ith reptiles at the age of 13, and his fascination with snakes became the bedrock of his career. He hosted the cable programs “Wild Recon” and “Venom in Vegas,” co-authored a number of scientific articles and has spoken at the International Herpetological Symposium.
Alison, daughter of Clint Eastwood, is not only an American film director and Hollywood actress, but also a true animal advocate, having worked with Marine Animal Rescue and other organizations. She made her directorial debut with “Rails & Ties”; her other acting credits include “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” “I’ll Be Seeing You” and “Once Fallen.”
“This is a series that is near and dear to my heart,” says Eastwood. “I have amassed television and film credits, but helping animals and finding them loving homes is my passion. I have wanted to create a show about rescuing animals and bringing attention and awareness to their plight for some time.”
Donald adds, “I joined the series to not only raise awareness to the plight of animals in captivity but also the owners. Having owned and worked with exotic and dangerous animals, I wanted to explore these relationships and try and help all parties involved. While only bad incidents get press, there are thousands of responsible exotic owners out there, and I wanted to try and weigh in on this hot button topic with my expertise.”
Sometimes Alison and Donald successfully persuade owners to relinquish their animals, and at that point a sanctuary is called in. Tearfully, owners make the difficult decision to say goodbye to their animals and watch as they are loaded up and taken to a better home. In other cases, however, the owners ’refuse changes outright, and Donald and Alison have no choice but to leave empty-handed. If they think they have another solution to help the animal, they attempt to return at a later date with a plan in place.
Animal Intervention is produced for Nat Geo WILD by Bienstock Young Media. For Bienstock Young Media, executive producers are Jay Bienstock and Eugene Young. For Nat Geo WILD, executive producer is Ashley Hoppin and executive vice president and general manager is Geoff Daniels.
For more information, visit www.natgeowild.com or www.natgeowildpr.com.
Premiere Episodes Include:
Animal Intervention: RV Monkeys
Premieres Tuesday, October 2, 2012, at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT
Alison and Donald head to Branson, Mo., to meet with Kirby Van Burch, a magician who uses exotic animals in an act he performs more than 300 times a year. He has been close with animals all his life, and even cuddles with a leopard on the couch of his dressing room. Kirby has been criticized for his small enclosures and rigorous production schedule for his main attractions—three tigers and two leopards. Alison and Donald
wild animals belong in the wild. The AZA monitors breeding programs. A white tiger is a genetic misfit! There are no breeding programs to breed these animals and return to the wild!
many organizations in the US, AND the world, say they are sanctuaries. THEY ARE NOT! True big cat sanctuaries will have the cats spayed or neutered, no continue breeding and selling. What kind of sanctuary is that? I suggest everyone watch these upcoming shows on Nat Geo. Privately captive animals DON'T HELP the return of them into the wild!!!!!!!!!!
Why isn't Karl Mitchell in jail?
USDA is understaffed and can only handle 1,000 cases per year, so they choose the worst and as bad as he is, I guess he didn't make their top 1000 list. In late 2011 USDA said they had a backlog of 2,000 cases and that they were going to just give 1000 of them a warning letter so that they could scale back to 1000 cases to deal with. The problem is that it meant no more cases would rise to the top in 2012 because they were already at their max. That is why the bad guys love to say that they are USDA inspected. It means almost nothing and they know USDA can't afford to stop them.