Defender Radio and The Switch

The Living With Wildlife 2014 conference was a resounding success! Nearly 100 guests and speakers arrived at the Holiday Inn Carlton in Toronto on October 17 for a day of seminars, education and networking. Topics of the day covered everything from animal laws to rehabilitation of bears, and municipal wildlife strategies to living with coyotes. In this week's episode of Defender Radio we're bringi...

The Living With Wildlife 2014 conference was a resounding success! Nearly 100 guests and speakers arrived at the Holiday Inn Carlton in Toronto on October 17 for a day of seminars, education and networking. Topics of the day covered everything from animal laws to rehabilitation of bears, and municipal wildlife strategies to living with coyotes. In this week's episode of Defender Radio we're bringi...

We can barely believe it’s been a full year since this project first started. In that year we’ve had dozens of interviews with internationally-recognized scientists and advocates. We’re heard one-on-one interviews with those who have witnessed tragedy and those who have stopped cruelty. We’ve worked with great people Psychologist and beaver believer Dr. Heidi Perryman, rock star and animal lover B...

It’s been a long week for us at APFA – the celebration we were having over the RCMP’s decision to ditch their muskrat fur hats for their regular cold weather uniform was brought to an abrupt halt. The Conservative government stated they would overturn the decision in order to protect the fur industry. You’ll hear more about this from one of our guests this week, but to get the details and sign the...

The shocking news out of Saskatchewan that an additional 100 permits for hunting and trapping wolves in Wildlife Management Zone 49 made a splash across our social media platforms last week. In our blog, we told you that the Ministry of Environment is responding to an alleged increase in livestock predation from wolves and that population control was their only choice. We disagreed. We have long s...

We’re continuing our back to school series – focusing this week on the two-legged young who are eager to learn. This week we’re happy to bring you two top humane educators. First up is Zoe Weil, co-founder and president of The Institute for Humane Education, who will share her thoughts on the importance of humane education in homes and classrooms, as well as the best way to get teachers on board w...

Education is part of the foundation of a solid democracy, and in Canada we take that responsibility quite seriously. We have some of the best elementary, secondary and post-secondary schools in the world – and millions of young Canadians are back to the books this week. But every day we have important lessons to learn outside the classroom, as well. This week we’re taking a look at two different –...

It’s been a long summer for those of us in the fight against the fur lobby – particularly after the events at a Quebec fur farm. The Montreal SPCA is in a battle of political will and legislative authority with the province’s Ministry of Forests, Fauna and Parks who have not acted on allegations of neglect and cruelty. To bring us up to date on the investigation of the Quebec fur farm, the report...

As animal advocates, we often feel frustrated, despondent and outright angry at the world around us – and that’s a healthy, normal response. But sometimes those feelings can overwhelm us and influence our ability to help wild life and be happy, healthy individuals. You may know Dr. Heidi Perryman as the beaver believer from Martinez, California, or the defender who hosts the MartinezBeavers.org Wo...

In recent weeks you’ve seen us on the news, read about us in newspapers and heard us on the radio talking about beavers and trapping in Calgary. Now we’re bringing the story back to the woman who started it. In mid-July, Linda Lelonde and her husband were walking in a park when they came across a beaver, later discovered to be caught in an allegedly humane Conibear trap. The trauma of the event sh...

In late January 2014, Paula Tough had been out with a friend and their dogs near Algonquin Park when they came across what appeared to be a wolf caught in a snare. The wire had cut into the animals’ leg deeply, and the nearby damage and scat showed he had been caught for at least three or four days. Paula took extraordinary action – with the help of a friend, she was able to cut the snare, load th...

Once upon a time, Rob Laidlaw was a young man who wanted to protect animals. Today, Rob has become an animal advocacy powerhouse as the head of Zoocheck Canada, frequent speaker, and most recently, author of a series of best-selling and award-winning children’s books. Titles such as No Shelter Here and Saving Lives and Changing Hearts have won multiple awards, been translated into numerous languag...

