Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Christmas Special: Animals who help humans

Episode Date: December 25, 2018

Crime never takes a holiday, but Crime Stories does. For this Christmas Day, Nancy Grace talks about how animals help humans -- sometimes even saving lives. Her special guest include Jack Hanna, director emeritus of the famous Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and host of Jack Hanna’s Into the Wild and Wild Countdown, reporter and animal lover Jane Velez-Mitchell, creator of the animal rights website JaneUnchained.com, and two mom's who credit dogs with saving the lives of their children. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. No, it's not Santa. It's Nancy Grace. Are you trying to find the perfect gift for a parent or an expecting parent? Please do not give them another onesie. Don't do it. And not another plastic toy that's going to end up in the trash bin or the garage or sent

to Goodwill. This holiday season, give them something that really matters. And what matters more than protecting their child? I sat down with the smartest people in the world that I know when it comes to child safety, finding missing children and fighting back against predators. And what I learned is so critical and the information so powerful and important. I want you to have it. I want them as parents to have it. Go to crimestopshere.com for a five-part series with action information that you can use to change your life and protect your child because I have done it myself based on

what they have told me. Give that as a gift, not another onesie, please. Find out how to protect your child out and about at the mall, at the store, at the grocery store, in parking lots, in parking decks, at your home, in your neighborhood. Find out about protection regarding babysitters, nannies, daycare, even protection online. It's the very best gift you can give any parent. Go to crimestopshere.com and join the Justice Nation. Crimestopsere.com. God willing.

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Mercy! Mercy! Dogs really are a man's best friend. Dogs are our pets and companions. And we love them even though they often seem unable to do anything more than lie around and run after sticks. You can find all kinds of interesting and incredible stories involving dogs saving humans from disastrous situations. We hear about heroes and hero detectives all the time.

But our unsung heroes, the ones we never hear about, are our furry friends, the heroes, pet detectives and heroes. And I'm bringing you real-life cases today along with an awesome all-star lineup of a panel, including Jack Hanna. We all know Jack Hanna, the director emeritus, the animal ambassador of the world-famous Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, the host of Jack Hanna's Into the Wild and Wild Countdown. I mean, this guy, I will never forget doing an HLN show and a Larry King show, which I still have photos of, where Jack would bring on animals from his zoo all the way to New York City. And what a time we had. The best shows ever, and as I've always told Jack Hanna,

the best witnesses I've ever put on the stand were dogs. Also with me, my longtime friend and colleague, Jane Velez Mitchell, reporter and animal lover, Dori Natal, who has an incredible story of how a dog saved her son. And Shannon Niehaus, also with us, with a dramatic story of a life-saving animal hero. Jack Hanna, welcome to Crime Stories. Tell me your thoughts on animal heroes. Why do they go unsung? Well, you know, we're all in the media, and a lot of times the media likes to talk about negative things with the animals when, you know, it's just news. People love animals since the beginning of time. As I tell people, you know, I don't

know what the prehistoric wolf looked like and things like that, but as things developed over the thousands, tens of millions of years, whatever, then those animals became, you know, probably the food source for many, many people, cave people, whoever was alive then. And of course, those animals became more, the word I use, habituated, which means used to people. I mean, look at Diane Fossey. A new verse, she's a friend of mine, and I have a home in Rwanda right next to Mount Grillas where Sue and I have a home there for two miles from where the Grillas live. And you look back at history where the Grillas were poached, they were hunted for body parts and for food and things like this. So as cultures develop

throughout the world, way back from, who knows, tens of thousands, millions of years ago, cultures developed. And that's what I tell people. I have a saying real quickly, touch the heart to teach the mind. So when I go into these countries all over the world to film, and not just to film, to talk to them about, you know, taking care of conservation animals, like the birds they might eat too many of or this and that, and you talk to them about their lives first, the people, then you can help the animals. I've always learned this over the years of 45 years of doing this, that I go in and help people first, and then in turns help the development

of the animal world. So that's what I do a great deal of. With me is the renowned Jack Hanna, the director emeritus of the world-famous Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, and host of Jack Hanna's Into the Wild and Wild Countdown, Jane Velez Mitchell. I will never forget. Oh man, I miss you so much, Jane Velez Mitchell. I will never forget. I think it was during Tot Mom, Casey Anthony, we were all down in Orlando and everyone was going to go out to dinner one night and we ended up at, what was that place? Anyway, it was a steakhouse. And I thought that Jane Velez Mitchell was going to jump out of her skin. By the time it was all over, I was afraid to even have a bowl of spinach.

