Blake Moynes

Be sure to follow me on Instagram @drcliffworldwidevet.com
Listener questions, episode suggestions, or if you have a good idea for a guest, email me at dr.redford@vet905.com
Additional information can be found at drcliff.ca

Transcript

Dr. Cliff Redford (00:00)
Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of VetLife with Dr. Cliff. You know who I am, but do you know who my guest coming up is? Probably because you read the little intro tab on the podcast thingy that you listened to me on. My guest is Mr. Blake Moines. Blake is a Canadian television personality and wildlife conservationist. He's most well known for his appearances in reality television, most notably The Bachelorette, but he's also

well recognized and certainly well respected through his commitment to protecting wildlife and wild places. He's charismatic, he's funny, he's so inspiring. So please stay tuned. I know you're gonna love this interview.

Hey man, how's it going? Excellent. Excellent. I can see Lake Ontario behind you, right? Are you?

Blake (00:55)
Good, how are you?

No,

uh, I'm actually at my cottage right now. No, it's it's uh, Lando Lakes, which is like an hour north of Belleville. Yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (01:03)
beauty, is it Muskoka?

okay. Nice. Nice. Beautiful.

I love it. You just came back from two weeks in the bush and now you're hiding out up in God's country.

Blake (01:21)
Yeah, I Well, I mean I've been all over the place I was I was on the ocean mostly so when I say in the Whether I'm in the bush or what? Yeah, I'm always somewhere doing something weird. So the last few weeks Call it six weeks almost five weeks all shark related stuff. So on the ocean more so than the bush, but

Dr. Cliff Redford (01:42)
Very exciting.

We're gonna see you on Shark Week at all.

Blake (01:45)
Interestingly, the interesting you say that they they we had interesting development with catching a white shark, which is rare to happen in South Florida. And so they are actually looking at all the footage that we we have because they want to purchase and license a bunch of that. So yeah, there's some potential there. So we'll see. We'll see.

Dr. Cliff Redford (02:04)
Beauty.

Nice,

nice. Well, I'm so glad you're here. Um, you got on my radar about a year ago. I started, I sort of restarted this podcast. Like many people you do it and then you quit and then you do it and then you quit. But, uh, I guess it's a small percentage that have been doing it for a year straight. So I think, uh, I think I'm stuck now. I think it's a habit, but, I was trying to think of guests and my daughter said, Oh, you should, you should talk to Blake Moines. Of course I was like, who, who's that? She's like, well, he was on the bachelorette and.

Blake (02:36)
Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (02:39)
Okay. But she says, no, no, no, he's a wildlife conservationist and he's used this platform to do some amazing things. So I did this semi deep dive. and wow, she was right. You are quite an inspiration. I love the stuff you do. Tell me about, tell everyone about SOSA. Let's talk about that first.

Blake (02:58)
Yeah, I mean, so yeah, I mean, I appreciate that it's been a it's been a whirlwind of a journey and a transition we'll call it The social really developed just was a an extension of myself obviously I really started just as an individual and trying to help as many nonprofits as I I kid in the work that they were doing And while I've always been passionate about

wildlife and animals and really started to hear it my cottage when I was a kid. I was just always drawn to any log that I could lift. I wanted to know what was underneath it. you know, that really started my curiosity about,

ecosystems and how every species plays a role and how unique each one is from one another. And I just became fascinated with it. And the social just really came to be because I realized I could only do so much as an individual, as an advocate online through social media. And how can I expand the impact?

and do that collaboratively and collectively with community and people. So I created the SOSA, which is the Save Our Species Alliance, which the SOSA is just an abbreviation of that, which allows us to find different avenues in which we can provide support for wildlife and the professionals doing the work.

And as you know, there's no really any money in conservation, so you have to be so creative. And so I just wanted to expand the impact I could make. And so SOSA kind of came to be through that. brand conservation oriented brand. And through that, we're trying to find ways and get creative to support the work and support wildlife.

Dr. Cliff Redford (04:39)
Yeah, and you guys tell me what this red list is. You have a bunch of gear that's titled red list, but it's something to do with IUCN red list.

Blake (04:48)
Yeah, so yeah, so there's been such an interesting development when we really started to run with the idea of creating a brand or community. It was okay, throw up a website and let's get get some apparel that can attach to different nonprofits. And so if they purchase that supports

a nonprofit, but then at the same time, how can we use the apparel to try to bring awareness to the animal specifically? And so if we can provide like a

an angle that showed the status of the animal and how much support they need and what type of risk that they have to the actual population, then we can try to bring education through the product and bring awareness to it so that people are understanding of the status of some of these animals, whether it be a jaguar or a gray wolf or white rhinos. So we kind of tried to build it in that

depending on the status of that animal, whether it was near threatened or critically endangered, there was only so much of that stock available to indicate and replicate the population numbers and how exclusive that might be to give you an indication of, okay, there's only 25 of these hats. And the reason is that these are critically endangered, if they're threatened, near threatened. So we're trying to like play into the awareness and education through some of our apparel. Now I will say that apparel was an idea and we ran with that. We have a whole new, uh,

product line coming out with a rebrand, really tried to run with that in a bigger way. But that was the concept around that is how do we not just sell product to help support, but how can we create education through the product and the marketing behind that and why we do it that way.

