My interview with a pair of lovely Dodo Birds is coming soon. Subscribe now.
Animals keep disappearing from our planet so I’m sharing their stories before we forget who they were.
“Goodbye, Unicorn” is a compendium of conversations conducted with endangered and extinct animals.
These “interviews” were not easy to get. As you can imagine, finding subjects to speak with is challenging when there aren’t any around.
Even if I could find them, I’m not currently fluent in any animal languages.
So I am creating conversations we never had.
The goal is to share personal stories from our dearly departed (or soon-to-be) non-human kin and capture them for posterity. The interviews may not be real, but the sentiment is.
Throughout my research, a few themes emerged:
- Humans are the biggest threat to the planet and every living thing on it – including ourselves.
- Humans are the most feared and damaging predators on Earth.
- Humans have, for the most part, lost their connection to animals, themselves, and each other.
- Animals can rightly blame us for almost everything bad that has ever happened to them.
- Animals are intelligent, sentient beings who deserve – and need – to be here, for all our benefit.
- Animals need an international “Bill of Rights.”
We cannot continue to ignore and abuse the other creatures with whom we share this planet.
It belongs to us all.
Since animals can’t speak for themselves, at least not in a way we fully understand, I have given them a voice.
And wherever possible, a sense of humour.
I am grateful for the resources provided by esteemed organizations like The Smithsonian, National Geographic Society, World Wildlife Foundation, and The Wildlife Conservation Society, as well as remarkable individuals like David Attenborough and early explorers like Lewis & Clark and Charles Darwin.
Furthermore, I owe a debt of gratitude to many exceptional people who continue to assist with this work, including game wardens, zookeepers, zoologists, veterinarians, park rangers, indigenous elders, native shamans, and animal enthusiasts from all over the world. Without their help, this project would not have been possible.
On behalf of all animals, past and present, I thank you.