So, Jane Velez Mitchell, why is this so important to you? Well, if we love animals, don't eat them. Don't wear them. My belief system is that they're not commodities. They're not things for us to use. They're individuals who are entitled to their own lives and that they have so much more in common with us than they have separating us. The animals that have central nervous systems that have eyes, hearts, ears, anybody who has a dog knows dogs dream. So do pigs.

So we have so much in common with these animals. And the truth is what's killing them. And by killing them, we're killing ourselves with heart disease and cancer and many other diseases. So there is a way now to live. And honestly, we can't sustain it, Nancy. Animal agriculture is the leading cause of greenhouse gases, more than all transportation combined. It's the leading cause of greenhouse gases, more than all transportation combined. It's the leading cause of habitat destruction, which makes it a leading cause of wildlife extinction. Why? Because we're 7.5 billion people on this planet, but we kill 60 to 70 billion animals that eat a lot of food. So we have to destroy a lot of forests to create cropland to feed 60 to 70 billion animals, many of whom eat a lot more than we do.

Jane Velez, tell me about Jane Unchained. Well, thanks. That's your new. Yes. Thank you for asking, Nancy. When I left HLN, they had graciously allowed me to do one animal story a week. I don't know if they knew what they were getting into, but I was able to cover many, many stories that normally don't get uh national coverage jane can i just tell you something i would pass jane in the hall and she'd say awesome ratings nance

i'm like jane you gotta stop with the plastic bags okay we know they're bad i know they're bad i don't think they realize that you are getting in a lot more animal stories, and I'm so proud of you. JaneUnchained.com, right? Yes, thank you. And it's a digital news network for animal rights. We had almost 16 million views on Facebook this past year. We just added it up. Woo!

Yeah. Okay, I want you to take a listen, you and Jack Hanna, to a very special guest joining me right now, Dori Natal. I am looking at a photo of you, Dori, and the story that you have to tell is incredible. Thank you. Tell me what happened, Dori. Welcome to Crime Stories here on SiriusXM 132. Tell me what happened, Dori. Welcome to Crime Stories here on SiriusXM 132. Tell me what happened. I'm sure Jack Hanna and Jane Velez are not going to be surprised,

but I bet our listeners are. Go ahead. My son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was 2. It's an incurable, non-preventable lifetime disease where his blood sugar, we have to inject insulin multiple times in the day just to to keep him alive without that we prick his finger every two to three hours okay wait a minute wait a minute it's just so much so fast I always say I'm drinking out of a fire hydrant I can't take it all in oh no you're a baby you're a baby boy I have a boy and a girl Jack can you

believe it Jane I actually have children my lifelong dream and a girl, Jack, can you believe it, Jane? I actually have children, my lifelong dream. And I'm miserable because I can just see them walking out the door to college. Little do they know mommy's going back to school. So my daughter just had, they're twins, so their birthday parties are now, they have to be separate. Misery. My daughter had a spend the night party and one of her little friends has diabetes and she has a monitor. It went off all during the night and I was so afraid I would do something wrong. I kept reading the mom's text message instructions and oh, I was so worried. And as it turned out,

it was not, you know, hard to do at all, but it is very, you have to do it. You have to stay on top of it. I did it one night. You are telling me you give your son injections throughout the day just to keep him alive. Yes. That's, that's the thing that I think a lot of people don't really understand about diabetes is that type one diabetes especially is a 24-hour disease. Dori Natal, you are telling me you give your son injections throughout the day just to keep him alive. Yes, that's the thing that I think a lot of people don't really understand about diabetes is that type 1 diabetes especially is a 24-hour disease. And I'm trying to be a pancreas for him. And it's a very hard thing to do. And when he was very little, he couldn't tell

me how he felt if he felt off. So we decided to research all the technology. We have a monitor. We finger prick. But then we started, we are an animal lover family. And we decided to. Wait a minute, guys. Go online. And you've got to look at the picture of what she's talking about. There's her beautiful baby boy. He's asleep with the covers pulled up.

