May 16, 2026
Shannon Elizabeth won’t say I DO again but has found love and happiness
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RSS Feed From acting in hit movies to saving animals! Shannon Elizabeth has found her passion in saving rhinos in South Africa, and it’s changed her life.
Plus, the animal activist is telling Brian Austin Green about her upcoming charity poker event!
Email us at: IDOPOD@iheartradio.com or call us at 844-4-I Do Pod (844-443-6763)
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00:00:17
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome back to another episode of I Do Part two. Brian Austin Green and I am speaking with Shannon Elizabeth and we've had an amazing conversation so far, so we want to get back into this. Let's get into a little bit of what it is you do because people hear you're an animal activist, which a lot of people hear about other people. You again, you're talking to me from South Africa right now, so you're really doing it like you are in this You're going you're going strong. So tell me a little bit about how this started and what it is you do now.
00:00:54
Speaker 2: Okay, So after American Pie, it was my first time I was in a position to giving back and I knew animals was my mission on the planet to help animals, and my partner and I at the time, we went to all the animal rescues around town and decided we're going to do this ourselves, and so we started the charity Animal Avengers, and that was in two thousand and one. After running it that way for over ten years, I just knew I wanted to help more animals on a bigger scale. I didn't know what that looked like yet, and just went on this journey of discovery, and eventually I was led to New York. I went to an ivory and Rhinohorn Crush and met a lot of conservationists there, and so I started following all these conservation organizations online. And one night I was getting ready to go out and something said to me, check Instagram. So I checked Instagram. I didn't know what I was looking for, and I ran across this video of a ranger in the field and he's scanning with this phone what he sees in front of him, and you see a trunk of an elephant off to the side, and then you see kind of you could just kind of make out the face and the body, and you hear him say this, poor baby's been out here all night suffering.
00:02:15
Speaker 3: And then she moved.
00:02:16
Speaker 2: And that moment when she moved got me like nothing I had ever been through before. I couldn't stop crying. I didn't realize how much they were suffering. I think I just assumed that a hunter or a poacher would just go out and kill the animal. But no, like the poachers will sometimes disable them. They might cut their achilles tendon or cut their spinal cord, so they can't run, and then they take what they want and that's it and they leave them to bleed out and die. And it was in that moment a switch was flipped in me and I said, this is what I have to do with the charity, the idea that these animals could go extinct in our lifetime. I can't do nothing now that I know that.
00:03:03
Speaker 4: How are people that that is? That?
00:03:06
Speaker 1: That is mind blowing that someone could be that heartless and just that removed from just emotional connection with animals in the world around them.
00:03:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, the problem is that it goes so much deeper than that. It's so do you remember way back in the day, there were a bunch of school girls that were kidnapped in I think Kenya or Mozambique, and there was a syndicate Bocahram, and there was there was Boco Rum and there was Al Shabab, two really big syndicates. One of those kidnapped the girls. So these are just examples of two syndicates. What these syndicates do is every illegal thing you can think of within the course of a month, and they rotate it throughout the month. So poaching happens during the full moon. They call it a poacher's moon. And when they kidnap these girls, they need lots of guns, lots of artillery, like they're terrorists. So the easiest way for them to get the money to buy the guns is wildlife trafficking, and it's killing animals for the parts. Now, they might go to a local villager outside of the park and say we're giving you a pango, which is a big knife. We're giving you a gun, and all you have to do is go into that park, get a rhino horn and bring it out, and we will give you one thousand dollars, which is more they've seen their whole life. That rhino horn's worth half a million dollars on the black market, so they're getting a tiny little piece. The syndicates are making massive money from this. They're not risking anything, and they've got very clever and they're very well organized and funded, so they they know how to go into an area and start blackmailing someone. So it'd be like, oh, Brian, your little girl needs a surgery. Oh we heard about that. It's horrible. You don't have the money here, we'll pay for it. Don't worry, We've got this. I'll pay for the surgery, she'll be okay, and then it goes from there. It's like, oh, well you owe us. Now you've got to do what we say. Now, so you've got information on where the anti poaching team is going tonight, So we're going to go the other way. You're going to tell us where they're going, and we're going to poach in the other direction. Oh, if you don't, we're going to kill your family. We're going to torture them. We're going to torture your wife in front of you, and they it.
