Arthur von Wiesenberger - host and EP of Animal Zone

In this episode of VetLife, Dr. Cliff Redford interviews Arthur von Wiesenberger, the host and executive producer of Animal Zone, a show dedicated to raising awareness about animal rescues. They discuss Dr. Cliff's extensive veterinary travels, the challenges of animal surgery, and the financial aspects of animal welfare projects. Arthur shares the origins of Animal Zone, its expansion into various states and countries, and the cultural insights gained from their international experiences. The conversation highlights the importance of collaboration in animal welfare and the future plans for the show.

First, if you haven't watched my film and live in Canada (or have one of those VPN things), you can watch it here:

https://youtu.be/oMUx3yuyznc?si=oagpg7bGnpbuyXlJ

Be sure to follow me on Instagram @drcliffworldwidevet.com and on Twitter at @drcliff_vet
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 (00:01)

Good day everyone. Welcome to another episode of VetLife with Dr. Cliff. On this episode, we get to talk to my new friend Arthur, who is a host and executive producer of a television show in the U.S. called Animal Zone. In this show, they basically raise awareness and help support and tell the wonderful and inspiring stories of various animal rescues around the U.S. and occasionally abroad as well. It was a great talk.

and hopefully for my American listeners out there, you guys are gonna check out this show and stay tuned for the interview.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (00:46)

hey, I'm doing great. you. Well, hey, it's great to be up in Canada, one of my other favorite countries. I'm in the U S I'm in California. ⁓ But I go to Canada from time to time, always enjoy it. And ⁓ was in Toronto, I guess you're not far from Toronto, right?

Dr. Cliff Redford (00:47)

Hey Arthur, how you doing?

Good, good, thanks for joining me.

I love it, I love it. You're in the US, yeah? Of course. Beautiful.

⁓ technically I'm in Toronto, yeah, I'm in a section called Scarborough, My clinic's just north, but I live in Toronto, Yeah, yeah.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (01:11)

You're in Toronto, okay, let's even closer. Yeah, yeah.

Mm Yeah, it's

a wonderful city and lots of stuff going on. And I had a chance to watch some of your shows and that's really impressive. mean, a veterinarian travel is incredible.

Dr. Cliff Redford (01:25)

Cool. I should...

I gotta send you the link to this movie here. That... Yeah, we created a documentary slash pilot episode. I've been trying to pitch an adventure travel show for 10 years. Came close a bunch of times and then I went to Ukraine and fought deep in the war zone and it got scary and I came back and I said, you know what?

Arthur von Wiesenberger (01:32)

yeah! Yeah!

Dr. Cliff Redford (01:54)

I'm just gonna put my own money where my mouth is and make this film. ⁓ Nothing's happened yet, but I'm so happy to have made it.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (01:59)

for you.

Is it the one that has the preview? saw one of your things that was up online was a preview to Dr. Cliff Worldwide Vet. Was that for the movie? Yeah, it looks great. I mean, you got the dog, you've got elephant, you got so many things going on. It's incredible.

Dr. Cliff Redford (02:12)

That's probably it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, we've had quite the experiences for sure. It started nine years ago, I traveled to Jamaica, and then I did, and this was all to volunteer and also to get some footage, sometimes with like a mini crew, and other times just with my iPhone. And I've been to Greece, as I said, Jamaica, Greece, India twice, ⁓ Ukraine twice,

Arthur von Wiesenberger (02:40)

That's amazing, isn't it?

Dr. Cliff Redford (02:49)

The Arctic North twice, Panama, ⁓ Cairo. feel like I'm missing something, but I don't think so. Quite a few places.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (02:59)

And you're doing all species.

You're doing all species in your work?

Dr. Cliff Redford (03:04)

Yeah, yeah, so ⁓ I do. My clinic is just cats and dogs. ⁓ But when I started traveling, when I went to Jamaica, one of my first patients was a crocodile that needed its eye removed. And I was like, I don't know how to do this. And they kind of said, just pretend it's a dog with a skin condition. And ⁓ they were kind of right. Once it's sedated, which was some of the challenge, right?

Arthur von Wiesenberger (03:10)

Mm-hmm.

Wow.