There's the diabetes monitor. There's stuff sitting on the, like a little pack folded out, a MediPak. You see her hand holding the monitor. It has sitting on the like a little pack folded out a medipack you see her hand holding the monitor it has 57 on it and right beside it it's a dog that looks a lot like my little fat boy a little black dog looking up at the picture and this is on facebook now go ahead i'm looking at the picture right now tell me what happened uh well it was a typical night before bed. We always test his blood sugar. We calibrate his monitors. And then we go to sleep.

I set several alarms overnight. And there are many things that can wake me up, either the monitor, my alarm clock, or Jedi. And the amazing thing about Jedi is he's been with us for five years now, ever since my son was three. That's the dog, right? Yes, Jedi is he's been with us for five years now ever since my son was three is he can that's the dog right yes Jedi is my son's dog and my son's name is Luke oh my stars I get it it's an uh English guys this dog okay yeah Jane you have to go online we're we've posted this on crimeonline.com you got to see see this dog. Jane, no stealing any more pets, okay? Back to Jedi. Go ahead. So we're Star Wars family, so Luke loves, named him Jedi, and he has, as Luke calls him, magic powers. Jedi knows when he's going to drop or go, his blood sugar go high about 20 minutes before the meters, and sometimes the meters take a long time to catch up, but Jedi,

they're still researching the actual chemical, but Jedi can smell the changes in Luke's body. And that night he was laying on my feet and his alert at night is to jump off the bed, jump back on the bed until I wake up. And so that night I was asleep. Everything was fine. I had tested his blood sugar like I do every night. And I had an alarm set for midnight, but it or midnight and three, but it was between those alarms. And yet I jumped up off the, on the bed. It took me a minute to wake up because this is every night. And then he laid on me and I got up, went to the kitchen, like I

always do, got his kit, tested him, and he was 57. And which means I immediately had to wake him up and give him and have him ingest glucose. What does that mean? 57? What does that mean? It means... Oh, wait a minute. That's what it says right there. 57. Yeah, the typical, we all need glucose in ourselves to keep our bodies going. It's the fuel for our bodies. And typically most people run between 70 and 120. That's how much glucose they have in the cells. And below 70, it starts to become dangerous. You can have a seizure, you can go into a coma. Luke feels miserable when he's low it's he says it feels like a stone sinking into the ocean it's the body shutting down because it doesn't have enough

glucose and almost stars wait well wait let me just take this in a moment with me is dory who you can see the photo of her little baby her angel in bed has type 1 diabetes you have it for life and it can cause a death your body starts to shut down I'm looking at this shot of this beautiful angel and he would not be alive today if it were not for the dog Jedi. And I'm looking at your post and you say, I've already given him a glucose tab. What else could I do? There was nothing. So in that moment, I'm waiting for his blood sugar to come up like I've done a thousand times and I'll do a thousand times more. And I feel so alone in a world that doesn't understand what someone with type one diabetes goes through on a daily basis. And then that moment I see beside you as this mom is standing there looking down on her son, wondering what's happening. And there is Jedi right beside the bed yes i mean i am so moved if

you could see this photo so tell me again what did jedi do to make you get up you'd already given him his his you'd already taken care of your baby what made the dog how did he get you awake to get in there? He doesn't stop. He, he gets, he lays on me. He'll nudge me. He'll paw me. He will do whatever it takes to get my attention. We've been working with him for years and he alerts multiple times a day. So for this particular one, he was not giving up until I woke up and, you know, we're tired. And so sometimes I looked at the meter and the meter said he was okay. So I didn't immediately jump. But when he didn't give up, I got up. And there have been several instances where he's found he's alerted and Luke's been 30 or 40. And I don't know how of those would have been. But I know that Luke is healthier and happier and he's here today because of Jedi helping me do everything that I need to do 24 hours a day to keep Luke, you know, happy and here.