Dr. Cliff Redford (06:32)
Yeah, so if I wanted to buy a Red List white rhino hat and then go, hey, how come there's so few of them? I can't get them. They're in. It's like these hats are becoming extinct. I get it.

Blake (06:45)
Yes, kind of staying on that

a little bit, To show and bring awareness to the status of wildlife. And a lot of people don't know that some of these animals are near extinct and trying to give people an education base around just selling product for profit and some donations is how do we educate at the same time.

Dr. Cliff Redford (06:54)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And now what's this? Are you able to talk about this new branding and these new products that you're coming out with?

Blake (07:14)
Yeah, so we, things have been.

growing great and we're able to establish more partnerships with nonprofits. you know, when we originally came up with the Sosa, the Sosa really was like, okay, well, what's a recognized animal that kind of can symbolize what we're about? And so the dodo bird was like just a glaring obvious species that people could resonate with, understand it's a widely recognized animal that went, you know, that is extinct. And so we ran with the dodo bird.

That said, in a brand that you're trying to make sexy, make a club feel, make a community, we understood that we didn't want to necessarily replicate and fall in line with a lot of nonprofit vibes, which is pretty professional, pretty...

not necessarily fun, it's very sensitive and there's lots of red tape. How can we make the Sosa more of a playful brand that's fun to be a part of? The mission's still there, but not as strict and not, we didn't want to come across as a nonprofit, we support nonprofits, but how can we make it a little bit more sexy? So the Sosa is now rebranding, the mission's the same.

But how can we make this, well, one, people want to actually, well, people want to wear Dodo bird and rep and wear that out in the streets. Maybe not. So how can we start to leverage what's actually marketable to people? People want to wear it and not be so much like a nonprofit. So we're going through a full rebrand, adding new trip destinations, trying to,

expand our footprint in different continents with different species focus and we're just trying to broaden the ways in which we can reach people, be sexier, more appealing to people so the more people we capture the more animals and people we can support. Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (09:16)
you. More sexy.

That's why you haven't invited me to join the team. I get it. I totally understand. I get it. I get it. I'm in the wrong demographic. got to say shout out to your mom. So your mom, you guys posted that I was talking to you today and I appreciate that. And I get this follow from, your mom's name is Emily, right? So it's Emily Moines. And you know, I quickly, I

I don't know if her name's in the tag. So I click on it. Oh, who is this person? And it has your last name and it's, I think she talked about being a divorced mother or a divorced woman. I, for a brief second, I thought, and she's very attractive, she's very fit. So I thought, oh, I didn't know Blake was married. And then I literally, for a brief second, then I was like, wait a minute, why would she then fall? Like that doesn't make sense.

Blake (10:06)
You

Dr. Cliff Redford (10:13)
And then she started talking about being 50 years old. So it sounds totally corny. literally for a brief, like just looking at her photo, I thought this must be Blake's X, Y, four anyways. So shout out to her. So I'm as much inspired by her and the fitness and the lifestyle that she's living. So you come from good parenting, I guess.

Blake (10:16)
you

I know

I'll send that out to her. She'll like that. But we have got that in the past. I'm like, no, that's actually my, my mom, but no, she's, uh, she's been extremely supportive and everything that I, I do honestly. I mean, to have the, wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing honestly, but that would hurt that she takes care of my animals when I'm away. She's always, you know, every time I bring up a risky trip, I'm going to go do or this or that. She's always a little hesitant, especially if it's around sharks. She hates when I'm diving with sharks and doing things with sharks, but she's been instrumental.

Dr. Cliff Redford (10:43)
the

Blake (11:06)
in allowing me to pursue and really chase the life that I've always wanted to live but also doing that with a purpose and passion so she's been great for that for sure.

Dr. Cliff Redford (11:19)
Yeah, we can't do anything that we do without the support system that we have from our family and friends and whatnot. Now you talk about the sort of the danger of sharks. They're probably actually not the most dangerous animal you've had to encounter. What is, without her getting too nervous, you're obviously fine and healthy and not injured. What's the most dangerous animal you've had to sort of encounter or deal with?

Blake (11:43)
you know it I would say the the animal specifically

I wouldn't say it's necessarily the animal that's always been the danger. I think it's more so the environment or the project that we're working on that will bring the danger more so being, you know, we've spent, I've spent lots of time in Kenya and I spent about three weeks in the bush with rangers doing patrols, seeing the human wildlife conflict with elephants and, having to throw flashbang grenades, elephants to get them out of these

these farmlands where you know the local people want to kill the elephants because they've just raided their crops and ruined their livelihood and so it's more the environment that is more dangerous but more so than the animals themselves and so you know poaching and taking courses on poaching and actually went through a ranger program out in South Africa for five weeks and actually had to be taken out of the program about three weeks in because I got a crazy infection in my foot through like essentially foot rot so it's more the environment

than it is the wildlife specifically, but you know there's been close calls here and there just with the okay you you're walking on foot and there's you elephants that all of a are very aware that you're there and it's understanding that okay don't move like you know don't run like definitely put yourself in situations but it's more so the environment the people than it is the actual animal that I'm ever worried about if that makes any sense.