Dr. Cliff Redford (03:34)

Once it's sedated and you do the nerve block in the eye and you cover it up with a sheet, it just looks like a dog with scaly dermatitis. ⁓ so I started, because of that I started volunteering ⁓ once a week at a local wildlife place to get more familiar. I was trained and when we graduated from the University of Guelph, this was late 90s, we're licensed to do everything and we certainly learn a lot of... ⁓

Arthur von Wiesenberger (03:34)

Yeah.

unbelievable

Dr. Cliff Redford (04:03)

comparative anatomy and physiology, but I was rusty to say the least. I was in the junkyard by then as far as my exotic animal experience. So I started volunteering. It was only supposed to be for six months, one day a week for six months. ⁓ Seven years, eight years later, I still go every single week. ⁓ So that has taught me and then you go to these other countries and you gotta deal with a monkey, you gotta deal with a fox, you gotta deal with an elephant, you gotta deal with a bat.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (04:24)

Amazing. Wow.

Dr. Cliff Redford (04:33)

you know, ⁓ a little bit of everything. So it's been a lot of fun.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (04:37)

What's been the most challenging species you've had to deal with?

Dr. Cliff Redford (04:41)

Humans, definitely. Well, I have, but I'm not allowed to talk about that. ⁓ No, I mean, that's sort of tongue-in-cheek that they're the ones that are the most difficult to deal with by far. ⁓ It's always tough because the most difficult surgeries, it could be a dog, you know, and it's the surgery that's the problem, and it's the lack of...

Arthur von Wiesenberger (04:44)

You've done work on humans too, wow.

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Cliff Redford (05:10)

Modern medicine or or utilizing anesthetics that are very good, but I'm not I'm not sort of confident in you know ⁓ Definitely the crocodile was tricky The flying bat was tricky. Probably the hardest was the rhesus monkey ⁓ and You'll see that That's right. Yeah, and she had a bit of another injury, which I won't give this secret away anyone who's watched the film here in Canada ⁓ knows what I'm talking about, but you'll

Arthur von Wiesenberger (05:22)

Yeah.

Another one of the brain head injury.

Dr. Cliff Redford (05:39)

We do a flashback in the movie, because that was from my first trip to India, whereas the film was done my second trip to India. We went during Diwali, during the Festival of Lights in 2022. So it's almost three years now. That was way more complicated. And the whole thing is on my YouTube channel, but the really sort of the Coles Notes, the shortened version, is in the film that you'll see.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (06:02)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Cliff Redford (06:09)

You'll love it.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (06:10)

Sounds great. Just from an economic point of view, what you're doing is we're kind of in parallel lines, although I have no veterinarian background, but I do travel with our crew. Also a very nimble small crew and we use iPhones, so there's similarities there. ⁓ But one of the things that always is a challenge is to figure out how do you finance something like this? How do you do it? Obviously, you've got a career which helps, I guess. ⁓

Dr. Cliff Redford (06:21)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (06:40)

doing this as a nonprofit. I go out and do fundraising, which is another way of, it's another career, begging as it was. the end result is ⁓ you got a tight budget, you get out there and you show it. And then you're hoping that it's going to be seen. And that's the biggest challenge is finding distribution. ⁓ Fortunately, I've got a distributor, which I'll be happy to share with you down in Los Angeles, who's done a good job with me on streaming platforms.

Dr. Cliff Redford (07:05)

Please.

Mmm.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (07:10)

Uh,

the, the issue with streaming platforms is you get out there and you get seen. The problem is unless you get seen a lot, you're getting pennies, uh, for, for the showings. Uh, so, you know, it's, I guess it just depends. Our, our mission is to get the show shown. That's, that's, that's what we're being sponsored for is to get out the word about animals and animal welfare. Uh, but if you've got your money invested in a film, you obviously want to see that recoup.

Dr. Cliff Redford (07:14)

Mm-hmm.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (07:39)

and then some.

Dr. Cliff Redford (07:40)

Yeah,

yeah, like all of the trips I paid for myself, I didn't do any fundraising except for the two trips to Ukraine. And we ended up raising, if I do American dollars, about $100,000 plus about 40 grand in human medications that were donated to us. that all went to the, I mean, it covered my flight, but it all went to the different rescues and not only animal rescues, but humanitarian organizations as well.

⁓ The film, I took a second mortgage out of my home. I literally, and I knew, I did it as one more attempt as a proof of concept for the TV show. ⁓ Got it into film festivals, won a bunch of awards, and it has opened the doors a little bit, but we still couldn't get the streamers or the broadcasters to pull, know, to...

Arthur von Wiesenberger (08:14)

⁓ god, I'm...