And Jedi is always there for me. It's an extra companion, an extra layer of support to help take care of Luke, and I'm forever indebted to him. To Jack Hanna, director emeritus of the world-famous Columbus Zoo and host of Jack Hanna's Into the Wild and The Wild Countdown. Jack, when a baby boy says, Jedi has superpowers, he has magical powers, how does it happen? How do they do that? How does a pet do that?

Well, you know, listening to what you're saying, getting together what everyone is saying so far, real quick, if you've got a second, our daughter Julie, who lives with us, is 42 years old, at the age of two and a half, got one of the worst forms of leukemia you can imagine in the world, 1977. So we rushed her down to St. Jude Hospital at that two-year-old age. We were in Knoxville at that time, by the way,

and they told us she would not live 12 hours. So we got her barely there, and out of 12 kids on her floor, everyone passed away except she and her little boy. Now Julie, back to the animals, was used for research. She had radiation in the brain along with another little boy. They were the only two that survived out of the 12 kids. Today, of course, that was one building in 1977. St. Jude has 30 today. So I'm saying that my daughter Julie, along with the other boy, gave their lives. Julius had her last brain tumor two years ago. She's 43, lives with us. We continue to have tumors, but thank God so far all of them have been,

she lives with us, not that they're cancerous. But she's been just, she survived today. What I'm saying to you, talking about animal world, what you all are doing, if you look up, there's a list, and I don't know where it is, of how many diseases, whether it be measles, chickenpox, go down to about 40 of them, you'll see how the animal world literally saved human beings by research. I'm not for inhumane.

I don't like animal research. We come to slamming dogs and animals and like that against windshields and test cars like they used to do. No, I'll fight that every day. However, when it comes to animal research for humane, by the way, I said humane, all right, when my own daughter or other human beings are being used, the animal world literally has saved many of us. And one of the hardest things for me to do is what I have over the last 20 years,

I guess if you call it, and I don't use the word celebrity, by the way, I never have. I'm the animal ambassador, and I don't like the word celebrity. But when people come to me, and a little child, for example, last year was nine years old. I think it was from Indiana. Her sister, she came. She had maybe maybe her they told us on the phone and they called the last wish and special wish the last wishes are you go in my office you'll see the pictures of these young people who didn't make it their last wish was to see an animal you won't believe this they came there last year you could see that she was had because I've been through all this stuff when she

has no hair, all the treatments with drugs and everything, and she hadn't smiled. All of a sudden, I put a little penguin right there in her lap, and sure enough, she smiled for the first time. It's amazing what animals will do. Then I asked the father, let me wipe her hands off. I have a little sloth I want her to touch. It was born there, in our zoo in Columbus.

And he said, no, Jack, her hands will be washed very shortly, and he pointed to touch. It was born there, our zoo in Columbus. And he said, no, Jack, her hands will be washed very shortly. And he pointed to heaven. You don't think that myself and five of us there didn't lose it? You know, in what you're talking about, the same kind of thing, animals, for some reason, they have a, they have a way with them. When I've seen these children, there are pictures on my walls and ones that did not make it. But they had their last thing. And I go to the children's hospitals, even with some of the animals, you see these children and how they just come out of that pain. I wish I could explain it. Like I said, I have a saying, I live by it. You have touched the heart to teach the mind. These kids are really touching my heart more than I am theirs. I

don't know if that's what they think. I can answer your question again if you want me to, but I'm just telling you what I have to look at. I don't have to do it at all, but it's something that really shows me in life what the animal world means to all of us. Hi, Nancy Grace here. Have you ever Googled yourself, your neighbors, somebody at work, a crush? 57% of Americans admit to keeping an eye on their own online reputation. 46% admit to using the internet to look up somebody from their past. But Google and Facebook, the tip of the iceberg when it comes to finding personal information. There's an innovative new website called Truthfinder. It's now revealing the full

scoop on millions of Americans. Truthfinder can search through hundreds of millions of public records in a matter of minutes. Truthfinder members can literally begin searching in seconds for sensitive data like criminal, traffic, arrest records. Before you bring someone new into your life and around the people you care for, your children, consider using Truthfinder. What you find may astound you. Go to truthfinder.com forward slash Nancy right away to start searching. Truthfinder.com forward slash Nancy. Truthfinder.com forward slash Nancy.

