Speaker 1: You're listening to Petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2: Welcome to animal Toopia on pet Life Radio. I'm your host,
Robert Simro. Thank you for joining us on today's show.
We've got some really fun and inspiring stuff for everyone.
We're gonna start with a real Dolphintale that has been
adapted into a movie. Then we're gonna hang twenty with
some surfing dogs doing their thing for charities. After that,
a story about an inspired animal Kingdom inventor, and we'll
finish off with a fun story from animal Topia shared
with us by a listener. So stay tuned. We'll be
right back with the real Dolphintale, surfing dogs, an inspired inventor,
and a story from animal Topia, all after these messages
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Speaker 6: Hi, this is Timlink, host of animal rights on pet
Life Radio. Join me as we feature interviews with best
selling pet related authors, award winning writers and journalists and bloggers,
and we'll tell stories about the animals and interesting topics
about the animals in our lives. Each of the interviews
will give you a firsthand knowledge about why the authors
and writers chose a particular story, what the feature animals
meant to them, and what has become of those animals
that we've talked about. And of course I'll also share
stories from my own books, blogs, articles and experiences. So
be sure to join me and the writers and authors
on animal rights.
Speaker 3: Every week on the n only on petlifradio dot com.
Let's Talk Pets on petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Animal Toopia on Petlife Radio. By now,
you've probably heard and maybe even seen, the amazing story
about Winter, the two month old bottlenosed dolphin who became
entangled in a crab potline in Mosquito Lagoon in Florida.
The Mosquito Lagoon is a long, narrow, shallow estuary that
is bordered on the east by a barrier island and
on the west by the mainland. Sometimes referred to as
a cradle to the Ocean, Mosquito Lagoon is home to
many different types of fish, shrimp, clams, and oysters that
are all thriving in this lagoon. Sea turtles, manodes, and
dolphins can all be found here, and in some cases
these larger animals will spend their entire lives in this lagoon.
I've been blessed to swim with the manatees, dolphins, and
other spectacular sea creatures in the various waters of Florida.
And I can tell you it's a rich and diverse
landscape beneath the waters there. It's really easy to see
why there's such an abundant and vibrant area for sea life.
So let's go back to December tenth, two thousand and five,
in Mosquito Lagoon, where this two month old dolphin was
entangled in a crab pot line. Though most fishermen stayed
at home that day, one fisherman, Jim Savage, decided he
would make the journey to Mosquito Lagoon as usual. Well,
this day would prove to be anything but usual for Jim.
Once Jim was on the water, he headed over to
a crab pot booy line that caught his eye because
of its contradictions. See, most of the line was being
tilted with the wind, but there was one pot that
was bending into the wind. As he came closer, he
heard an audible sound that sounded like gasping and a
struggle for breath. As Jim pulled up alongside the pot,
he was startled and saddened by what he saw. It
was a baby dolphin terribly tangled in the lines, struggling
to breathe let alone free itself from its predicament. An
auto mechanic by trade, Jim did his best to free
and assist the frightened and injured baby dolphin. He also
phoned the emergency number for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission,
who arranged to have someone come out to assist the dolphin.
That person was Teresa Maza, a twenty three year old
research assistant for the non profit hubs SeaWorld Research Institute
in Orlando. She was ferried out to the dolphin by
a second boat that had stopped to help Jim with
the injured baby dolphin. After assessing the situation, including the
severe injuries to the tail area of the dolphin, she
reached out to a colleague for help. Claire Surrey of
the Wildlife Commission was that colleague. Teresa and Clair took
turns cradling the struggling baby dolphin in the frigid December waters.
Hubseaworld contacted the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, who had a
special ambulance for injured whales and dolphins. It dispatched the
ambulance plus a chase truck with a vet and a
team of dolphin experts. However, on the way, Harbor Branch
called and let them know that the special ambulance had
blown a tire and would not be making it. Still,
the team of experts continued on their way to meet them.
As evening came, a rescue van from SeaWorld arrived to
transport the injured dolphin to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Teresa
did not make the trip with the dolphin, as she
had to attend to a marine science conference the next day,
completely across the country in San Diego. She did not
know what would happen to this severely injured little dolphin,
but she knew that she and the others had done
their best to give the dolphin a chance to survive.
She would get her next update on the dolphin at
the marine conference when a colleague told her that the
baby dolphin had lost its tail. Only one aquarium in Florida,
the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, was willing or able to take her.
Waiting for the bleeding and severely injured baby dolphin was
veterinarian Janine Cianchola, known as Doctor C. Doctor C and
trainer Abbey moved quickly and tiresly to stabilize the dolphin.