00:05:46
Speaker 3: Goes on that. You know, you don't want to kill the animal, but now.
00:05:50
Speaker 4: Your Facebook they own you. At that point, they own you.
00:05:55
Speaker 2: So it could go one of many ways, but that's that's one of the ways it can go. And it's these people that are actually going out and doing the killing. Most of the time, they don't want to kill. They just want to feed their family, They just want to survive. They just want to live.
00:06:10
Speaker 1: And at that point, they've been threatened that if they don't do it, then terrible things will happen to them.
00:06:15
Speaker 2: So that's why and conservation, one of the biggest things you can do to protect animals is uplift the people around the parks is to work with them and give them real ways of making money, making a living generation after generation, not just like here's a job for today, but teaching skills and developing skills that they can always fall back on. And when you get a community on your side and they can make money because of the work they're doing with you, your organization, your sanctuary, whatever it may be, then they want to protect you and they want to protect the animals because that's their livelihood. And so that is not a band aid real answer. A lot of there's a lot of band aids going on. Why people work on the real answers in the background. But it's hard and it's I mean, this is happening at every park all over the world. They're quite often outside the parks is where there's a lot of poverty, and so you have to like work with those communities. It's really important.
00:07:29
Speaker 4: How did this even happen for you? Like how how did you.
00:07:33
Speaker 1: End up where you are doing what you're doing? I mean you you moved again. You're in South Africa. Like normally when people think South Africa, they think like you're just walking down the street and you're like, oh, lion what's up man? Like, you know, you're riding an elephant to work like that?
00:07:51
Speaker 4: People have those.
00:07:52
Speaker 1: My fiance is from Australia, so it's the same thing I tell people, like, Oh, Australia is beautiful and they're like, oh, but there's deadly snakes and spiders.
00:08:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, money cities Like if I get me.
00:08:03
Speaker 1: Out back, you know, if I'm out there, like at the Australia Zoo with the Irwins, I'm going to see some of that stuff.
00:08:08
Speaker 4: But otherwise I'm in a city.
00:08:12
Speaker 1: How did you happen to just travel there first doing something else and then that that caught your attention or did you travel there specifically for animal activism and then you decide to stay.
00:08:24
Speaker 2: It's mainly the second one. I did travel here once first actually for poker. I was out here for a poker term.
00:08:32
Speaker 4: Wait, yeah, I love that. That That poker is what.
00:08:36
Speaker 1: Brought you to South Africa and then you ended up staying for the activity it was.
00:08:39
Speaker 2: It was actually two things. It was poker and I was shooting a documentary for I think it was Say the Children or Feed the Children. It was one of these organizations and it was with oh gosh, there was a lot of people.
00:08:53
Speaker 3: You would know. Actually I can see the faces.
00:08:57
Speaker 1: It's okay, we're old, so I know buffer sometimes.
00:09:04
Speaker 2: So it was with a bunch of people, and so it was a trip where I got to do that. And then I did a big poker tournament here in South Africa. So the and the filming was in Kenya. So that was my first time to be in Africa. But that was like two thousand and six or two thousand and eight, and then I didn't think anything of it after that. So I didn't know about the poaching. I didn't know about any of that then. So when I saw that video of the elephant online and that flipped, that switch was flipped in me.
00:09:33
Speaker 3: I said, this is I.
00:09:35
Speaker 2: I kind of evaluated my life and the people in my life at that point. And there were a lot of people around me from South Africa. Some people were in South Africa and some were South Africans that were in New York with me. Like I just realized the universe was saying South Africa. I'm like, finally one day, I was like, okay, I hear you. Something's in South Africa for me.
00:09:56
Speaker 3: Got it?
00:09:57
Speaker 2: So I put together a fundraiser to raise funds to come out here to help a few organizations as a way to just start exploring like what could I do to help? And I got the names of some organizations through friends I knew and trusted and came out and said, Okay.
00:10:14
Speaker 3: Well what do you need. I'm going to buy you supplies. And I did like.