Find the truth crime stories with nancy grace speaking of the superpowers of animals dogs have this unbelievable cats cats too, sense of smell. Humans have about 5 million scent receptors. Dogs have up to 3 million, depending on the breed. And it's been proven that they can sniff out a chemical change and detect all types of illnesses in humans, including epileptic seizures, certain types of cancer, diabetes changes. And a theory is that our present day dog ancestors gray wolf pack survival depended on the ability to know which member of the pack was sick.

Jane Velez, you have reported on so many pet heroes. Weigh in. Yes. Well, first of all, you should pay attention to your dog in your home. There's a great story out of North Carolina about a dog, a Labrador, who would get very agitated when the family's babysitter was around and would try to place himself between the seven-month-old boy and the babysitter and growl. And the parents noted the dog's hair would stand up. So they saw this happening so often, they decided to put a recording device in the home when they left. And they found out that this babysitter was abusing their child, slapping the child and insulting the child. And because they were alerted by the dog, they ultimately had this woman arrested. So when you're a parent or you're just a person,

pay attention to your dogs. If you want to know what it's like to be an animal, take a vow of silence for a couple of hours and see what mechanisms you're going to use to communicate. You're going to find yourself tapping and doing a lot of the same maneuvers that dogs can because they can't speak English, but they can communicate. And what I say is it's not just dogs. We have this odd thing in our culture where some animals, oh, we love them, we adore them, we deify them. Others, they're not entitled to any respect, and we consider them commodities. Let me just tell you that there's tremendous, tremendous intelligence in pigs. In fact, Lulu,

a housebroken pot-bellied pig, saved her human companions a life. The woman was on vacation, Joanne, in Pennsylvania. She collapsed in a heart attack. The pot-bellied pig ran out of the mobile home where they were staying, crashed through the gates. When a car was coming, the pig would lie down on the road. Several cars just veered around the dog. Lulu kept running back to check on her human companion. Finally, she ran out, threw herself on the ground again. A motorcycle stopped, followed Lulu back to the mobile home, And that's where he encountered Lulu's mom lying there having had a heart attack and they called 911. So pigs are extremely intelligent animals. They are smarter than dogs and they have the intelligence of very young human children.

So as we expand our circle of compassion beyond the boundaries of our own species. Let's not just stop at dogs and cats. Let's consider all animals because guess what? We're all animals, including us humans. You know, Jane Velez Mitchell, have I told you today, I just love you. I loved you from the very first moment that you filled in for me as a guest host on CNN's HLN. And that was just it. And to hear you speak and tell your stories, I just want the world to love you as much as I love you. I just can't imagine that I've got Jack Hanna and Jane Velez Mitchell on at the same time. You know, I've got another lady with me and I want you guys to hear her incredible story.

And again, I'm looking at a picture of her. And I've just got to tell you, it just really makes me cry. It's this lovely blonde lady and she's wearing tights, black tights and a blue T-shirt, and she's looking down at a little boy who looks like he's reading an iPad, and he's got his head resting on a big dog like he's a pillow. With me right now, and let me just go ahead and destroy your name. I think I'm saying correctly, Shauna Niehaus. No?

Yes, you got it. Oh, my goodness. Alan, let me just rub it in that I pronounced it right the first time. I'm like, some people, you, that I won't mention. Shauna, I'm looking at this little boy, and I'm guessing this is your little boy. You're a five-year-old. Yes. What happened?

So the day this picture was taken was the day that we met Tornado, my son's service dog. That was the first day of our training class. You know, we live in Japan right now. We're Americans, but we live in Japan. And we had been fundraising for quite a long time to cover the cost of training for Tornado. And then also for our family, our family of five traveling from Japan to Ohio to the organization that trained Tornado for Kai. And there's so much. Why does Kai need a service dog?

