Jessica Dolce is a Certified Compassion Fatigue Educator via the Green Cross of Traumatology, receiving her training through The Figley Institute and Tend Academy. She brings seventeen years of experience working with and for companion animals to her online classes, workshops, and coaching.

Jessica is an adjunct faculty member at The Maddie’s® Shelter Medicine Program at the University of Florida and has worked with organizations such as the ASPCA, Maine Medical Center, Maine Department of Agriculture, Southern Maine Community College, and the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants.

Jessica shares her personal stories of connecting with dogs and how she came to work in her education and communication company with 

Jessica discusses the importance of focusing on healthy boundaries and letting go, and taking good care of oneself, and reaching out for support. 

Jessica zooms in on the individual aspects of care and self-care, as well as the need of...

De eerste Nederlandse podcast is met Dr. Ineke van Herwijnen!

Ineke van Herwijnen behaalde haar Master Nutrition and Health aan Wageningen University (Nederland) met een specialisatie in gezondheidspreventie in 2001. Terwijl ze werkte als communicatiemanager bij een grote multinational, begon ze haar carrière in hondentraining en welzijn, wat leidde tot haar werkzaam bij de Koninklijke Nederlandse Vereniging voor Hondenbescherming.

Ineke is opgeleid tot hondentrainer, tester en therapeut en heeft ruime ervaring op het gebied van hondenbezit en welzijn.

Ineke neemt ons mee naar de aanleiding van haar promotieonderzoek onderwerp en welke onderzoeksvraag er centraal stond.

Opvoedstijlen en visies van dieren en waarom deze belangrijk zijn voor mensen die honden hebben maar ook instructeurs en gedragstherapeuten en specifiek hoe deze van toepassing zijn op de houder-hond relatie wordt besproken en toegelicht.

Ineke verteld natuurlijk weer een paar mooie hondenverhalen en...

Jim Guenter is the CEO of Species360

Jim has led Species360 since 2015. Before joining our organization, he served in technology leadership roles for major US corporations including Target.com, Best Buy, and Accenture, in computer systems and sciences. Jim also served 5 years in the US Army.

Species360 is a non-profit organisation and works with over 1200 member institutions worldwide, including aquariums, zoos, wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centers, governments, universities and colleges, and others. The member community curates and shares husbandry, welfare, medical, and population data for animals in their care, using a software system called Zoological Information Management System (ZIMS). 

A special module called Care and Welfare allows animal care professionals to record and communicate the welfare of animals in their care, watching the trends over time, being able to monitor different characteristics. From moving around the enclosure, how they interact with other...

Carl Safina is an author and ecologist and founder of The Safina Center, fusing scientific understanding, emotional connection, and a moral call to action. Carl Safina's writing about the living world has won a MacArthur “genius” prize, Pew, and Guggenheim Fellowships; book awards from Lannan, Orion, and the National Academies; and the John Burroughs, James Beard, and George Rabb medals.

Carl and talks about 'making a case for life on Earth', how people can help, what is at stake, and how we can make a difference for nature. Stories are what makes information stick, what the Safina Centre does is storytelling and story-making.

Carl talks about his books and the creative spirit of The Safina Center as an original blend of science, art, and literature in the form of books and articles, scientific research, photography, films, sound-art, and spoken words.

Carl shares stories about protecting seabirds, fisheries management, and about animals being able who they are...

Erika Fleury is an author and the Program Director of the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance (NAPSA), and an unofficial primatologist, and loves to talk about primates!

As Program Director Erika works on a lot of different topics, from legislation, addressing primates not being suitable as pets, grant writing, workshops, and the international animal community, from zoos to legislators, students, and members of the public.

Erika shares what makes a true sanctuary, the different animals who live and found a new home, from cows, tigers, to other primates, about the necessary protocols and procedures to maintain sustainable care and welfare of animals in NAPSA sanctuaries.

Erika highlights how some so-called 'sanctuaries' are not engaging in ethical practices such as breeding and selling primates to the public.