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Dr. Cliff Redford (08:39)

pull the trigger and develop a show. ⁓ So, I mean, right now I've pretty much lost all of it, which I went into, I am very risk friendly. I went into it saying there's no risk because I'm assuming I'm not gonna make any of it back and it just means I'm gonna work an extra year or two. I love my job, I truly love what I do, and so far that's what's happening. ⁓

You know, we got a couple of irons in the fire still, a couple of Hail Mary attempts in getting the show made. ⁓ And if that happens, then I do recoup it, even if the film isn't used as a pilot, because my production company owns the film, and if they then sign on to make some sort of TV show, they owe me that money. Like, I signed a loan agreement with myself. ⁓

Arthur von Wiesenberger (09:16)

Mm-hmm.

⁓ yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (09:39)

You know, so I figured it out that way. But it's not like, whatever. I'm not a, it's only money. I don't really care. ⁓ You know, I don't need a second home. I don't need a fancy car. My kids are taking care of themselves. They're gonna do fine when I pass away. Like, you know, yeah.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (09:56)

So that's always a good feeling. And actually

we share, have one of my sons is named Nick, actually he likes to be called Nick now. used to call him Nicky, but we both have Nicholas sons and ⁓ it's great to get to a point where they are self-sufficient and they can just look at dad as being ⁓ eccentric and doing things that they don't do sometimes.

Dr. Cliff Redford (10:08)

Yes, beautiful.

Well, it's

cool. Like my youngest, Emily, who's in the film and she's primarily the person who travels with me, ⁓ she's now 23. And like we go to clubs and she's a mixologist. She's like a high level cocktail bartender where she enters competitions and does stuff like that. So we go and she picks the drinks and we have a good time. So it's kind of cool that

Arthur von Wiesenberger (10:38)

Uh-huh.

Dr. Cliff Redford (10:51)

You know, of course I'm there for them if they ever need it and they ask my advice sometimes. But they are self-sufficient and they don't ask my permission for anything. ⁓ Which is fine, I trust them. ⁓ And it's kind of a cool relationship now because I'm like the wise friend. Which is good. Which is the... Yeah, and it's the relationship I have with my dad. I mean, there's a lot of things we don't share in common as far as hobbies.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (11:03)

Yeah.

It's a good role to be in.

Dr. Cliff Redford (11:20)

just hanging out with my dad for four or five hours and shooting the breeze and talking politics or talking this, talking that. I have them on my podcast every once in a while. called Dad Knows Best. it's so much fun and everyone messages in about how much they love my dad. so it's a fun situation. But let's talk more about you. So you've got this show, Animal Zone.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (11:33)

that's clever. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right, yes. Okay, well, first of all, before we get too far into this, I assume I can say this, am I okay? You do this as a visual too, right?

Dr. Cliff Redford (11:50)

Tell us about it.

⁓ I do, I mean it's primarily audio. I'll make little video clips, but it's primarily audio, but don't worry about it.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (12:03)

Audio, okay.

Great, then

I won't sweat about lighting and all that then. Great. Okay, yeah. Okay, I'm sorry, your question was.

Dr. Cliff Redford (12:09)

Absolutely, yeah, yeah, don't worry about it.

Yeah,

yeah, just like, let's just tell me about Animal Zone. I'd love to hear about it.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (12:19)

Okay,

yeah, I'll tell you how it started. I've always loved animals. I've always felt they were a big part of my life. And throughout my life, I've had them involved in different ways from ⁓ fundraisers to help animal shelters, ⁓ to ⁓ pets and to rescuing animals. We have a wildlife center out here, which is a great one called ⁓ the Wildlife Care Network. And ⁓ they

they really are doing it right. ⁓ You have on the beach, you might have an animal that's been ⁓ injured or eaten something wrong and gotten sick, or sometimes a deer gets hit on the road. And anyway, all these creatures can be brought, and I have brought them, many of them, to the Wildlife Care Center, and they take them in, they give them a number, they don't give them a name, and then ⁓ they deal with their injuries and ⁓ rehabilitation.

And once they're rehabilitated, then they re-release them back to where they were found, which is great because that means they can probably connect with their family or at least they're familiar with the area. I always thought that was a great organization. anyway, with Animal Zone, it started because my fiance and I were watching TV out here and every once in a while there'd be this ad that would come on for a national organization. And Sarah McLaughlin.

lovely singer, would sing a very sad song and you'd see these poor animals in cages looking so ⁓ sad and so emaciated and you go, ⁓ my gosh, this is horrible. And we'd actually, I can't watch graphic stuff on animals. I don't ⁓ know, maybe too sensitive. So I would change the channel or she would change the channel. We would always switch off because we just didn't want to see animals suffering. ⁓ And then.