So Kai is autistic. Um, we, when he, when he was younger, we noticed that there are some elements to, uh, having an autistic child that can be really challenging. Uh, and as a parent, it's your responsibility to, um, you know, help them live their most fulfilling life, give them the most access to the world, support them and love them in the best ways that you can. And where he would find troubles socially with people or find challenges with people, those social interactions didn't come really naturally to him, but he did always gravitate to dogs. So my husband and I debated getting him a pet dog, but we thought, well, if we're going to get him a dog, let's get him something proper that can be with him. If this is who he might make a connection to, let's go for it. So we decided to fundraise and have a tornado raised for Kai. So the day of the picture that you see is the first day that they met towards the end of the day after we had traveled across the entire globe through the continental U.S. to get over to Ohio. We met Tornado for the first time. Kai was really overwhelmed. I think we were all overwhelmed along with other families who were

other recipient families who had received their dogs that day. And Kai, my husband had to take Kai back to where we were staying and give him a break and kind of bring him, you know, in and out, you know, as he could manage himself. And then this was sort of at the end of the day, shortly before we were leaving. And out of nowhere, Kai came out of the children's playroom, grabbed his iPad, and then just came in laid on Tornado. And sorry, I'm getting emotional. So that moment where you see me kind of crying is actually was really like like an ugly cry was sort of the moment, two years of hope went into that moment. You know, we, we signed on to fundraise, we signed on to, to travel, we signed on for all of this hope that

Kai might connect with, um, his service dog and that his service dog tornado would help be that bridge from Kai to bring those connections to the rest of the world to help give him access to the rest of the world to help give my husband and I peace of mind when when you know we live in Tokyo and it's exceptionally busy here and the people the crowds are out of this world. And that's overwhelming for anybody, let alone, you know, a child with sensory processing differences. So he's already an American kid in Tokyo, and he is autistic to add on to it. I'm looking at this photo, and you say it was worth every fight, every diagnosis, every dollar, every paper filled out, every school meeting, every tear I shed, wash, dress, snuggle, and touch freely because of his autism.

Now laying on his service dog of your child's own free will. Listen to this story, guys. This woman, Diane Boucher, was woken up from a deep sleep at 4.30 in the morning by Oreo, her cat. The cat wouldn't stop screaming, would not stop screaming. She ran out to check on the cat. And you know that sound when you hear your cat or dog make a crazy, high-pitched, screamy sound. She ran out, and what she found were flames. And if it had not been for her cat waking her up, you know, she would be dead and her home destroyed. There are stories like David Cici, 14 years old, couldn't swim, fell out of his dad's boat, and within minutes, a dolphin called Filippo

had come to the tourist attraction and saved the boy's life, pushing him up out of the water to safety. I mean, a dog, Brenda Owen, gone out for a walk with her dog. She spotted a wheelchair on a riverbank, sees a woman in the water. She called out. The woman didn't answer. She said to the dog, fetch. The dog jumped straight in that cold river water and pulled the woman to shore. I mean, it goes on. A two-year-old child in Texas walking with his grandmother when Arf, the family's dog, got very agitated so badly. The dog thought, I mean, the grandmother thought, I better take the child inside. The dog's going crazy.

The child's mother came out to find Arf in a fight with a 24-inch North American coral snake. And, Jack Hanna, you can tell us about coral snakes. Go ahead. Yeah, well, it's a snake, obviously, that can be fatal. It's not a matter of like a rattlesnake. You know, people talk about rattlesnakes all the time. The good Lord made a rattlesnake because a snake will rattle, so you don't step on it. People say, oh my God, it's a rattlesnake. Well, be very happy, it's a rattlesnake. A coral snake looks like some other kinds of snake, king snake, things like that. but that's neurotoxic.

Hemotoxic, as you know, is a rattlesnake, those kind of snakes where it's just a very painful bite and also just rots. But when it comes to coral snake, which is pretty rare, the animal has to basically chew. It doesn't have the fangs. And that's neurotoxic, which means it goes to the brain and you go to sleep, basically. And I'm sorry to say you might just sleep forever. So people get mixed up on snakes. I've filmed snakes all over the world. But people always ask me the question, oh, my gosh, Jack, have you been bitten?

I don't like that question because, as Jane will agree, if I'm bitten or something by an animal, usually most of the time it's my fault. It's not the animal's fault. When we film out there for 30 years, I made it clear 30 years ago, you respect, it's called respect for your animal at home. It's respect for the elephants, the lions. Some film crews love to go in there and push it to where the damn gum thing attacks the Jeep and throws it over and some guy gets bit.