00:10:19
Speaker 2: Like an Amazon fundraiser as well, where people bought supplies for vets and like camera traps for in the field. And so I came with a bag full of supplies and then I had ten thousand dollars for three different charities where I could buy something for them that would help them in the field. And that was kind of where I started, and that was I think twenty fifteen. So I did that trip and went back to New York and there was this moment where everybody was standing at the crosswalk and everyone's like on their phone like this, and the crosswalk goes and everyone's walking as fast as they can but their faces down in their phone and I'm just watching this and there's it just kind of hit me that like everyone's racing like dealing with a problem, but I'm like, I don't feel like these are real problems, Like these are first world problems, but there's people dealing with real struggles out there and real issues. And I had seen like a different side of the world when I came to Africa, and I just felt like I wanted to be closer to the issues.
00:11:29
Speaker 3: I wanted to come out here.
00:11:31
Speaker 2: It was the only way I was going to learn and try to understand what I could do to make a difference and help.
00:11:35
Speaker 3: And I just decided in that moment.
00:11:39
Speaker 1: It's amazing when the universe puts you in that perspective where you see things in a different way and you go, you know what, there is nothing for me to serve here, So I need to figure out where I am more useful than I am right now in this space. And you and you dedicate yourself to that. That's amazing. And I think people find out at different ages and different times in their life, for sure.
00:12:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think as long as you find that, because I do feel like we all have a mission here and we're all here for a purpose, and some people the purpose is literally to have a family. That is a purpose, you.
00:12:18
Speaker 3: Know, to populate the world, to.
00:12:20
Speaker 2: Bring other people in that will have their mission and their purpose. But everyone has a reason for being here. And I think I always knew at a young age that animals were my purpose, helping give a voice to animals that didn't have that voice. And I just I didn't know what that looked like. I didn't know how I was going to help animals. That was just something that over time. I mean, I still question it all the time. Am I doing enough? Am I doing what I'm meant to be doing? Am I on the right path? Or should I be listening to something else?
00:12:52
Speaker 1: Was there something in particular that started that for you. Were you in a situation where you were like, god, I can I'd like, I really care about this animal, and then it sort of broadened your mind to things. Was there if you're looking back, because I strongly believe in like catalysts, like these moments that happen where it like a switch flips. Like you said you were standing on the street corner and you saw people walking with their phones. Was there something for you that was an absolute catalyst of like, it's animals, this is what I'm here for.
00:13:26
Speaker 4: I know it more than anything.
00:13:29
Speaker 3: I do.
00:13:29
Speaker 2: Remember driving down the street with my dad in Texas as a little girl and there would be say, a dead armadillo in the middle of the road and I would scream bloody murder. He'd slam on the brakes. What what what? I'm like, there was a dead animal in the road, like I would freak out, just as a little girl. And he's like, oh, I thought I was gonna hit a person. I'm like, as long as you don't hit an animal, Like I was just all about don't hit the animal. And it was just something that I think I was just born with. I we had a dog, and when the dog was no longer with us, my parents did not let me get another animal. And that's when I was like, well, I'm gonna have tons of animals then when I grow up, because I can, and you're not letting me have another animal.
00:14:12
Speaker 3: And it was all about the animals for me.
00:14:14
Speaker 2: It was just something I think I was born with that just over time developed almost in a almost in a way that it's like you don't even have control over it. It just happens, you know, It just happens. A dog comes to you, and now that dog is yours, it just happens they find you.
00:14:32
Speaker 1: For sure, was there someone in your life that like you modeled that behavi Was there an aunt or somebody that was that was very similar in the same way that you sort of watched and you thought, oh, that's really interesting. No, just completely your own amazing.
00:14:48
Speaker 2: I can't think of anyone in my life that was an animal person like me.
00:14:52
Speaker 4: Isn't it weird how that how that happens.
00:14:55
Speaker 1: It's so I have five kids, which is shocking for a lot of people to here. But I always say, like, it's really interesting that people get so caught up in this thing of like, oh, I want to I want to like raise a young version of myself or a little version of me, or a mini me or And kids are people, and they are absolutely unique and they're themselves no matter what you do, and you can either support that or you can that up early on, you know. So like to me, I always have a sense of like, oh, my job as a parent is to make sure that morally.
00:15:32
Speaker 4: They're good people. I don't care what they do, like.