I went to a local shelter here in Santa Barbara and I asked the person running, said, is this ad helping you guys? ⁓ Because when we see it, we turn it off. And she said, no, in fact, it doesn't helping us for two reasons. One is people see the ad, they don't want to go to a shelter because they don't have a depressing experience like that looks. And secondly, the money that this national organization raises, none of it comes to us. The only money we get are from either.

Dr. Cliff Redford (14:31)

Mm-hmm.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (14:40)

local ⁓ donors, maybe ⁓ a grant possibly, but nothing from these big advertisers. So I went, ⁓ well, then we've got to change that. And I'd been in the film world prior and actually did a travel show called Around the World, which we ran for 22 years ⁓ on television out here. ⁓ And then the pandemic shut that down. ⁓ But that's another story. Any case, with the animals,

Dr. Cliff Redford (15:00)

Wow.

Mm-hmm.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (15:09)

I was thinking we should do something to get the word out about ⁓ shelters and that you need to donate locally and adopt, don't shop, all those sort of messages. And we started just within the Santa Barbara Tri-Counties area and it took off. People really liked the show. People loved watching animals. And we had three goals. One was to entertain because that's gonna keep people watching the show. Secondly, we were gonna educate because...

that's what we all believe is necessary, education for adults and for kids.

Dr. Cliff Redford (15:39)

Okay.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (15:41)

And then finally, inspire. If we can inspire people to follow ⁓ some good direction, maybe help out with a local shelter, ⁓ donate money if they can, foster, adopt, ⁓ even go as far as talk to your local congressmen or ⁓ city council people, because a lot of these ⁓ houses, homes and rentals,

wouldn't allow people with certain animals like pit bulls or they wouldn't allow people to rent if at all with any animal. And as I've sort of discovered over the years, it's usually the humans that make the biggest problem for rental, not the animals. Animals are pretty good. So we wanted to try and get out as many of those kinds of messages as possible in a very positive way, entertaining and fun, upbeat, that would be...

You could watch it with your littlest, youngest kids and it would be okay. That was sort of the thought. ⁓ So the show started. We got a good following ⁓ within the tri-counties. We were on Cox Television locally and TVSB, which is a Santa Barbara station. That was going well. And then they said, the Cox, who was our distributor said, well, you should take it into our other markets. You know, maybe go into Arizona, go to Nevada, you know, let's expand into some other markets. So we did that.

And then we went to those other markets to film there. We went in the first place was Nevada, which was actually Las Vegas, which was kind of fun. But it was also amazing because there was a lot of great animal rescue stories there that I had no idea existed. But we found people like the hearts alive village, which is an amazing organization started by a young girl. She went to her mother and said, this is what I want to do in my life. And she was like, you know, 11 or 12. I want to I want to rescue animals.

Dr. Cliff Redford (17:07)

Beautiful.

you

Arthur von Wiesenberger (17:30)

And ⁓ they built this amazing organization that now is very substantial down in Las Vegas. So we followed some of these things and the stories kept growing and they were diverse, very different. We were dealing with not just cats and dogs and companion animals, but we went on to barnyard animals to a degree. So we were talking about goats and pigs and horses and donkeys and all that was close to my heart too because we have

Dr. Cliff Redford (17:50)

Mm.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (17:59)

rescue donkey here and I also have a rescue Hinnie and and so Already I felt like well, they're a great story too and they're wonderful Companions animals, you know So we expanded that was great that helped us open up new doors and ultimately we went across the country all the way to Florida and filmed there and filmed you know in Texas and just

Dr. Cliff Redford (18:03)

No.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (18:28)

coming up with great people, because we're really celebrating the people who do rescue and take care of animals and vet vets like yourself. Those are our, that's our focus. In New Orleans, we met a vet who just specializes in exotic animals. And, and he was a fascinating guy and he kept bringing out to the camera, all these bizarre creatures, but they were all great. And ⁓ some of them were ones that you're not allowed to have, you know, but, but he would, he would receive them and then he would care for them. And then

Dr. Cliff Redford (18:42)

Mm.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (18:58)

He found them, you know, ultimately a shelter that was allowed to have that exotic animal. ⁓ So it was great. That's how we started. Then the pandemic hit and that was in some ways one of the best things for the show because everybody was suddenly stuck at home and they couldn't go out and socialize. I mean, here we were just, it was a lockdown practically. So ⁓ people got depressed, you know, they're staying home and day after day, you know, they didn't have.

conversations and a lot of them were just, you know, on their own. So the shelter suddenly started having all these animals adopted out because people were just wanting to rescue animals to have a companion. ⁓ And the show managed to capture some of that and that helped us really kind of spread our wings. Then we went international and ⁓ that's when we first made our first leap out of the US when we went to Switzerland. ⁓ I have a connection in Switzerland.