The outlook may have been bleak and the challenges were mounting,
but doctor c Abby and the others were determined to
make a Winter miracle occur, and thus Winter became the
dolphin's name. Within days, Winter's tail had virtually melted away,
lost to necrosis or cell death, and if Rod reached
Winter's spinal cord, the dolphin would die. Doctor c worked
on the tail daily for months, and in late February,
the necrosis of the tail stopped, just one vertebra short
of the spinal cord. Winter began to stabilize. She gained
weight and began to swim on her own, swimming like
a fish, moving the stump of her tail side to
side rather than up and down as dolphins do. She
dog powdered with her pectoral fins, which were designed for steering,
not for propulsion. Aquarium CEO David Yates had witnessed much
of the miracle that was Winter, and as Winter improved,
David used his media savvy and background to bring this
incredible story to the world. As fate would have it,
not only would David generate a lot of interest, sympathy,
and visitors, but his media attention brought a potential solution
to Winter. Listening to a radio interview in his car
one day was Kevin Carroll, the national vice president of
Hanger Prosthetics and Orthodox, a company that makes artificial limbs.
Kevin was inspired by the story and reached out to
David to say that he thought he could assist with
a tail for Winter. I recently had a chance to
speak with Kevin and animal lover since his early days
in Ireland, that day and the entire process, and he
told me that when he heard that report on the radio,
as he was listening about this inspiring poor little dolphin,
he thought to himself, that's what we do. Why can't
we put a prosthetic tail on the dolphin. Well, not
everyone was as optimistic as Kevin, but he spoke with
his friend and future collaborator on the project, Damn Strenka. Dan,
who himself wears a prosthetic leg since a childhood accident
at age four, agreed, and so he and Kevin got started.
Dan and Kevin faced many challenges in trying to create
a tale that had no place to be affixed to
had to stand up to salt water travel at twenty
plus miles per hour and survived nine foot bursts out
of the water into the air, all while working with
a patient who had no ability to tell the designers
any of the problems with their designs. Dan and Kevin
developed over fifty tail prototypes. They also developed a liner
and a gel that allowed the tail to be fixed
to winter stump. Kevin and Dan felt that Winter, like
most dolphins, was very intelligent. They got the sense that
Winter was working with them and knew they were there
trying to help Winter. With that acknowledgment, they knew they
were going to be successful, and it fueled their efforts
even in the most difficult of times. As Kevin and
Dan continued to develop the tail trainer, Abbey began getting
Winter used to wearing the materials. They had created this
special liner with lubricants so that the tail could go
over the dolphin stump, but they had to be cognizant
that dolphins shed heat through their tails, so it required
a lot of care and understanding of the effects. Abby
would have Winter wear the liner for small periods in
the beginning to see what reactions Winter might have. Additionally,
the lubricant had to allow for the liner to be
slid onto the stump yet also be slid off, as
it is not something that can be worn all the time.
Well through fifty prototypes in countless hours, the biggest noticeable
encouraging development that they saw was that winter Severe scoliosis
had reversed. Finally, after more than a year and a half,
Winter began using the prosthetic tale the way it was designed.
It was another exciting development in a series of incredible moments.
Winter continues to improve her usage of the prosthetic tale
and thrills many visitors a year. If you're looking for
some inspiration and you have a few hours, go see
the movie about Winter and all the people we've been
talking about, called Dolphintale. While it's been adapted by Hollywood,
the story is inspiring and uplifting, and though many characters
have been modified for the movie, including our friends Kevin
and Dan, who have been combined in the movie into
a single character played by Morgan Freeman, Winter the dolphin
herself is the star of the movie, and if that
were the end of the story, it would be simply incredible.
Yet as inspiring as this dolphin story is, the humans
who were inspired to help her have continued to help
many more with their discoveries and developments. Because of their
work with Winter, many of the technologies and techniques they
adapted for Winter have now been adapted in use for
humans from all walks of life, from school children to
wounded veterans. The efforts and technologies developed to save this
amazing baby dolphin are now giving new life and hope
to humans. This is what Animotopia is all about. Animals
inspiring humans to accomplish more than they otherwise would think
to do. And when faced with that life or death challenge,
Winter rose to the occasion and she inspired the humans
that she encountered to do the same, and she continues
to inspire them to this day. What an incredible story
and I hope you enjoyed it. Next up, I'm going
to share a couple of great recent events that feature
dogs hanging twenty for great charities and a few records.
I'm also going to share with you a story about
a gentleman facing a challenge of his own and finding
the answers to that challenge at a world famous aquarium.
You don't want to miss these stories, so we'll be
right back after these messages from our sponsors sift.