Dr. Cliff Redford (13:17)
Yeah, yeah,

I would say humans are probably much more dangerous without a doubt. And sometimes we're the humans that are dangerous because we end up doing something that afterwards go, God damn, that was so dumb. What am I thinking? Like, that was so dumb. But now you talked about travel with Sosa and these adventure travel trips, which is what I'm really sort of interested in with all the volunteer travel work that I do.

Blake (13:21)
Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (13:44)
Where have you, like just briefly, are some of the key places you've gone? And this is obviously something that the average person can come and join you on and get an adventure of a lifetime, yeah?

Blake (13:58)
Yeah, so essentially what we try to do and what the we're obviously trying to differentiate ourselves from majority of the eco tour safari type travel where we we connect with the nonprofit organizations first in these areas to try to curate experiences that are different from just passive tourism where you're on a safari taking photos, you come and go. It's more

take, take, take, then give. And so if we can curate programs with nonprofits, not only can we build in fees that support the work that they're doing, but then we build in the activities along with these experts and professionals that have access that typical lodges wouldn't have so that we can have.

a vet procedure or we can secure callers to a pride of lions so that people are more immersed and feel a part of the initiative and see how their donor dollars are being used on site. So they feel more like a conservationist than a tourist. And so we have, are running our second trip to South Africa this year. We're

now doing some trips in Alaska. We are running our second set of trips in Florida around sharks. We have one in Botswana. And so we run multiple trips in those areas to try and make the most of when we're out there because flying out there is such a pain to go back and forth. we are now looking to expand this next year. We have such a great return rate with our community.

Um, you know, we have people that have been on three to five trips now, which is fantastic, which means that we're doing something right. But with that, you know, when you have a returning client base as heavy as it is, we've got to find new destinations in wildlife that people want to continue to expand on. can't keep going back to South Africa every year with the same group. So we're looking to be in the Maldives this, this coming year, Costa Rica. Um, where else, where else? Uh, the Amazon between, um, Bolivia, Peru and, uh,

Ecuador, we're also re-going. We're looking to expand because we need to continue to deliver for the consumers that want to continue to trip with us, but then expand the diversity so that people that necessarily don't want to...

Dr. Cliff Redford (16:15)
Mm-hmm.

Blake (16:21)
don't care for elephants or, and want to do more shark stuff that we can go scuba diving the Maldives or, so we're trying to expand our footprint, the diversity and the impact that we're making. so yeah, we're expanding a lot of work. I wasn't ready for all of this, to be honest with you. I didn't know we were going to be, you know, have the tripping portion of the brand be as, as such a focal point. But it is a sustainable way in which we continue to support nonprofits because attacking

individuals and trying to find donors is taxing. It's tough and the economy's terrible and there's wars and there's this so that, you know, people just don't have the money.

to be floating out to wildlife. And it's unfortunate because wildlife is the bread and butter to how humanity is able to thrive and help ecosystems and keeps the planet functioning. But it always seems to fall down the pedestal of importance. And so we try to find ways through trips to

find a good trade off where people are getting these incredible experiences, donating and getting something that is a return to them, but a return to our nonprofits because each year they can become so connected that they want to continue to support these organizations that they feel they've really helped impact. So that's how we've tried to model it so far.

Dr. Cliff Redford (17:46)
Yeah,

that sounds amazing. And you're right. There's, mean, there's amazing charities out there and, and, and people are, you know, if they're interested in, in, wildlife and animal rights organizations, there's so many great places they can donate to. So like any business, whether you're nonprofit or not, and it's important to, you know, profit sometimes helps to get these monies out to these other charities. You gotta, you gotta find that hook. You gotta find that niche that makes it a little bit different. And.

The reality is, is if somebody goes on safari in Africa and takes these beautiful photos and has these amazing experiences and of course posts it on social media, enough people are going to like it and maybe then some other people are going to go. But if they do the same sort of photos, but they've actually made a difference and had, in my opinion, and I think most of my listeners opinions, a much more

fantastic experience and inspirational experience, it becomes sort of exponential, this change that you can end up making, which is really, really awesome. Now you talk about raising money and obviously not everybody, this is my very awkward segue, not everybody can afford the time or the money to head out to Botswana or the Maldives. You guys have a climb coming up at the CN Tower.