00:15:36
Speaker 1: Your career, your passions, your thing or yours. Just be a good person while you're doing it. But it's so interesting that you just had this individual innate draw and need for this in your life and you found a passion with that.
00:15:51
Speaker 4: That's that's so incredible to hear.
00:15:53
Speaker 1: I think I wish that more people listened to that instinct and follow that, because there's so many people that are just kind of in these sort of dead end jobs and these things where they're just their jobs, like it's not really a it's not really a life or a career.
00:16:10
Speaker 4: It's not a passion.
00:16:11
Speaker 1: And so my dad always said to me, if you do something that you love doing, you'll never work a day in your life.
00:16:17
Speaker 4: And it's true. When you find some I love.
00:16:20
Speaker 1: What I do, and when I get to work doing any of those things, I love it. And getting up early sometimes sucks, Like yeah, you get up at four thirty in the morning, You're like, oh, this is you know, just I.
00:16:32
Speaker 4: Wish I had one more hour.
00:16:35
Speaker 1: So the two things can be true at the same time, you know, it's I don't feel like emotions are mutually exclusive. You can have two things. You can be proud of your friend and then you can also be envious of your friend at the same time and wish you had that opportunity. You can be jealous of them, like both things can live simultaneously.
00:16:52
Speaker 2: Well, look, the good thing is is that it's never too late to follow your passion. It's never too late, never too late. Reinvent yourself to do, to do your next chapter. You know, like having that job, it's great and it's a job, and we need jobs to survive. I mean, acting was my job, but my mission on the planet is the animals, right, And if I can find a way that my job supports my mission, than great, I'm winning. Then That's what I think it was given to me for. Is that platform is there to support the real work that I need to do.
00:17:27
Speaker 4: Sure, and it's a strange platform. I always say. So.
00:17:31
Speaker 1: I started acting when I was nine. I love acting, I love being on set doing it. But at the point when I turned fifty, I was like, God, there's so much more that I want to do than just be an actor. So I really got into this, into this place of wanting to connect with people and help people and sort of serve that way. And it's all about the legacy that I leave behind. And my legacy is I want to be kind to everyone that I meet. I want to like positively affect people. And I have this crazy platform I didn't ask for. But you know, nine O two one zero is this weird fucking thing that we were on it was like, oh my god, people actually give us what I say, so cool. Let me like, let me affect some positive change with that. Let me use this thing to accomplish what it is. I genuinely feel like I'm here to accomplish, which is I want to be. I want to help people as often as I can. And sometimes that's just with little like light bulb moments. Sometimes that's you know, doing charitable work. There are all different ways that I can that I can serve and do that.
00:18:43
Speaker 4: I love. I love animals, so I always have.
00:18:46
Speaker 1: I've always had pets, I've always had animals around me, and I've had every kind of animal you can think of, snakes and dogs and goats and rabbits and like everything except for legal ones, except for ones that you shouldn't have.
00:19:00
Speaker 2: But good, good, I like to hear that that are just that that just feel caged up, and you've got them because it's fun to have.
00:19:09
Speaker 4: Exactly Well.
00:19:10
Speaker 2: The thing and the thing with conservation that I didn't know when I got into it is that the way to truly protect the animals is to work with and uplift the people. So you know, it's kind of hand in hand so as much as my passion and my reason is for the animals, it means I'm also working with the people and and I'm uplifting and helping people, So I I kind of get the best of both worlds there.
00:19:48
Speaker 1: Before I let you go, because I know you have rhinos to say this, like I'm the last person that you need to be talking to, I want to ask you uh quickly before we go.
00:19:59
Speaker 4: And it's kind kind of it's a thing for me.
00:20:01
Speaker 1: It's a question that I it's something I love talking about and we've we've touched on it a little bit before, But what is what.
00:20:08
Speaker 4: Do you want your legacy to be?
00:20:11
Speaker 1: Like? What when people look back on you? What is the thing that is the most important for you?
00:20:17
Speaker 2: The work that I'm doing with my charity and hopefully the work I haven't done yet. I think that there's a lot more to come. We're we're starting to try to work with the surrounding communities. And there's an amazing, enormous community right next to where our sanctuary is and we've just started engaging with them, and there's a lot that I'm hoping to be able to do with them for them, and and I'm i Yeah, we have lots of hopes and dreams there that we're working towards. We have a fundraiser at the end of June in Las Vegas that I'm doing during.