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Speaker 10: The crams and pondkeeping are among the most popular of
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In fact, fish are probably the most numerous pet in
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the complexities of the aquarium industry, and the science and
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and I'd like to thank you for joining us.
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Speaker 5: Pet Life Radio dot Com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Animaltopia on pet Life Radio. Yeah, we
all love watching the videos of dogs hanging twenty on
the waves and the sunny skies in the beach. Well,
this past weekend there were two wonderful events that featured
dogs and a few other humans hanging in twenty. The
Helen Woodward Animal Center hosted their sixth annual Surf Dog
Surfathon presented by Yukanuba, which is the largest surf dog
contest in the country. The event, which is held at
the Dog Beach in Delmar, California, was more than just
dog surfing. The surfathon featured a tribute to working dogs,
including police, search and rescue and service dogs. Other activities
included the Beach Bum Bikini Babe Canine costume contest that
Do the daw where people and pets and costumes surf together,
as well as the introduction of the first dog into
the Helen Woodward Animal Center Surf Dog Hall of Fame.
I want to give a special woof to the event's
biggest fundraiser and someone we're familiar with here, surf dog Ricochet,
who was the top fundraiser for this year's Surf Dog Surfathon,
raising more than six thousand dollars for pets and programs
of the Helen Woodward Animal Center. Overall, more than one
hundred thousand dollars was raised during the sixth annual Surf
Dog Surfathon. About four thousand spectators, including myself, watched eighty
dogs compete, but only one was named Top Dog and
that was surf dog Buddy from Ventura. Buddy, who has
won five of the six Surf Dog Surfathons, also became
the first inductee into the Helen Woodward Animal Center's Surf
Dog Hall of Fame. I spoke with Buddy's owner, Bruce Hooker,
who told me about Buddy literally taking to the surfboard
on his own, who shared the story that he was
teaching his son to boogie board and they lost the board.
The board came into the shore and Buddy found it.
Buddy raced over and jumped onto the boogiey board and
then began to write it as if Buddy was a
veteran surfer. Well. As some spectators shared with us, the
greatest thing about Buddy is that he can actually turn
and maneuver the board, so he does more than just
sit on it. He rides it. He works the waves.
It's also clear that Buddy really enjoys being in the water.
We all watched it as he triumphantly shouted or barked
as he would ride his waves into the shore, much
to the delight of the thousands of onlookers. That you
may not know Buddy by name, but you've most likely
seen Buddy Surfing. He's been the face of the dog
surfing world for the past ten years, and his main
appearances on Animal Planet, Pet Star, ESPN, CNN, NBC, the
CBS Morning Show, The iPad launched in so many more things.
You know. Buddy the Surfing Dog is a fourteen year
old Jack Russell Terrier and he surfs because he loves
the water and he enjoys the surfing. Not every dog
wants to surf, but those that do really seem to
enjoy it. And after his fifth victory in del Mar,
his owner Bruce said that last heat was probably the
best of Buddy's life. It may also be his last
competition regardless. Wesalute, Buddy the Surfing Dog. May you proudly
and playfully hang twenty for many more years to come.
And how are you listening and thinking that your dog
surf or may want to surf?
Speaker 10: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I spent some time down at the event with Peter Knowle,
who leads a San Diego based group called so Cow Surfdogs,
and he says, if your dog is gonna do it,
it should be because your dog loves to do it
and loves the water. He also shared with me that
safety equipment is a must, especially a life jacket. One
of the more interesting things that I saw at the
event is that there is now a surfboard manufacturer that
is making a surfboard just for dogs. This surfboard has
some safety features that only a dog would want, like
a softer top side so the dogs can get a
better grip and if there are any falls or bumps,
it has less of an impact or a chance to
hurt a dog. To the north, in Surf City, USA,
also known as Huntington Beach, the surf City Surf Dog
Contest was held. This contest featured a number of surf
dogs and some owners hanging twenty and get some Guinness
Book of World records in the process. One of the
more prominent Guinness records was accomplished by surfing dog Abby,
who wrote the longest wave recorded by a dog surfing
sixty meters on her board. Abbey's owner, Michael and the
many spectators were very proud and never had a doubt
that Abby could set the record. And while there were
plenty of award winners at the Surf City Surf Dog Event,
the biggest winners were the charity partners who saw thousands
of dollars raised to continue to help support their charity efforts.
