My mother and dad were big animal lovers too. I just don't know how I would have lived without animals around me. I'm fascinated by them - both domestic pets and the wild community. They just are the most interesting things in the world to me and it's made such a difference in my lifetime.

When I was younger my family would go camping and fishing on our ranches. My dad loves being around all kinds of animals. He's the one who got me to be a really big animal lover.

When I was a kid I used to imagine animals running under my bed. I told my dad and he solved the problem quickly. He cut the legs off the bed.

Courage and conviction are powerful weapons against an enemy who depends only on fists or guns. Animals know when you are afraid a coward knows when you are not.

What's cool is when you're able to give your audience imagination and you don't have to cage them in like animals.

I first became a vegetarian when I was nine in response to an argument made by a radical babysitter. My great change - which lasted a couple of weeks - was based on the very simple instinct that it's wrong to kill animals for food.

Maybe one day the world will change that we'll be in a luxurious position of being able to debate whether or not it's inherently wrong to eat animals but the question doesn't matter right now.

You look at a herd of cattle and well they all look the same... but they know. They all have an individual personality and those personalities change from day to day. They can have their grumpy days and their happy days and their serene days. But it's unpredictable. You can't be off in outer space when you're dealing with animals.

When fish experience something that would cause other animals physical pain they behave in ways suggestive of pain and the change in behaviour may last several hours.

I hope to bring much more attention to important issues and change for issues and practices that are harming animals.