00:20:55
Speaker 4: Can you please invite me to that, like.
00:21:00
Speaker 3: My celebrity like bounties in the tournament.
00:21:02
Speaker 4: For sure, be amazing.
00:21:05
Speaker 3: All right, actually you do it, I will send it.
00:21:08
Speaker 4: Do please start.
00:21:10
Speaker 2: We are just starting to, like we just put tickets on sale and I'm just starting to ask people to come and be like celebrity bounties and be a part of it. And We've got some really cool things that are starting to swirl around it and suppress that will come and I'm excited. And so that's been my focus right now. So once we do well with that, then we have money to do the next chapter of like what we're doing out here with the sanctuary and the community and the programs and so yeah, I mean, I think I know that I want my legacy to be about the work that I'm doing, the giving back and the things that I'm trying to leave behind on the planet to make it a better place for people.
00:21:55
Speaker 3: And animals and environment.
00:21:58
Speaker 2: So the more I can do that, the more I can build that legacy to leave behind a better planet than I had coming into.
00:22:08
Speaker 3: You know, that's that's amazing, that's amazing.
00:22:12
Speaker 4: I love that, Shannon.
00:22:13
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for sitting with me today and sharing everything that's happening for you right now.
00:22:20
Speaker 4: Could not happen to a better person.
00:22:22
Speaker 1: I'm just absolutely, I'm so happy for you. I'm so happy that we finally got to like meet and do this.
00:22:31
Speaker 4: I'll see you in June.
00:22:32
Speaker 1: Do not forget to send you an invite and all the information that you can.
00:22:37
Speaker 4: I'd love to be there. Sharna doesn't play poker, but all teacher who learn.
00:22:45
Speaker 2: Teacher like, it's going to be such a fun time. I would love to have you both out there as my guy.
00:22:50
Speaker 4: Amazing. For sure.
00:22:52
Speaker 1: Her birthday is in June, so there's no better way to celebrate.
00:22:55
Speaker 4: A birthday than doing that. What day is it the twenty first?
00:22:58
Speaker 1: And then our three year old his birthday is the twenty eighth, Well that's.
00:23:02
Speaker 3: The day of the event, the twenty eight Sunday, the twenty eighth.
00:23:04
Speaker 1: There you go, and that's his birthday. Well we'll bring him out to Vegas with us. Yay, thank you, thank you, Shanon. It's so nice to finally meet you.
00:23:12
Speaker 3: Yes, it's nice to finally meet you, and I'll see you soon.
00:23:14
Speaker 4: Are you ready to redefine your chapter two?
00:23:17
Speaker 1: You need some advice on how to navigate it. We are here to help, so send us an email or leave us a voicemail. All the info is in the show notes. Follow us on socials, I Do Part two and iHeartRadio podcast where falling in love is the main objective, or maybe it's more important to fall in love with yourself.
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome back to another episode of I Do Part two. Brian Austin Green and I am speaking with Shannon Elizabeth and we've had an amazing conversation so far, so we want to get back into this. Let's get into a little bit of what it is you do because people hear you're an animal activist, which a lot of people hear about other people. You again, you're talking to me from South Africa right now, so you're really doing it like you are in this You're going you're going strong. So tell me a little bit about how this started and what it is you do now.
00:00:54
Speaker 2: Okay, So after American Pie, it was my first time I was in a position to giving back and I knew animals was my mission on the planet to help animals, and my partner and I at the time, we went to all the animal rescues around town and decided we're going to do this ourselves, and so we started the charity Animal Avengers, and that was in two thousand and one. After running it that way for over ten years, I just knew I wanted to help more animals on a bigger scale. I didn't know what that looked like yet, and just went on this journey of discovery, and eventually I was led to New York. I went to an ivory and Rhinohorn Crush and met a lot of conservationists there, and so I started following all these conservation organizations online. And one night I was getting ready to go out and something said to me, check Instagram. So I checked Instagram. I didn't know what I was looking for, and I ran across this video of a ranger in the field and he's scanning with this phone what he sees in front of him, and you see a trunk of an elephant off to the side, and then you see kind of you could just kind of make out the face and the body, and you hear him say this, poor baby's been out here all night suffering.