I love these type of events where animal owners find
a way to tie in a love for something that
they have with more time spent with their animals. Additionally,
taking that extra step and being able to raise money
and awareness for a great animal cause is something I
certainly want to recognize and applause. So to all the
surfing dogs listening, I say, hang twenty dude, and I'll
catch you on a great wave soon. Next up is
a great story about someone facing a personal challenge and
overcoming it with inspiration from the animal ward. Remember back
to your birthday or Christmas when you really wanted something
so bad that you would forsake all other presents just
to get this one present. Well, that's how Alex Andon,
president of Jellyfish Art, felt about jellyfish. The following story
is about someone wanting something so bad that they create
something that doesn't exist so that they can be closer
to the animals they love. Alex and I recently sat
down and he shared with me how he was inspired
to create Jellyfish Art. It all started the first time
he ever saw jellyfish, and that fascination continued to grow
throughout the years until while a marine biology student at
Duke University, he started to see it as more than
just a hobby. Alex saw how much people truly love
their jellyfish, and that you could go to any aquarium
and you would see masses of people huddled around and
mesmerized by the jellyfish in the jellyfish tanks. Unfortunately, for
Alex and the rest of us who love jellyfish, there
was not a commercial available jellyfish tank there was affordable
or in reach of the average consumer, and that's where
inspiration and passion met the business world. Alex, who has
built some very beautiful and large commercial jellyfish tanks, began
working on the idea of bringing the jellyfish tank to
everyone who wants one. But since jellyfish are ninety five
percent water and easily get sucked into standard tanks filtration systems,
he had to redesign the way the fish tank would
work and operate. He went from modifying existing tanks to
literally creating and engineering the first desktop tank for jellyfish
in the marketplace. He experimented with different species of jellyfish
before finally settling on the beautiful and majestic moon jellyfish.
In fact, now he has created a moon jellyfish breeding
program to supply his customers with the jellyfish that they
need and want. One of the great things about what
Alex has done is that he made it simple for
those of us not blessed with a blue thumb or
whatever kind of thing I need to keep a saltwater
tank healthy. He's included everything we need, including the unique
jellyfish desk top tank, the water pump, the feeding pipe
at the color changing LEDs, the jellyfish food, and the
jellyfish themselves. Of course, Yeah, Alex has put in a
tremendous amount of work and effort, even going so far
as to research jellyfish from a rubber dinghy in the
chili and shark infested waters of San Francisco to achieve
this dream. Fortunately for oceanic and jellyfish lovers like me,
Alex has achieved his dream and has brought to life
and the marketplace the reality of having a home jellyfish
tank in everyone's home. If you love jellyfish, and who doesn't.
You can see more about Alex in Jellyfish Art by
visiting Jellyfish Art at their website, which is jellyfish art
dot com and if you're a jellyfish lover or just
a saltwater tank lover, if you're a fan of saltwater tanks,
hand or jellyfish, I'd really recommend visiting their website. They've
got a lot of great information both from the inside
perspective as well as the everyday perspective on everything from
jellyfish to saltwater tanks. It's really a great sight with
a lot of information. Again, I love stories like this.
Something wasn't there for the animal world or the animal
lover and someone took the initiative to put their mind
to it and create that Alex, kudos to you. I
can't wait to get my jellyfish our tank soon. And
I'm sure there are others listening right now who are
thinking the same thing. Okay, listeners, one last story before
we bid a do today. This one comes from Juno,
Alaska and was sent to me by one of our listeners,
and this is a great one. Recently, an Alaskan woman
punched a beer in the snout to save her dog.
You know, started off as any typical evening for twenty
two year old Brooke Collins when she let her dogs
out around seven thirty pm, and then all of a sudden,
she heard some barking and then the most horrific sound
in the world. And that's when she looked outside and
she saw a bear was crouching down with fudge and
its paws her little dog. So she ran out there instinctively,
and what would you do. Well, what she did was
punch the bear in the face, scoop her dog away,
and run back into the house. Maybe not the way
they might tell you in a training video, but you
know what, it worked. And Brooke, I would have done
the same thing had it been one of my two dogs.
So kudos to you. You survived it, you saved your dog,
and we all got to enjoy this great story in
animal Topia. You know, folks, we want you to share
your great stories as well. That's why we've set up
a toll free phone number for you, the animal lovers,
to call in and share your amazing animal tales with
our listeners. Give us a call and share your inspiring,
your funny, your heartwarming stories. We'll continue to have contests
with giveaways for the best stories. And we you know,
we all have an incredible story about our animals, so
share it. With us at the following toll free number,
and you may hear your story on an upcoming episode
of animal Topia. The toll free number is eight five
five two six four six two five eight. Again that's
eight five five two six four six two five eight,
or if it's easier, just do what I do, call
eight five five animal Topia. Well, everyone, we're out of
time for this episode, but we will be back soon
with more adventures in animal Topia. I'm your host, Robert
Semro and I'm proud to be an animal Topia for
animal Topia. Pet Life Radio and all those who make
this show possible, thank you, and we'll talk again soon.
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