You know, the reality TV, I'm not a big fan of it because it doesn't teach the young people how to go to Africa or India or the North Pole, South Pole, wherever I go. We film with respect. Okay, maybe you don't get the best film of something attacking and blood flying every which way. That's their home, not my home. And we always film with respect to these animals. We've always done it. Our crew has been together for 23 years. We all work as a team, as a family. And we look at those wild animals. You're an animal at home. You're an animal at home. You respect your animal at home.

You don't sit down and take a dog. My dad taught me that. You put food there and all of a sudden you have a two-year-old or somebody visits you and they go over and grab the food out of the dog bowl. Jane will tell you that could be a fatal bite. Not a fatal bite. That could be a terrible bite. So kids have to learn about animals.

I know I'm jumping around a lot. My dad used to tell me on the farm, I have AT&T or ADH. I don't know what the heck I have. My dad would tell me, I can't remember if it's ADH or AT&T. ADHD. Okay, whatever it is. Anyway, I jump around a lot, but I just try to explain things about animals and, you know, some dogs can never even bitten anybody, but you can't go up to a dog and just grab the food out of the pot. You know, I learned all these things on the farm and how to respect the animal world, and that's what I try to do when I film and when I talk about the animals, you know. And if there's a couple of the Columbus Zoological Park, I think Jane knows, 98% of our animals today, 98% come from other zoos.

I can go collect if I need a sperm or an egg or something like that because I think we really are the arch of the world. We weren't that. We were not that, are the arch of the world we we weren't that we were not that by the way 20 30 years ago but today um millions tens of millions of dollars are spent on to make sure these animals have habitats uh they're some of the best in the world if you can't touch the heart to keep some out of these people about your dogs or cats or some of these animals and none of it when i do my speeches to two and three thousand people in these theaters, I ask the audience, how many of you have ever seen an elephant in Africa?

No hands. How many of you have ever seen a killer whale? No hands. How many of you have seen, I could go through a list of 5,000 animals, and usually sometimes I'll see a dolphin, you'll get some hands up. So what I'm trying to say is, in the zoological world, in the aquarium world, having these animals now that we know how to breed them and have them have the proper habitats, and I'll agree with people way back when they weren't good habitats,

but now today we do that because we have to let people see for themselves why they would love an animal to save an animal. You can't love something, you can't save something. In the world, my wife hates this term, but I'll say it real quick. I have kids and grandkids, but I'll tell you one thing as I travel the world. The main thing we have, everybody, you can do global warming, say everything you want to. It's called overpopulation. I think Jane knows this probably. Overpopulation takes animals' room.

It's that simple. And it's not rocket science, everybody. We can sit here and debate on global warming. You can debate all you want to, water, air, all this stuff. I agree with you on that. What cause is this? The good Lord put the earth here. He told us to do it with what predator-prey relationship on our warming. You can debate all you want to. Water, air, all this stuff. I agree with you on that. What cause is this? The good Lord put the earth here. He told us to do it with what predator-prey relationship on our earth.

Obviously, with so many people, it's been screwed up. So that's why we have to sit here and at least teach people something about other animals throughout the world, you know, and that kind of thing. And hopefully people learn from their dogs and cats. Without the animal world, none of us would be here in many different ways. But the animal world has taught me a lot, by the way. When I go out there and study the gorillas or watch them for all these years and the lions, which are, you know, the real social animal, not like the solitary cats most of them spot. Or you see the snakes, for example. You know,

these are all creatures on earth. And if you go out and learn about them and see them, then you respect them. With today my awesome friend jack hannah director emeritus animal ambassador of the world famous columbus zoo and aquarium host of jack hannah's into the wild and wild countdown jane velez mitchell my friend longtime friend and colleague you know what jane You're beautiful on the inside and the out. My new friends, Dory Natal and her dramatic

story of how Jedi saved her baby's life and Shauna Niehaus with a dramatic story of her son who is autistic and his new life with his service dog. As I sign off, I want to thank you from my heart for being with us today and so many other days and through the years.

Your prayers and support have meant so much to me and my family. It is Christmas Day. And as we celebrate the birth of Christ, I want to thank you for being such a blessing to me. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.