Dr. Cliff Redford (19:54)

Okay.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (19:55)

So that's what brought us to the international level.

Dr. Cliff Redford (19:59)

Wow, beautiful. So what is in your connection? I think you were born and raised in Switzerland.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (20:08)

Not exactly. was born actually in New York City. And but my parents moved. My father sold his business and we moved to Europe in the 60s. And, ⁓ and then I was sent to boarding school because they were living in Rome. Rome was a little bit as a teenager, kind of a lot of distractions. So they thought I'd be best in a nice all boys boarding school. Well, in any case, luckily, luckily it didn't stay all boys by the time I got there.

Dr. Cliff Redford (20:10)

⁓

Hahaha

Arthur von Wiesenberger (20:37)

They decided that it would be 200 boys and they were gonna bring in 18 girls for the first year. So it was still like an old boys boy school because those girls were very popular. Any case, ⁓ but I learned a lot about animals in the school because the headmaster was British. It was a British school. The headmaster was a man named John Corlett and the school was called Eglon College and John Corlett had been a ⁓ architect by training.

Dr. Cliff Redford (20:42)

my goodness.

Yeah.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (21:05)

But then he decided, he moved to Switzerland and he said, instead of building buildings, I want to young men. And that was his goal was to really go beyond just academics, get people into a good space spiritually, ⁓ physically. mean, there was hiking, there was outward bounds type of activities. We climbed mountains and camped out for days. And what that gave you was a couple of senses. One was that momentary discomforts aren't all that bad.

Dr. Cliff Redford (21:25)

Hmm.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (21:35)

And secondly, you can overcome things ⁓ more than you thought you could. And he was a vegetarian, long before vegetarians were kind of a popular thing. And he explained that he believes that animals should be appreciated, not eaten. And that filtered in through the school to a degree. mean, we still would look forward to the occasional piece of beef or something. But generally, everybody kind of thought, well, we'll just eat what they give us. And it was a lot of

Dr. Cliff Redford (21:35)

Mm-hmm.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (22:05)

pastas and vegetables and fake steaks. In those days, I think it was made from tofu or some kind of other product. But any case, it got you thinking, know, it got us thinking. And that's kind of where my heart went. But Switzerland itself was very animal oriented and really ahead of its time even then. But today it's, I mean, it was amazing when we went to Switzerland because

Dr. Cliff Redford (22:11)

Mm-hmm.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (22:33)

I love the Swiss. I love the country. It's beautiful. The animals, of course, are wonderful. I you go through the hills and you want to feel like the hills are alive with the sound of music. There are cows walking through the Alps and the cowbells are ringing and the mooing is going on. It's just heavenly. But when we went to sit down with a group of attorneys that specialize in animal ⁓ welfare and law, they said, well, you know what?

I know you like seeing those cows, but we found out through studies that the cows that are wearing the cowbells out in the hills ⁓ don't produce as good of milk as the cows that don't wear cowbells. I went, really, why is that? And said, because the cowbell is really heavy and it's really loud to them and it stresses them. So the milk quality is the same. And what was great was ⁓ they're now pushing legislation which will require these cows not to wear the cowbells, but to have...

Dr. Cliff Redford (23:22)

Mm-hmm.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (23:32)

tracker because that's why the farmers had the bells was so they knew where the cows were. None of them can get a GPS or an apple tag or something like that to find their cows. Those are the kind of things that were really impressive to see in Switzerland because we don't think about that here in the States. Not yet anyway. ⁓ And they're also very specific about how they deal with ⁓ animal pet animals like for example ⁓ sorry is that noise too much?

Dr. Cliff Redford (23:38)

Wow.

