September is fashion month, with massive week-long events in major cities worldwide, including New York, London, Milan and Paris. And the question on many peoples’ minds is: will we be seeing fur, or will more designers choose to go fur-free?

PJ Smith, Director of Fashion Policy for Humane World for Animals thinks the future of the industry is fur-free, and joins Defender Radio to discuss trends, textile innovation, and what gives him optimism.

SHOW NOTES

Humane World for Animals: https://www.humaneworld.org/

Humane World for Animals Woolrich Campaign: https://secure.humaneworld.org/page/176766/action/1

Want to suggest topics for Defender Radio? Reach out to us at info@TheFurBearers.com, by visiting DefenderRadio.com or engaging host Michael Howie on social media via Instagram (www.instagram.com/howiemichael) or Facebook (www.Facebook.com/DefenderRadio).

Defender Radio is produced by The Fur-Bearers (www.TheFurBearers.com), a charitable non-partisan organization whose mandate is to advocate on behalf of fur-bearing animals in the wild and in confinement, promote coexistence solutions in communities and protect the habitats of fur-bearing animals across Canada. You can follow The Fur-Bearers on Instagram (www.instagram.com/furbearers), Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/thefurbearers.bsky.social) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FurFree).

The tragic story of a locally beloved cougar being killed near Canmore, Alberta, earlier this year was heartbreaking. John Marriott, an award-winning wildlife photographer and co-founder of Exposed Wildlife Conservancy shared his harrowing experience with Defender Radio – along with his discovery of two cougar kits, orphaned by the incident.

Several months later, the cougar kits were transferred to Parc Safari in Quebec, and the outcry for policy change in Alberta rages on. To share more about these updates and introduce the new Executive Director of Exposed Wildlife Conservancy, John Marriott and Maggie Spizziri join Defender Radio.

SHOW NOTES

Cougar kit photo by John E. Marriott / WildernessPrints.com

Exposed Wildlife Conservancy website: https://www.exposedwildlifeconservancy.org/

EWC on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSN6XzS07gO8xNxLWFGJY5Q

EWC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/exposdwc/

EWC on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/exposdwc/

Canmore Cougar Tragedy (original episode): https://thefurbearers.com/blog/defender-radio/the-canmore-cougar-tragedy-featuring-john-e-marriott/

Conservationst article mentioned: https://www.nsnews.com/environment/study-reveals-anglers-conservationists-share-surprising-common-ground-in-orca-chinook-fight-11084359

Want to suggest topics for Defender Radio? Reach out to us at info@TheFurBearers.com, by visiting DefenderRadio.com or engaging host Michael Howie on social media via Instagram (www.instagram.com/howiemichael) or Facebook (www.Facebook.com/DefenderRadio).

Defender Radio is produced by The Fur-Bearers (www.TheFurBearers.com), a charitable non-partisan organization whose mandate is to advocate on behalf of fur-bearing animals in the wild and in confinement, promote coexistence solutions in communities and protect the habitats of fur-bearing animals across Canada. You can follow The Fur-Bearers on Instagram (www.instagram.com/furbearers), Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/thefurbearers.bsky.social) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FurFree).

From streetlights to skyscrapers and everything in between, lighting up the night can help keep people safe. But, this often excessive lighting has a consequence: light pollution. Native wildlife across Canada gets impacted by light pollution in many ways–and they're not alone. Humans, too, are impacted in surprising ways by our bright night skies.

Tijana Selak, Wildlife Campaigns and Advocacy Manager at The Fur-Bearers, joins The Switch to talk about the impacts of light pollution on wildlife, humans, and the simple solutions that can help us make a switch for the better.

SHOW NOTES:

Episode art of Calgary at night by Gelu Popa / Getty Images

Check out Tijana's excellent article on light pollution at TheFurBearers.com: https://thefurbearers.com/blog/bring-back-the-night-how-light-pollution-disrupts-wildlife/

Learn more about window strikes and their impact on birds with FLAP Canada at: https://flap.org/

CBC Article "Urban wildlife team finds alarming rise in bird-window collisions in downtown Calgary": https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/bird-window-collisions-downtown-1.7606425

Want to suggest topics for Defender Radio? Reach out to us at info@TheFurBearers.com, by visiting DefenderRadio.com or engaging host Michael Howie on social media via Instagram (www.instagram.com/howiemichael) or Facebook (www.Facebook.com/DefenderRadio).

Defender Radio is produced by The Fur-Bearers (www.TheFurBearers.com), a charitable non-partisan organization whose mandate is to advocate on behalf of fur-bearing animals in the wild and in confinement, promote coexistence solutions in communities and protect the habitats of fur-bearing animals across Canada. You can follow The Fur-Bearers on Instagram (www.instagram.com/furbearers), Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/thefurbearers.bsky.social) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FurFree).

Mink fur farms are a virus’s favourite place. There’s lots of opportunity to transmit, mutate, and lead to more virulent strains that threaten public health. With the devastating economic impact of H5N1 or avian flu in the news, the reintroduction of the Mink Virus Act to the United States Congress is well timed.

To share what this legislation is about, why it matters, and how people on both sides of the border can support it, Devan Schowe, Campaigns Associate for BornFree USA joins Defender Radio.

SHOW NOTES

Photo of a mink on a Canadian fur farm by We Animals.

BornFree USA's Mink VIRUS Act page and action: https://www.bornfreeusa.org/2025/03/19/great-news-mink-virus-act-reintroduced-in-congress/

BornFree USA on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/bornfreeusaorg
BornFree USA on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bornfreeusa
BornFree USA on Tiktok: http://www.tiktok.com/@bornfreeusaorg
BornFree USA on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/bornfreeusa

Want to suggest topics for Defender Radio? Reach out to us at info@TheFurBearers.com, by visiting DefenderRadio.com or engaging host Michael Howie on social media via Instagram (www.instagram.com/howiemichael) or Facebook (www.Facebook.com/DefenderRadio).