Blake (19:11)
We do. the CN tower climb for wildlife with world wildlife fund. did this two years, I think it was two years ago. It was the last year. Honestly, my mind's all over the place. There's so many things happening, but it is, we obviously notice and you can probably test to this is now a lot of times I think we can feel, feel alone and it's like, okay, if I'm only donating $25, like what's the, even what's the point? Like what's this going to change? But collectively we can do so much more. And when you can find and,

bring like-minded people together that have the same passions. It's a great place where you can find other people that grew up wanting to lift logs like I did. They kind of feel alone. A lot of my friends don't care for that. And I didn't have a lot of alignment with my friends growing up and the jobs that they're doing now. But that's where you find the log lifters at events like this. And you can feel inspired and start to form a community of people that are passionate.

And you can find really great friends in these communities. And when you can do it all together, you can do so much more. And so the climb for us and putting together a team for SOSA was a way to continue to one, have an established an event here that we can run every year where we can bring people out that have been on trips before with us that want to, again, see everybody again. And then.

add new people that have now the availability here in Canada, especially with the exchange rates, doesn't make it easy for Canadians to travel anywhere right now, to get involved with the SOSA, get introduced to it, the community and what we're trying to do. And so if we can support World Wildlife Fund, who's obviously...

renowned and recognized globally. It's a, it's a easy sell, I think for people. And it's a fun way to get together and, and, and do some good while getting a good workout at the same time. So that's happening on April 5th and 6th. we're putting a team together for around eight or eight 30 within that range on the fifth. And we'll all be going up and climbing, the CN tower together. And we have a little VIP section so everyone can meet. And then we'll probably do a little bit of a lunch or

something after to kind of celebrate the climb in the mind that we've raised.

Dr. Cliff Redford (21:25)
So people can donate to Team Sosa or can they actually join Team Sosa?

Blake (21:30)
Yeah,

so you can, you can actually come out and do the climb with us, and join the team. And if you can't do that or not around, yes, you can support the effort. If you don't want to put a workout in and, you know, climb for 30 minutes, totally get that's not for everybody. I will say it is super, laid back as chill. It's not a competition and it's more just a team exercise. But, but yeah, you can donate to the team specifically.

And yeah, that's the way you can support if you don't want to get your legs moving.

Dr. Cliff Redford (22:06)
That's amazing. And I mean, it's the greatest city in the world. So come on out if you're within driving distance of the big six and climb the sand tower. ended up, I did a reach out on social media asking for some questions. I got a few funny ones here I wanna go. So now we can get a little bit more, some of them are a little bit more personal. Now the first one, a good friend of mine, Dr. JJ, I work with Dr. JJ Jose Javier Medina.

Blake (22:14)
Yeah, I think it'll be fun. Yeah.

Sure.

Dr. Cliff Redford (22:36)
he is a veterinarian that graduated from his home city in Mexico and is now, although he's not licensed here in Canada, he's doing, some amazing rescue work at shades of hope, wildlife rehab. I got to get you to come down with me. I volunteer every one, one day a week, every Thursday we're doing surgeries on deer and porcupines and skunks and possums and coyotes and bald eagles and the whole bit. So anytime you want to come down, I got a lot of people that.

Blake (23:06)
Where's this?

Dr. Cliff Redford (23:07)
This is just it's about a my clinics in Markham and it's like 45 minutes north. It's up in Peverlaw right by Lake Simcoe Yeah, yeah

Blake (23:15)
Oh, very cool. Okay, that's not

a difficult one to potentially pull off.

Dr. Cliff Redford (23:20)
No,

it's close and Shades of Hope is probably the busiest wildlife rehabber in the country as far as the number of intakes. They see 11,000 animals a year. They don't turn anything away. They don't have limits and they're totally privately funded, like just through donations.

You know, they do, they do more work than some of the big fancier wildlife rescues. And yet they only have two veterinarians volunteering one day a week each. Uh, and prior to a year and half ago, it was just me. Um, but they have these people like Dr. JJ there full time and, uh, and Kate and Lola and, and this team of interns and whatnot. And I mean, in the springtime, they'll have 300, 400 eyes closed squirrels.

and they just constantly bring it in, bring it in, bring it in. And I mean, I've done surgery on again, like coyotes and a bald eagle that bit me two minutes before I released it into the, into the wild. it was totally my fault, right? me doing something stupid. she, her reminding me that, no, I'm a wild animal. Don't put your hand there. I don't care that you, that you did surgery. I did surgery on American bullfrog. yeah, yeah, yeah. some pretty.

Blake (24:17)
Okay.

Yeah.

really?

Dr. Cliff Redford (24:46)
pretty cool stuff. won't bore the listeners with the story because they've heard it before, I'll maybe I'll send you some information on social media. You'll get a kick out of it. But yeah, I have people come, especially people with a following that can kind of spread the word about being kind to animals and it's right up your alley. You'll have a blast. It's a lot of fun.

Blake (24:53)
Yeah, it was true.

Yeah, we can definitely

Dr. Cliff Redford (25:10)
But so Dr.

Blake (25:10)
see something more.

