The Animal Advocate Podcast

You don’t need a veterinary degree to build a career helping animals. Explore paid jobs in animal advocacy and learn where your skills could fit.

Thinking about fostering a dog? Learn what to expect, what to ask a rescue, how to handle getting attached, and whether fostering is right for you.

Thinking about fostering a dog? Learn what to expect, what to ask a rescue, how to handle getting attached, and whether fostering is right for you.

What puppy mills are, why we still have them and what you can do

A shelter that saves most of its animals still gets called a killer online. Why no shelter can save them all — and what you can do.

Prevention is cheaper than sheltering. Here’s how one advocate is building the case, and the network, in Alabama.

More than 900 dogs went in. About 100 came out adopted. This is what happened to the rest — and how to stop it happening again.

Philadelphia banned horse-drawn carriages. New York, where a teen just died in one, still won’t. The inside story of how one city got it done.

Seven recent wins for animals, most of them at the local level, and one idea behind them you can bring home to your own town.

An interview with Underdogs of Philly on supporting owners of dogs kept mostly outdoors
and keeping dogs out of shelters.

A mediator’s view of one of the most contentious debates in animal welfare: should rescues import dogs when local shelters are already full?

A mediator’s view of one of the most contentious debates in animal welfare: should rescues import dogs when local shelters are already full?

A shift of just 1 in 6 dog buyers becoming adopters would end shelter killing for space. It’s not a shelter problem. It’s how we choose.

Five states have found a way to fund free spay/neuter programs. Here’s what they did and how to bring it to your state.

We’ve always assumed humans are in a category of their own. But are they?

A no-kill law sounds like the answer. It’s more complicated than that.

Here’s why nonprofits holding animal control contracts keep getting burned — and what it would take to fix it.

Fifteen to zero — here’s the framework that made it happen.

One animal lover’s nine-year fight to end horse-drawn carriages in Philadelphia — and the advocacy lessons in how she did it.

Before you can pass a law, you have to change the conversation.

How to prioritize, partner, and persevere to pass animal protection laws.

Used strategically, social media can support shelter outcomes instead of draining staff time. This episode explains how

Shelters need help you can give without training, orientations, or a set schedule – if you know what to offer.

America’s most popular dog breed struggles to breathe, reproduce, and give birth—and we bred them that way because we liked how it looked.

A year-end reflection on persuasion, context, and the long arc of change, seen through the lens of the wine world.

Are free adoption fees helping animals find homes — and what does the evidence really show?

A cardboard box left at a shelter door. A handwritten note. And a question for all of us: will you help?

What happens when cruelty laws require veterinary care that many families simply cannot access—and how do we protect animals without criminalizing poverty?

Many people think declawing is minor. It isn’t. This episode looks at what the surgery removes, the harm it can cause, and why more places are banning it.

Learn what qualifies as an emotional support animal, how ESAs differ from service animals, and what rights they have in housing.