Finding The Words For Animals: The Story of Alan Rabinowitz
07/27/2010
courtesy of "Nationaal Archief"
As a boy, little Alan spent much of his youth alone in his bedroom closet conversing with his pets. In the presence of peers, parents, and teachers, words became too slippery for him to clutch. But in the company of animals, Alan’s grip strengthened, as did his grasp of language.
When he wasn’t talking to his pets, he was speaking through the bars of cages to the inhabitants of the Bronx Zoo. His favorites were the large cats, cheetahs, leopards, jaguars. Though Alan found solace in their company, the relationships he formed were less than ideal: He was a visitor, and they, inmates.
In his teenage years, he came to the realization that such a world was in need of change. One day at the zoo, overcome by the somber look of his confined friend jaguar, Alan made a promise. With commanding words, he said, “I will find a place for us.”
Alan's pact became the focal point of his life. As his stutter and his pain began to recede, a passage within him emerged making way for empathy. The cries of the voiceless would impart to Alan both the grace of compassion and the power of speach. But he felt his words were not his alone.
Alan began speaking fluently for animals.
He got a Ph.D. in Ecology at the University of Tennessee, convinced a dictator to create the first ever jaguar preserve in Belize, and thanks to a Time Magazine article, became known as “The Indiana Jones of Wildlife Protection.”
But now, as a man whose steady eyes, gray hair, and fluid speech, bare a quality afforded only to those whose lives have been enlightened by an abounding array of life expriences, there is no narrator who could hope to express Rabinowitz's story, with the same breadth as Rabinowitz himself.
Alan Rabinowitz's story on 'Radiolab'
Alan Rabinowitz on 'The Colbert Report'
Also, Audubon Magazine's Michele Wilson posted this story last year on Saving Wild Cats
And if you can't get enough of this inspiring individual,
Alan Rabinowitz interview on 'Speaking of Faith'
Comments
Alan Rabinowitz is great!
I found this article to be very inspiring, both for people who stutter and for the preservation of big cats.
I first learned of Alan Rabinowitz's amazing life from the great work he has done with the Stuttering Foundation, a nonprofit that has been helping people with stuttering for over 60 years. Rabinowitz has lent his name and his time to help children who stutter.
Rabinowitz is on the list of famous people who stutter on the website of the Stuttering Foundation (www.stutteringhelp.com) along with names like Bruce Willis, Marilyn Monroe, James Earl Jones, Emily Blunt and so many more. The website of the Stuttering Foundation also provides many free resources for people who stuttering. The Spanish-language version of the site is www.tartamudez.org.
It does not matter how many times I read about Alan Rabinowitz..... every time moves me. God bless him for the work he does to preserve the big cats
of the world!