Dr. Cliff Redford (25:11)
JJ asks, he says, any advice for someone who wants to do the same but doesn't know how to start? And I guess I'm assuming sort of traveling and volunteering and creating organizations like SOSA.

Blake (25:25)
Yeah, mean, that's, I feel like this is probably the question I get the most is like, how, how do I start it or, where do I, where do I begin? And I think the challenge is, and it's an unfortunate one, is that, well, one, there isn't a lot of,

funding or backing from government in a lot of ways. So a lot of the people that are providing these opportunities are typically nonprofits with not a lot of budget or availability or need or can afford to have be paying for people's skill sets, wrap the hop anyways. And so what I have learned from all of the different nonprofit partners that I work with is,

It's great that when they select people that eventually get on board with them and are getting some type of salary, even though it never seems like it's enough, not in my books anyways, but how much, you know, that's why funding is so, it's such a challenge. Space is such a challenge and conservation with, with, with money being paid and find a sustainable way to do it. they say that. Yeah, we got, listen, we got a lot of great applications, with great, educations and masters, this and that.

They look for dedication. So they need to see people that are committed, show up, put in work. And sometimes it's not paid in the beginning. And that is challenging. Not everyone can do that. That's the issue is that people still need to make a living. So how can I break into this industry by giving it my time, not being paid for it, but then to show that dedication and hoping that

They like my work ethic, they show I'm dedicated and want to have me on full time. For the most part, seems like across the board, it's finding a way to dedicate and put in adequate time and showing how dedicated you are to them. And that seems to be the easiest way to establish yourselves with an organization that's working exotic, with exotic animals and exotic places.

It's, I wish I had a better answer. You know, when we're starting to look at expanding with the SOSA, again, we have our own challenges with that in terms of like, what can we afford? What piece do we need next? What type of programs are we going to use where, okay, can we have our own, you know, veterinarian on site? we, do we have the need for that to build that in? We want to be able to provide

opportunities for people, not just opportunities for, you know, I guess to come on and be a part of a trip, but how can we start to create opportunities for conservationists who people are aspiring to be conservationists. There's so many out there that want to do it. So how can we start to build that into our programming and make SOSA bigger, not just for

Dr. Cliff Redford (28:03)
Mm-hmm.

Blake (28:23)
guests, but the team so they can provide more opportunities for people because there's so many great people that are passionate and want to do the work. But it's so difficult to get in because it's nonprofit based for the most part and there's just not a lot of money. And if people can't, if the salaries don't make sense for people, it's like, I love, I want to do this, but if I'm only making X amount, it's just not sustainable for my life. So how can we do this? We're trying to get there. but I would say dedication.

There's a trade off, right? You get to do work with wildlife and animals, you're not going to make the most money in the world. So it's a, it's an interesting complex problem and it's not an answer I have, but we're trying to figure that out for people and provide some solution.

Dr. Cliff Redford (29:03)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And it's a, know, people ask me, especially students or veterinarian students ask me about, how can I start volunteering? I'm lucky being a veterinarian and from one of the best schools in the world. now these charities reach out to me and say, Hey, can you come to Panama or can you come to, you know, Ukraine or Cairo or whatever? And I kinda, I sort of say to them, look, go on vacation to wherever you're going and volunteer for a solid two days.

Like don't just go for a couple hours, say, I'm going to check it out. I'm going to Jamaica. And I tell them I've been to Jamaica. can, I can contact some of my friends there. They will take you and they will work your ass off for two days and you will love every minute of it. And the red stripe beer tastes so much better afterwards. and then you can go and sit on the beach and relax. And if you do that enough times, one, you get to see if you like it.

Blake (29:49)
Yeah.

Yeah

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Cliff Redford (30:04)
Cause not everybody is, you know, able

to, and that's okay. Not everyone is able to, you know, spend two weeks of hard work, let's say. but you then sort of get these contacts and you can sort of build it up. If you ever, if you ever need a wildlife veterinarian, Dr. JJ is one of the most skilled wildlife rehabbers I've ever seen. I am sure he would volunteer and come for, for a couple of weeks.

so I think he'll be very happy. I see him in a couple of days when I volunteer there again, apparently they got a bunch of owls for me this week to, to look at. So, we get a lot of owls around now because all of a sudden it's warm enough that people are out hiking and they're seeing them and they're seeing them injured. And it's the, it's the ones that survived the winter, but barely. And they're, starting to lose weight. They get clipped by a car cause they can't really see very well or they're.

Blake (30:37)
yeah?

Dr. Cliff Redford (30:58)
You know, they don't have the strength to pull up at the last second. so we're, yeah, there's a lot of owls, this Thursday, I'm to be doing surgery on, think, or at least helping out. okay. So Deanna asks FWC, which I guess is Florida wildlife conservation, maybe is considering another Florida black bear hunt or trophy hunt. And how can we stop this? And my question for you, before we get into this and, I'm partially being devil's advocate.

Blake (31:07)
That's very cool.