Defender Radio is produced by The Fur-Bearers (www.TheFurBearers.com), a charitable non-partisan organization whose mandate is to advocate on behalf of fur-bearing animals in the wild and in confinement, promote coexistence solutions in communities and protect the habitats of fur-bearing animals across Canada. You can follow The Fur-Bearers on Instagram (www.instagram.com/furbearers), Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/thefurbearers.bsky.social) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FurFree).

Anyone who follows John E. Marriott or Exposed Wildlife Conservancy on social media knows that a cougar John had tracked for many years was killed near Canmore, Alberta, earlier this year. It led to two orphaned kits, a harrowing experience for John, and a clear mission: to share this story with the public and lead to change for wildlife in Alberta. To give us the story from the very beginning and what he wants to see happen next, John Marriott joins Defender Radio.

SHOW NOTES:

Photo of the orphaned cougars provided by John E. Marriott / WildernessPrints.com

Exposed Wildlife Conservancy: https://www.exposedwildlifeconservancy.org/

John's Photography website: https://wildernessprints.com/

EWC on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSN6XzS07gO8xNxLWFGJY5Q

EWC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/exposdwc/

EWC on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/exposdwc/

Want to suggest topics for Defender Radio? Reach out to us at info@TheFurBearers.com, by visiting DefenderRadio.com or engaging host Michael Howie on social media via Instagram (www.instagram.com/howiemichael) or Facebook (www.Facebook.com/DefenderRadio).

Defender Radio is produced by The Fur-Bearers (www.TheFurBearers.com), a charitable non-partisan organization whose mandate is to advocate on behalf of fur-bearing animals in the wild and in confinement, promote coexistence solutions in communities and protect the habitats of fur-bearing animals across Canada. You can follow The Fur-Bearers on Instagram (www.instagram.com/furbearers), Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/thefurbearers.bsky.social) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FurFree).

Fifty years ago this week, Canada officially made beavers one of our national symbols. In celebrating this anniversary – and the many ecological services and benefits provided by beavers – The Fur-Bearers have a bit of beaver fever.

And who better to talk to about beavers than Ben Goldfarb, the journalist behind Eager: The Surprising Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter. This book has made big waves since it landed in 2018, and Ben joins Defender Radio to share how he started out writing Eager, what he loves about beavers, his newer works, and how we can look to beavers for hope in uncertain times.

SHOW NOTES:

Cover photo by jamesvancouver / Getty Images

Ben Goldfarb's website: https://www.bengoldfarb.com/

More about Eager: https://www.bengoldfarb.com/eager

More about Crossings: https://www.bengoldfarb.com/crossings

Ben on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/bengoldfarb.bsky.social

Learn more about Canada's 50th anniversary of the beaver as a national symbol from The Fur-Bearers at: https://thefurbearers.com/blog/celebrating-beavers-50th-anniversary-as-canadas-symbol/

Want to suggest topics for Defender Radio? Reach out to us at info@TheFurBearers.com, by visiting DefenderRadio.com or engaging host Michael Howie on social media via Instagram (www.instagram.com/howiemichael) or Facebook (www.Facebook.com/DefenderRadio).

Defender Radio is produced by The Fur-Bearers (www.TheFurBearers.com), a charitable non-partisan organization whose mandate is to advocate on behalf of fur-bearing animals in the wild and in confinement, promote coexistence solutions in communities and protect the habitats of fur-bearing animals across Canada. You can follow The Fur-Bearers on Instagram (www.instagram.com/furbearers), Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/thefurbearers.bsky.social) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FurFree).

Canada’s iconic wildlife include moose, beavers, and wolves. But of the many species of vertebrate, which are the most evolutionarily distinct? And why does that matter?

A team of researchers from Simon Fraser University (emma Kominek, Olivia Cornies, Arne Ø. Mooers, and Wildlife Preservation Canada's Hannah McCurdy-Adams) explored these questions in their paper, Evolutionary isolation of Canadian terrestrial vertebrate species, published in the journal The Canadian Field-Naturalist. The final list included some not so surprising results – like beavers being near the top for mammals, and some unusual species that aren’t commonly known, like mudpuppies, an amphibian that can be found in a relatively small range of southern Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.

To share more about the paper, how the species lists were developed, and why it’s important for conservationists to learn about, study coauthor Emma Kominek joins Defender Radio.

SHOW NOTES:

Episode photo by Chuck Miller / Getty Images

Evolutionary isolation of Canadian terrestrial vertebrate species: https://doi.org/10.22621/cfn.v137i4.2673

SFU's coverage of the study: https://www.sfu.ca/science/news/2024-news/move-along-moose--sfu-study-reveals-the--most-canadian--animals.html

Want to suggest topics for Defender Radio? Reach out to us at info@TheFurBearers.com, by visiting DefenderRadio.com or engaging host Michael Howie on social media via Instagram (www.instagram.com/howiemichael) or Facebook (www.Facebook.com/DefenderRadio).

Defender Radio is produced by The Fur-Bearers (www.TheFurBearers.com), a charitable non-partisan organization whose mandate is to advocate on behalf of fur-bearing animals in the wild and in confinement, promote coexistence solutions in communities and protect the habitats of fur-bearing animals across Canada. You can follow The Fur-Bearers on Instagram (www.instagram.com/furbearers), Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/thefurbearers.bsky.social) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FurFree).