No, I can't hear it.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (24:01)

I'm in an aircraft

pattern, unfortunately, Casey, you're not, that's great, okay, sorry, I'll pick that up again. The Swiss are also very adamant about how you deal with animals at home. For example, you can't adopt just one guinea pig. They want you to adopt at least two because guinea pigs become very depressed if they're by themselves. Who knew?

Dr. Cliff Redford (24:05)

yeah, I don't pick it up. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (24:27)

You know, and I thought, great that they're finding this out, you know, and that they're doing something about it. ⁓ So, was very rewarding in that way. We had a lot of ⁓ wonderful experiences, smart people, and beautiful scenery. I mean, you can't go wrong filming in Switzerland. And I used to, used to, yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (24:28)

Wow.

yeah, yeah, that's...

When you were talking about the cows with the cowbells before I heard about the nefarious situation that it causes, all I could think of as the executive producer in me, I was just like, wow, the B-roll must have been so beautiful. You could just go on and on and on, the rolling hills and...

Arthur von Wiesenberger (24:58)

Yeah. Yeah, it was.

Dr. Cliff Redford (25:06)

Yeah, it would have been incredible.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (25:06)

Well, what's nice

is some of these farmers now that are adopting this new approach, they're removing the cowbells off the cows, but they're lining their barns with the bells as a reminder ⁓ of that time and of that space. so, you know, even though it's not being done today, I mean, as we're finding in life, know, things evolve. And I think this is one of the good evolutions. Speaking of cows, we were filming in Hawaii ⁓ earlier this year, another great location.

Dr. Cliff Redford (25:19)

Day's gone, day's gone by.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (25:36)

case you're you're out and about. It's ⁓ it's different from the mainland. I'm sure it's different from Canada. What's in Hawaii, because first of all, it's so remote, it's so out there in the middle of the Pacific, that you have a lot of birds that are in animals that are indigenous to the area that that you don't find elsewhere, especially in the in the avian side of things. But but we went by this one place in Hilo.

Dr. Cliff Redford (26:00)

Mm-hmm.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (26:04)

And as we were leaving Hilo heading to the Hamakua coast, there was a sign on the side of the road that said, cow cuddling this way. And it was pointing down a dirt road. And I went, cow cuddling? We've to go take a look at this. So we drove down this dirt road and we drive in and it's a ⁓ group called the Krishna Cow Sanctuary, which is I think like the Krishna religious group, the cult group. And what they do is they rescued all these cows from a dairy that was being shut down.

And they were going to send the cows off to slaughter. they said, you can't slaughter all these cows. We've got to rescue them. So they had a big piece of land. They managed to lease. they put their cows on this land. And they only milked the cows for the calves. And the rest of the time, the cows are relaxing under this beautiful tent that you can go into. I mean, it's open on the sides. And you can lie down with the cows and stroke them on their chest, which apparently cows really like, and cuddle with them.

Dr. Cliff Redford (26:48)

Yep.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (27:02)

and make a donation to the Krishna Sanctuary, which I thought was a fabulous situation and a nice guy who runs it.

Dr. Cliff Redford (27:10)

Yeah, and I've done I'm on a buddy of mine's podcast once a week called the last show with David Cooper and it's also like a national radio show as well and we were recently talking about the Oxytocin release the love chemical the love hormone that gets released in our bodies when we pet dogs when we pet cats even just when they come into the room

our blood pressure drops, our heart rate drops, our cortisol drops. So it's probably no different. I got a whole bunch of dogs tearing around goofing off right now. They're often my dogs and several are rescues from the Arctic. They're often subjects of my background noise here. This one guy's got, looks like he's got tar on his back. He's been rolling around something in the backyard.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (27:42)

I can hear it.

Dr. Cliff Redford (28:01)

Anyways, I imagine this cow cuddling did you some good. Even if you didn't know it directly.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (28:09)

You know,

what was great was, luckily I've got a crew of three who all work together and they're all wonderful. It's a family. And they all love the animals. And they are often when they're not filming, they're cuddling or petting or trying to escape with one of them as a pet. ⁓ It's good to work with people who love animals.

Dr. Cliff Redford (28:26)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so.

Yeah, so how many seasons have you done and what's planned for the next one?

Arthur von Wiesenberger (28:38)

Alright, so we have 14 seasons now in the can, and that includes ⁓ many that were shot here in the US, and then ⁓ Switzerland episodes, ⁓ the Hawaii episodes we just finished, and then a couple years ago we were in Japan. So we have a few international ones, and they're all a little bit different. We try not to be too repetitive with what we're doing, but to open up more doors and more awareness. ⁓ How many we're gonna do? Well,

Dr. Cliff Redford (28:40)

Wow.