Erika talks about how important it is to explore and use your talents, and how this can benefit primates. It is also important to ask questions like: Do you want to move to a...

Dr. David Shepherdson is a biologist with a long and distinguished career in zoo animal welfare and conservation. David was inspired by Tinbergen, Durrell, and Lorentz, and completed a Ph.D. in ethology, on the European badgers in England.

David got a job at the London Zoo in the late '80 with a renewed interest in animal welfare, ignited by the work and book by the late Hal Markowitz, 'behavioral enrichment at the zoo'. Working on zoo animal welfare, and specifically the psychological and behavioural needs.

David moved to the Oregon Zoo where he had a long career working with many different scientists, care staff, and students, conducting multi-institutional studies, covering topics such as environmental enrichment, stereotypic behaviour, and together with other experts, on the physiology and other measures for different animal welfare assessments. Including studies on space use of elephants, daily walking distances, environmental and social factors, and welfare...

In this episode, Jen Feuerstein shares her long experience and knowledge of caring and working for our fellow animals in a wide variety of settings, from sanctuaries, research facilities, to zoos and shelters. Jen is currently the Director of Human Resources at the Humane Society Naples. Formerly Manager of Administration at Project Chimps (2016-2018) and Sanctuary Director at Save the Chimps (2003 – 2015).

Jen has spent a lot of time observing all kinds of primates and other species, looking at the details such as "Is their hair standing on end, what are they looking at?" and learning about their social life, their preferences, and listening to what trying to communicate. Besides her work in the USA, Jen has traveled to Europe and Africa to share through lectures, workshops, and seminars, and highlights the importance of learning from other people, having mentors, asking lots of questions, and hearing lots of different stories, strategies, and...

Dr. Balcombe about the inner lives of fishes, cognition, and relationship with other animals!

Dr. Jonathan Balcombe describes himself as a synthesizer, someone who pulls together research and practical information to correct or expand our often underestimated views and treatments of animals, including the often invisible, unliked, and unpopular animals.

Jonathan shares his insights and stories about fishes cognition, being a machiavellian, play, human-fishes interaction, social dynamics, behaviour, recognition, memory, and emotions.

For more information on Dr. Jonathan Balcombe please visit his WEBSITE

Short bio: Jonathan Balcombe is a biologist with a PhD in ethology, the study of animal behavior. His books include Pleasurable Kingdom, Second Nature, The Exultant Ark, and What a Fish Knows--a New York Times best-seller now available in fifteen languages. His next book, all about flies, will be published November 2020 by Penguin Books. Jonathan does professional editing for...

Today's episode is with Karen Fifield MNZM, the Chief Executive of Wellington Zoo in New Zealand, who shares the philosophy, experiences and insights of the zoo on animal welfare and care. About what leading zoos and aquariums are doing for animal welfare today.

The importance of social media to bring people with us to understand the work we are doing in zoos, as well as the importance of transparent messages, focusing on the visitor experience, and how we can work together with the staff and the public for animals and conservation.

Karen discussed the opportunities we have regarding animal welfare, as well as potential tensions with other goals such as conservation, education, research, and recreation, and animal welfare being the basis and being fundamental to all other programs. And the importance of continuous improvement, to do the research and ask 'Could we do this better?' To be thinking all the time, to do the best we can, to know that we have it right through continuous...

Over the years of working with animals, I was often asked, what my private formula for training animals was. It has been very difficult, to put it into words, but I came up with five concepts, which are the basis for all my interactions with animals. Plus, they do come in handy around humans too.

Patience

I learned to be the most patient person when working with an animal. I give them the time they need to react and understand what I am asking of them. Sometimes, I might also have to change my approach, because I might have done something leading to the opposite of what I was hoping for. From time to time it is also good to remember, to treat humans with as much patience, as I treat animals.
 

Body language

There are many things about my body language that can influence my interaction with an animal. One very important part of establishing a positive relationship is to be fully aware, of the way I move, my posture, my voice, and my facial expressions. During every interaction...