As summer is coming to its peak, so are the thousands of wild babies from coast to coast. While APFA works hard to protect them through education, advocacy, by-laws and policy, much effort is still needed on the front lines. And those who stand in the trenches are wildlife rehabilitators. In Burnaby, BC, the Wildlife Rescue Association of British Columbia takes in several thousand injured, orphane...

On the central coast of British Columbia sits the traditional lands of the Heiltsuk First Nations people. In their language, Heiltsuk means to speak and act correctly, and this concept is an important part of their culture. The Qqs (pronounced Kuks, meaning eyes) Projects society was formed to support Heiltsuk youth, culture and environment and ensure a vibrant, strong future for the people. As pa...

We in Canada may look upon Montana as the last vestige of the wild west – and in many ways, it is. Ranchers, landowner’s rights and the old American west live on in the Northern state. But not everyone wants to hold onto every bit of that tradition. Montana is filled with trappers and their cruel devices. Standing against them is Footloose Montana, a registered charity that is looking to end the r...

Perhaps the most mystic – and most feared – wildlife in Canada, wolves are making a comeback. Throughout the western United States, wolf populations are beginning to re-emerge after a courageous plan to reintroduce them to Yellowstone National Park in the 1990s. But along with their reintroduction has come ongoing fear, paranoia from ranchers and the happy trigger fingers of hunters and trappers....

It's our Canada Day special! To celebrate the 147 th birthday of our great nation, we’re bringing you the best of beavers from Defender Radio’s first season. You’ll hear from some world-renowned experts, film makers and even some of APFA’s own staffers in this look back, along with a couple of new clips from our friends who love beavers, too.

Intelligence means different things to different people. To an anthrozoologist or biologist, it can be the measurement of intellect or sentience in a living being. To someone in law enforcement, it’s the product of analyzed data. And both versions are what we’re discussing on this week’s episode. Andrea Crosta, a security expert who has worked with the likes of Homeland Security, has taken his exp...

Every day, life happens around us: from viruses multiplying to humans launching rockets into space - the need for growth forces change. Yet despite these clearly understood needs, we often have difficulty understanding the millions of lives surrounding our own. The quest to understand what animals think and feel is one that may never be complete; but there are ways for us to understand what motiva...

We’re celebrating beavers this week and asking you to become a beaver believer. We’re happy to bring you two great beaver stories. First up is Simon Jones of the Scottish Wildlife Trust. Simon joined us from across the pond to talk about the reintroduction of Eurasian beavers to an area of Scotland after a 300-year absence. We’ll also be talking with Sarah Koenigsberg, who is producing and crowd-s...

We’re all about Marcy this week. Marcy Potter is our newest team member at APFA, our Office and Database Administrator. She is an animal advocate, trained rehabilitator and an absolute machine at organizing our office, our databases and, frankly, all of us. Marcy joined Defender Radio recently to talk about her past, her future and what people need to know about finding wildlife near their homes.

This week we’re celebrating victories across North America. We’ll hear from Sheryl Fink of the International Fund for Animal Welfare who will explain why the World Trade Organization upheld a European Union ban on the importation of Canadian seal products – and what that means for Canada and our seals. Then we’ll be talking with Tara Zuardo of the Animal Welfare Institute in Washington, D.C., who...

For nearly 80 years, The Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals has tried to find ways to stop the use of fur and end trapping. While many of our traditional methods – letter-writing, campaigning, advertising and others – have worked well in many areas, our co-existence program has yielded the greatest results. The concept of co-existence stems from understanding the wildlife in an...

The Ontario spring bear hunt has begun. After a long battle, advocates have been unable to reverse the government’s vote-grabbing plan to open up the hunt, which was closed more than a decade ago. The reason the hunt was ended was simple:   bear cubs were being orphaned by the hundreds. But in a desperate bid to please northern voters, Minister of Natural Resources David Orazietti ignored his own...

One year ago a small budget documentary was premiered at the HotDocs film festival in Toronto. The film followed the journey of a photographer – Jo-Anne McArthur – as she explored the exploitation of animals in modern society. In the year that passed, The Ghosts in Our Machine has become a staple in the work of advocates everywhere. With harrowing – yet not gruesome - scenes inside factory farms a...