Wow.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (29:06)

Season 15, we're just working on right now, which will be shot in Florida. We're go down to the Keys and then work our way up along the eastern side of Florida to a number of shelters there and some interesting situations that are, again, kind of unique. And researching the show, you know, kind of, I go on the internet, I talk to people on the phone, we get recommendations from viewers, and then we try and piece together a destination that will take a whole season.

Dr. Cliff Redford (29:10)

Okay.

Okay.

Right. Have you planned all the episodes? Because I have a couple of connections that I think would make great TV. Yeah.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (29:35)

13 episodes.

In Florida?

I'm open to any suggestions, absolutely.

Dr. Cliff Redford (29:45)

Yeah, I'll send

you a buddy of mine. I was following him on Instagram, another veterinarian, and then the first time I went to Ukraine was just at the Ukraine-Polish border in Poland, helping the refugees. This was a couple of weeks into the start of the war. And then I saw on Instagram that Dr. Andrew was there. And I didn't know he had Ukrainian heritage. But I just quickly typed him. I was like, dude, where are you? And it turns out he was 20 minutes away from me.

So we've become friends and I've been to California a few times for film festivals and that's where his parents were, that's where he lived, but he's now doing a mobile ⁓ wildlife and mobile exotic animal service and works with some really cool wildlife rescues ⁓ in Florida. So I'll definitely connect you, because he's so good on camera and the stories are incredible.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (30:36)

Wow.

Ugh.

Dr. Cliff Redford (30:43)

Again, as the executive producer type, I'm just like, this is gold and these stories could really inspire, educate and entertain. So I could definitely do all three for sure.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (30:53)

Mm-hmm. So,

oh, that would be a blessing. Thank you. We would love it because I want to fill in, you know, there's always some gaps that you want to fill in on these shows where you're traveling. because of the costs involved, you want to maximize every minute that you're there. And if we can fill in some of the gaps with things like that, boy, that'd be great.

Dr. Cliff Redford (30:56)

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah,

yeah. So you do like, you were saying like 13 episodes. And how long are they? Are they 30 minutes approximately? Okay. All right.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (31:18)

Yep. 30 minutes, 13 to a season, and we have

over 180 done in the can. And then on the streaming platforms, we are on Pluto, Plex, Roku, Tubi. On all those platforms, they have a couple of seasons. Usually, I know Pluto's got now three seasons that they're showing.

Dr. Cliff Redford (31:41)

Right.

Okay,

Arthur von Wiesenberger (31:47)

on their on their and.

Dr. Cliff Redford (31:48)

gotcha. Yeah, and your distribution company helped you get on those guys.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (31:53)

Yeah, that I have no understanding of streamers or how you get to them. But there's this, I'll give you the guy's name when we exchange emails later, but the, the, the company in LA, uh, actually is run by an old friend of mine, a British guy. Uh, and he, um, he, he was, I think it came from Warner Brothers originally. Very good guy understands television backwards and forwards and how to make these streamers work. And, you know, as long as you're

Dr. Cliff Redford (32:01)

Yeah, yeah, we can exchange later.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (32:22)

expectations aren't too high. not gonna have you know, it's okay. It wasn't anything is better than nothing in my book.

Dr. Cliff Redford (32:24)

Yes, sir.

Yeah, yeah, yeah,

I'm just happy to get people to see it, right? like we're available on YouTube, but only for Canada, unless you have one of those VPN things. And then occasionally on an Ontario documentary TV channel, like Old School TV was purchased by TVO. So Television Ontario. So that's our province here. ⁓ And while there is a...

Arthur von Wiesenberger (32:33)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Cliff Redford (32:55)

Broadcaster that's looking at it in the US, so I think they bought it but Like we don't know when we don't know where it's gonna be seen and I'm pretty sure the deal is that we can it's not an exclusivity ⁓ From what the money sounds like it doesn't sound like an exclusivity So I'm always looking for changes for opportunities, but I just I just be happy if people can can see it That's the main at this stage. That's the main goal, but

So other than all of those streaming platforms, ⁓ on television you're just local like in California.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (33:31)

No, we're on, there's a cable system out here called Cox Cable. They're based in Atlanta, Georgia, and they have cable systems in many states, and we're on their network. They have a network which ⁓ runs ⁓ shows, and they like this show. They picked it up. Again, it's a non-profit effort. you know, we're goal is just to get it out there.