Dr. Cliff Redford (31:27)
is do we necessarily stop the black bear hunt in the sense of conservation isn't always about saving the one animal. Like there is some conservation value behind hunting animals, especially when it's in an area that shares with people.

Blake (31:47)
Yeah, it's, it's, it's, this topic is, is, it's interesting because across the board you have, it provides big debate always. and there is two sides to it. And I think blanket statements don't work in this case because every situation, scenario, species, like you have to actually look at the specific,

specific situation because overall, okay, just this thing about zoos, for example, right, people can be very for or against them. Some zoos are greater than others. I don't like blanket statements saying all zoos are terrible, just like I can't say that culling certain animals in certain areas and hunting, you know, are

potentially actually beneficial to that region dependent on you know, predator dynamics and that ecosystem and populations, you know of potentially invasive species or populations that are Devastating, you know the landscape that so what? There's not a perfect answer to this I would say that I Don't know enough about that specific Region and that black bear, you know trophy hunt

I would have to dive into it specifically to say if I'm on the fence or not with it, I would think, and you again, a lot of times I'm proven wrong here, but if this is regulated by, you know, government agencies, a of times they do get it wrong. I will say, and there, think there's a lot of, um, areas in which, um, unfortunately money does, or sorry, animals and hunting does, um, bring in a lot of.

and money is a determining factor for a lot of groups. And sometimes it's actually a sustainable way and something that's needed. And sometimes I think it's taken advantage of. And I don't know what this looks like specifically down in Florida. I would imagine knowing what the state of Florida is like and how they manage their wildlife, that it's probably not necessary.

just based off of my understanding and working in Florida with different species and working with different groups that it's probably hunting black bears and establishing that as a need. I think I could probably poke a lot of holes in the reasoning behind that, but I would say, how do you stop it? Good luck in Florida.

Good luck in Florida. That's the biggest challenge and I've worked with two multiple organizations down there and the policies and the regulation and the government makes it very challenging to overturn and be erring on the side of environmental and science versus the needs of.

or what money can bring in through wildlife. So it'd be a challenging one. can't, without knowing anything, it's hard for me to actually dive in and give it a, how do you stop it? Very difficult.

Dr. Cliff Redford (35:04)
Yeah. No, this is,

this is a great conversation. This is how I expected it to go that, that, yeah, you should as scientists as we are conservationists, you got to look at, look at the specific situation and, and just because you shouldn't, call or kill or hunt trophy hunt one species doesn't mean it's not appropriate for another as a whole for that species. mean,

My understanding is the Save the Wetlands organizations, their biggest success is coming from duck hunters because the duck hunters understand the need for protecting the environment. you know, hunters, as a large statement, hunters aren't assholes. Just asshole hunters are assholes. You know, like there's a need, there's a need for it. So...

or at least it can be done wisely, let's say, and reasonably. So, no, that was good. I wanted to have a, slightly tough conversation, but not tough at all. Just, just wise.

Blake (36:15)
It is, you know, I think, you know, there's lots of different factors, very complex issue. And what I would say is it like, you know, and I use some of the examples, you know, big trophy hunting say in Africa, and I really don't, I really don't condone that. And, you know, but then you have people on the other side saying, okay, well, yeah, but this, you know, this giraffe, for example,

is extremely sick and you know, it's going to die within a year anyways. If we can harvest that animal and sell a trophy hunt for X amount, you know, we're going to put that money back into the community, but does that money really go back into the community? So it's like, there's a lot of, if it's done properly, I can see why you're fighting to think, yes, we can trophy hunt this animal.

Dr. Cliff Redford (37:04)
Mm-hmm.

Blake (37:06)
But is it really, is that benefit and all these things you're saying actually, like you say it is, is it actually sick? Is the money actually going to go to the community that really needs the money? There's a lot of red tape and weirdness around it. And so it's a messy, messy industry. But I would say that for the most part in North America, if you know, there's enough, if there's a, there's a reason why the government puts a certain amount of tags on certain animals, whether it be a moose or a black bear or deer,

You would hope that they're doing their homework and doing analysis of those populations to understand what is actually reasonable in the amount of tags, why this is needed. And you're hoping that they're making decisions based on what the ecosystem actually needs to sustain and be healthy. I think sometimes it's not done with the best intentions and there's a money situation there that makes the decision making go a little awry, but

Yeah, every situation is a little bit different and really needs to be dissected versus blanket statement. This is terrible. This is not. It's like, yeah, in this situation, this is wrong to me, but it could be right in another area with a different animal or black bears in Canada. it's so, you've got to dissect one versus the other. Blanket statements don't work.

Dr. Cliff Redford (38:27)
Yeah.

Yeah. And it's fair that you said you don't know about this situation. So it's hard to, hard to talk about it specifically, but you know, here's sort of the, the wide, the wide view on conservation and where culling and hunting plays a role. And sometimes it's abused and other times it's, it's vital. so, but it was a great question. It was a great question. I'm glad we had that conversation.

