals department, always stood ready to help. At Sue’s invitation, I brought the pigeon to her home an hour away from me, and she greeted me outside, taking hold of the cat carrier and then gently removing the pigeon. Sue scanned her body, cleaned her wounds, and later decided to administer antibiotics. All the while, Sue conveyed a sense of confidence that the pigeon would get focused attention and the best of care.

Lisa and I drove home, wondering if the bird would last the night. I stayed in regular contact with Sue to check on the animal’s progress, and the reports were positive. Lisa and I felt such relief that the bird was slowly improving. At some point, Sue seamlessly started referring to her as “Geraldine.” No one could guarantee a full recovery and release, but with a name now designated, she was all but guaranteeing she’d do everything humanly possible to put the pigeon back together and return her to a flock of her kind.

Sue died, unexpectedly and suddenly, on Oct. 25 at her home, probably not long after she had tended to other little creatures she worked to heal on her volunteer time.

Kathy Milani/The HSUS
Sue brushing a horse at Black Beauty Ranch.

I met Sue, and her husband Richard, more than two decades ago in South Carolina, where she had formed a nonprofit animal advocacy group, Peaceable Kingdom. And though she and Richard moved to Washington, leaving her group and eventually coming to The HSUS (you can see a short video of her at Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch), Sue worked to create a peaceable kingdom wherever she lived. She embodied the best principles of our movement: dedication, selflessness, and compassion, and like so many of those within the HSUS family who worked alongside her, I have had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that she’s gone.

We can’t see Sue now in the bodily sense, but we all feel her spirit. And we know that there are so many little lives scurrying and flying about because of her. She left life in her wake.

I didn’t know that my exchanges with Sue concerning Geraldine would be our last. That little bird, and how Sue handled her, reminded me of the remarkable gifts of human empathy and compassion. It’s a small comfort in a sorrowful time, but I will be forever buoyed by the thought of Geraldine flying free on a patch of land and space near a Lutheran church right near Sue’s home.

Christine Jensen/The HSUS
A bobcat at the Fund for Animals Wildlife Center.

A new TV show on the Discovery Channel called “Curiosity” features hosts such as Stephen Hawking and Morgan Freeman exploring what the program calls “the most fundamental questions facing the world today” about science, technology, and society.

On the show’s website, you’ll find a diverse collection of questions answered by about 50 global leaders in the fields of science, health, technology, business, academia, the arts, communications, and advocacy, including Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel and Dr. Andrew Weil. I was selected as a thought leader in the realm of animal protection.

The interviewer asked me about tactics, the biggest issues of the day, how social media is shaping our movement, and a wide variety of other topics. My answers were featured on the home page of the site last week, and they’ll live on the site indefinitely.

One of the most basic questions we discussed was “What is curiosity?” You can watch my response to this and other questions here:

Curiosity is really being open-minded about the world and not thinking that we've come to the end of knowledge. Exploring new ideas, new thoughts, new places. And it's part of the progress of a society. You can't have progress without curiosity.

I hope you enjoy watching my replies. And let me know if you think my responses were on point, or if I missed a key element in responding to these probing questions.

P.S. You can take a look here or tune in for the next episode of the show this Sunday, Nov. 6, at 9 p.m. on the Discovery Channel.