Dr. Cliff Redford (33:36)

Okay? Okay.

Beautiful.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (34:00)

We have we have PSA's that are embedded into the show from different nonprofits and and and so that way it's I mean system That's the way we went. I don't want to draw a salary from this I've I've already worked my life So I'm not this is sort of what my my love now, you You do your work when you have to and then you do what you love and hopefully that's what's gonna take me Yeah, it is

Dr. Cliff Redford (34:00)

Yes.

Nice.

Yeah, it's quite a freedom doing that. So

it's kind of nice. Especially if you've paid your dues in the corporate world or in the capital world for a while, the capitalistic world, you can just sit back and do what you love. Yeah. ⁓

Arthur von Wiesenberger (34:38)

Exactly. And then it's not work. You know,

I mean, I look forward to every time we're doing an episode or starting one. mean, to me, it energizes me really more than anything else and the people around us.

Dr. Cliff Redford (34:46)

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah,

this has been very, very inspiring. ⁓ know, last minute as we sort of wrap up, can people outside of the US, well, I mean, they can watch you on the streamers. Are you on social media? How can people find out more or at least follow you?

Arthur von Wiesenberger (35:08)

The best way to watch the show and watch all the episodes is just go to animalzone.org, which is our website. And if go to animalzone.org, you can see all 180 plus episodes. can read about some of the featured guests that we've had on. You can read our news. And also you can connect with us. There's a sign up for the newsletter, which we've only produced three newsletters since we started. you won't be inundated with much.

Dr. Cliff Redford (35:16)

okay.

Yeah, yeah.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (35:38)

But what it does do is give us a database, but you can also put in ⁓ your suggestions as far as anything that might be in your own neighborhood. mean, we have not yet gone to Canada and that's on my top list is at some point get to Canada. And of course, if we do, I'd love to come to Toronto and sit down with you and have our cameras pointed at you because you've got an amazing story.

Dr. Cliff Redford (35:53)

Please.

There you go, I love it. And

I'd take you to Shades of Hope, the wildlife place I volunteer at, and it will blow your mind. We might even have a bald eagle there, and then everyone in the US can go, wow, bald eagles are in Canada too.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (36:05)

That would be great.

Well, I watched your,

I watched your bald eagle episode because I was, I loved bald eagles and yes, it's all American, but ⁓ that was an amazing moment just to see that bald eagle pop its head up when you, when they arrived with him and I went, wow, that's a beautiful bird. Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (36:17)

Yeah.

Yeah, so beautiful. So,

so beautiful. ⁓ You saw the ending where it took a little bite out of me.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (36:35)

I didn't get that far yet. I have it queued up to see the rest of it, but I just was watching that before we went on.

Dr. Cliff Redford (36:39)

Yeah, because think there's two on YouTube,

there's two episodes. ⁓ And the second one is the actual release, so I kind of gave away the funny part, but it was all my fault. I wanted to get close one more time and I wasn't paying attention. ⁓ But I got nine of my fingers left, so I'm okay. I'm all right. She wouldn't do it. I'm a hockey player. I'm tough. I can handle it. There you go.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (36:53)

⁓ yeah.

Very good. Very good.

There you go. That's great.

Dr. Cliff Redford (37:07)

It's been such a pleasure, Arthur, and I'm pleased I would like to have you on again. I'm start watching some of these episodes and I'm gonna get that contact info for you for Florida. That would be amazing if you can give them a shout out if it works out.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (37:25)

I would love that Dr. Cliff. I'd love to be back on. It's been such a pleasure talking with you today and thanks for taking me on and I will do something with you on Animal Zone as well.

Dr. Cliff Redford (37:35)

100 % I will love it. That sounds like a plan. I'll send you that film and you can watch it with your family. There are a few graphic scenes so you'll have to look away just for three seconds. But I think you'll know when it's happening. Most of the time it's just, ⁓ other than when my face is on the camera, it's just beautiful footage and wonderful stories. My daughter steals the show as she always does. Yeah, she's great.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (37:36)

Okay.

No problem.

I know that feeling.

That's great.

Dr. Cliff Redford (38:04)

Excellent. Thank you very much and thanks for everything that you do.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (38:09)

and thanks for what you do, I appreciate it. Take care and have a good rest of the day. Bye.

Dr. Cliff Redford (38:11)

Alright, cheers. Alright, bye bye.