Blake (38:51)
When there's not enough

funding coming around in general, The whole issue here is that if, is there not enough jobs and funding coming in to eliminate the need to be like, okay, but the hunters are gonna be able to bring in money if we hunt these animals. Like, well, fuck, can we not find another way to bring in money to like need the hunters to hunt?

But can we do something? You know, it's just like, there's not enough money coming in. Why are we trying to find funding in any way we can and maybe towing that line a little bit with like, yeah, but the hunters will bring in money. But again, but if it does a step help, bring in healthy populations or bring populations down there a little out of control, like it's really difficult to, it's, it's, a, could talk on this for two hours and really dissect case studies. Right. but yeah, it's a, it's a good question and it's a hard one to answer.

Dr. Cliff Redford (39:43)
Yeah, yeah, definitely. All right, this one's a little light and I'm going to see this woman Kim must know you from this first question. It's a two parter. She asks, how do you feel about volcanoes?

Blake (39:56)
How do I feel about volcanoes?

Dr. Cliff Redford (39:58)
Yeah, I was assuming

she knew you and knew that this was a touchy subject.

Blake (40:06)
I don't remember exactly. mean, volcanoes and heights and just general lava freaked me out. But I could have said that down at some point and totally forgot. that's how I would respond to that.

Dr. Cliff Redford (40:11)
Alright, maybe that's what it is.

Okay, there you go. You respect them and when they're gonna erupt you get the heck out of dodge.

Blake (40:24)
For sure. Yeah. I mean, I don't, think I like, as a person that likes control and like understanding knowing that that just like pop off at any time. Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (40:31)
Whatever, you're swimming with sharks. There's no control

there, you're swimming with sharks.

Blake (40:39)
But at least you can like, re-behavior and things. Right? A volcano, it's like, yeah. How do you...

Dr. Cliff Redford (40:42)
That's true. Yeah, I know you're

right. And the people that are really my director, Diego, started his business as a underwater shark videographer. And to him, he's probably happiest and feeling the most in control. He can certainly understand the behavior of the shark a lot more than he can understand me when I'm in front of the camera. it works out. It works out well.

Blake (41:06)
He he he he he

Dr. Cliff Redford (41:09)
But she did also ask, where are we here? Who is someone that you look up to or gives you inspiration both in and out of conservation?

Blake (41:20)
first question was was someone I'm inspired to and what sorry

Dr. Cliff Redford (41:23)
Yeah, yeah, someone you look up to and also that gives you inspiration.

Blake (41:26)
look up to.

To be honest, think that's both paired to the same thing and I think that...

when I meet and am able to talk to people who have either pioneered or really made big strides with the species that they are working to protect. And there's so many different challenges across.

different landscapes, different countries, different red tape with the government, the policies, trying to find the funding, the people that are doing it for next to no money, putting themselves in pretty shitty situations a lot of times, but they're doing it because they're absolutely obsessed with their species of focus. It could be someone that is absolutely obsessed with Jaguars and puts themselves through daily stress, chaos, no money,

to save, help save and do anything they can to save a specific animal that they're completely hypnotized and fascinated by and they dedicate their lives to that. I think there's something so inspiring about the selflessness of that and seeing the bigger picture of how each animal

serves a purpose but is is and should be seen as equal as humans. think so much we take, yes I understand that we are the most powerful you know creature on this planet but I think that we power trip way too much and we think that we are the be all end all and

Why is it that we never see other animals as equals? And why is it always humans first? And so I really admire people who do everything that they can to try and save animals the way that other people always.

Elevate and keep people at top we need the people that do that for specific animals And so because it's not easy at all. It sucks a lot of times and they're never Super wealthy they're never living in luxury They do it because they just have a big heart So the people that do that every day all day in terrible environments and I've been doing for a very long time Those are the people that inspire me

and that I look up to because those are the people that I always wanted to be when I was a kid. So now if I can find a way to continue to support them from a different angle and that's what makes me want to continue to do what I'm doing because it supports them and it supports the shit that I love too.

Dr. Cliff Redford (44:31)
Yeah, I definitely got to get you to shades of hope because you're going to meet those people and go, my God, you guys are angels in doing this for next to nothing and work in 60 hours a week in the tiny little community, but rescuing these animals and coming from all over the world. mean, Kate, who's like the sort of the head medical director there, the head technician, she's been rescuing animals her whole life. She's from Australia and she came to shades of hope specifically because

This place is the type of place I want to finish my career. you know, she's in the second half of her life and, and, it's, it's, humbling working with these people. I've said it so many times on this podcast about how much I learned from these non veterinarians, not only about taking care of animals, but about just being a better person and being a better father and, a better man. Like it's, it's, it's so nice to be around these, these types of people. They're so, they're so inspiring.

One last question, Joanna asks, what is your biggest accomplishment? And also, what is your life goal?

Blake (45:41)
Biggest accomplishment.

biggest accomplishment is tough only because I feel like I'm not done yet. You know, to date, I would say, you know, I never thought I'd necessarily be in the place that I am now. And that's not an individual in the place that I am now, but it's, creating a life that I've, you know, always thought was completely out of reach, but doing that in a way that is

not exploitive to wildlife, not click baity for wildlife, providing opportunity for people impacting community and, and, wildlife that are needed and at risk globally. So I would say that as of right now, but I think there's such a big weight or

a lot more to go. And so I'm a, I feel accomplished and where I've gotten to, to a degree, I just don't think it's enough yet still. And I think sometimes, you know, people say, Hey, you've done so much. You need to take a minute to really think about what you've been able to do. This is in that. And that's fine. But I just, when I think there's still so much need out there that it's like,

I don't know, it still feels like a little accomplishment so far. So there's still so much to go. And the life goal, I mean, this...

You know, I think there could be a lot, there's a very lavish goal. It's kind of seems the way things are going to be out of reach and you know, you're always hanging on hope, I think, but you know, I've, I definitely have some animals and species that are more closer to the heart, than others and rhinos being one of them for me. But I think a life goal for me or something, something I could be proud of.

is getting to a point where we're actually seeing these populations starting to not only sustain and halt the decrease they've been on, but then start to restore and populations start to grow, especially for some of these animals that are critically endangered and try to establish how can we establish more of a human wildlife relationship that is

healthy because right now I just feel like wildlife and humans don't have a balance. And a lot of these areas with deforestation, especially in the Amazon, how do we create more actual policy within governments that force it on people and us and stop relying on nonprofits? How can we do this at a bigger level where government is actually taking sustainable action?

because right now it just sometimes it feels daunting. So how can we actually start to rebound and restore things in a different direction? Not just halt it, not to try to stop where it's at, but rebound it the other way.

Dr. Cliff Redford (48:55)
Yeah. Get that growth to happen. Yeah. And, and you know what? You, you can't do it alone. You need people to support you. And, and that's the great thing about Sosa and you using the platform that, that you stumbled upon, to inspire it's cliche and it's kind of corny, but inspiring that younger generation, man, that's, you know, this world is for our children and, for the animals that they share it with.

Blake (49:15)
It is, yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (49:24)
because the animals were here first, so we got to share it with them, but, you are doing a hero's work. you are doing, conservation warrior work, which is why you won that award. We don't need to talk about that much, but that's, that's a, that's a pretty bad ass award, man. And you deserve it. Conservation warrior for sure. And I have so many friends I want to connect, you to, that I'll get you some information for like, veterinarians that.

You know, our, our, our conservationists, as well as veterinarians and, and, and parachute out of helicopters into the Savannah to protect rhinos and, and just some, you know, it's just some bad-ass people, man. They're just serious warriors. I love it. I love it. well, I mean, other than, seeing you at the CN tower and maybe joining your, your, your team on April 5th or, or climbing the tower on your own April 6th for WWF, how can people

Blake (49:59)
That's very cool.

Dr. Cliff Redford (50:20)
Reach out to you, how can they support you?

Blake (50:23)
yeah, I mean, I think the first place to start, you know, we're we are mostly active, you know, on Instagram is the main, you know, platform that people obviously use. We definitely are looking into expanding more so and really showing the nitty gritty and the the real raw that goes into trying to build Sosa and trying to show that more on.

YouTube so that people can follow along on the mission and see that it's not all glamorous and it's not all pretty and the work that goes behind trying to get this movement going and through that showing the work of all the nonprofits, the struggles, the challenges, the successes and trying to lean into more of the successes. So through Instagram at the Sosa, yes, my own personal Instagram is we do different types of projects on there. So wildlife specific, but you can follow.

both of those and you'll see a blend and how that kind of blends together. And hopefully, you know, if we get this YouTube going, which is an expense and a whole project, but you know, I think that the community can really start to see what happens on a day to day and trying to, you know, make a real impact in storytelling, really show the behind the scenes that we resonate with people because I think it is, it's such a struggle in conservation and you know, lot of people I feel like are going through their own tough times. so showing that this life is not this big glamour

travel around the world to do all these crazy things. There's a lot of suck that comes with it and so I think that resonates with people. If we all collectively come together we can do so much more and so if we can provide that place for people to come and feel a part of something bigger then we want to do that.

Dr. Cliff Redford (52:07)
I love it. love it. It's been a real, it's been a real pleasure talking to you, talking with you, Blake.

Blake (52:12)
I appreciate it was good and hopefully we have if you we can talk outside of this but if you're going to be around around that time on Saturday I'm sure I'll bump into you and regardless we'll figure something out to to visit the center and see if we can do some work up there.

Dr. Cliff Redford (52:26)
Yeah, yeah, we're definitely gonna, I hope you take me up on that. It'd be a lot of fun and get ready to work. But of course, I know you'll have no problems keeping up. Yeah, you'll have a good time. Excellent. Thank you very much everyone for listening and I guess be kind to animals and reach out to Blake on Instagram and hopefully we'll see some of you guys climb in the sand tower. Cheers.

All right, stay right there. Let me hit stop.