00:02:15
Speaker 3: And then she moved.
00:02:16
Speaker 2: And that moment when she moved got me like nothing I had ever been through before. I couldn't stop crying. I didn't realize how much they were suffering. I think I just assumed that a hunter or a poacher would just go out and kill the animal. But no, like the poachers will sometimes disable them. They might cut their achilles tendon or cut their spinal cord, so they can't run, and then they take what they want and that's it and they leave them to bleed out and die. And it was in that moment a switch was flipped in me and I said, this is what I have to do with the charity, the idea that these animals could go extinct in our lifetime. I can't do nothing now that I know that.
00:03:03
Speaker 4: How are people that that is? That?
00:03:06
Speaker 1: That is mind blowing that someone could be that heartless and just that removed from just emotional connection with animals in the world around them.
00:03:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, the problem is that it goes so much deeper than that. It's so do you remember way back in the day, there were a bunch of school girls that were kidnapped in I think Kenya or Mozambique, and there was a syndicate Bocahram, and there was there was Boco Rum and there was Al Shabab, two really big syndicates. One of those kidnapped the girls. So these are just examples of two syndicates. What these syndicates do is every illegal thing you can think of within the course of a month, and they rotate it throughout the month. So poaching happens during the full moon. They call it a poacher's moon. And when they kidnap these girls, they need lots of guns, lots of artillery, like they're terrorists. So the easiest way for them to get the money to buy the guns is wildlife trafficking, and it's killing animals for the parts. Now, they might go to a local villager outside of the park and say we're giving you a pango, which is a big knife. We're giving you a gun, and all you have to do is go into that park, get a rhino horn and bring it out, and we will give you one thousand dollars, which is more they've seen their whole life. That rhino horn's worth half a million dollars on the black market, so they're getting a tiny little piece. The syndicates are making massive money from this. They're not risking anything, and they've got very clever and they're very well organized and funded, so they they know how to go into an area and start blackmailing someone. So it'd be like, oh, Brian, your little girl needs a surgery. Oh we heard about that. It's horrible. You don't have the money here, we'll pay for it. Don't worry, We've got this. I'll pay for the surgery, she'll be okay, and then it goes from there. It's like, oh, well you owe us. Now you've got to do what we say. Now, so you've got information on where the anti poaching team is going tonight, So we're going to go the other way. You're going to tell us where they're going, and we're going to poach in the other direction. Oh, if you don't, we're going to kill your family. We're going to torture them. We're going to torture your wife in front of you, and they it.
00:05:46
Speaker 3: Goes on that. You know, you don't want to kill the animal, but now.
00:05:50
Speaker 4: Your Facebook they own you. At that point, they own you.
00:05:55
Speaker 2: So it could go one of many ways, but that's that's one of the ways it can go. And it's these people that are actually going out and doing the killing. Most of the time, they don't want to kill. They just want to feed their family, They just want to survive. They just want to live.
00:06:10
Speaker 1: And at that point, they've been threatened that if they don't do it, then terrible things will happen to them.
00:06:15
Speaker 2: So that's why and conservation, one of the biggest things you can do to protect animals is uplift the people around the parks is to work with them and give them real ways of making money, making a living generation after generation, not just like here's a job for today, but teaching skills and developing skills that they can always fall back on. And when you get a community on your side and they can make money because of the work they're doing with you, your organization, your sanctuary, whatever it may be, then they want to protect you and they want to protect the animals because that's their livelihood. And so that is not a band aid real answer. A lot of there's a lot of band aids going on. Why people work on the real answers in the background. But it's hard and it's I mean, this is happening at every park all over the world. They're quite often outside the parks is where there's a lot of poverty, and so you have to like work with those communities. It's really important.
00:07:29
Speaker 4: How did this even happen for you? Like how how did you.
00:07:33
Speaker 1: End up where you are doing what you're doing? I mean you you moved again. You're in South Africa. Like normally when people think South Africa, they think like you're just walking down the street and you're like, oh, lion what's up man? Like, you know, you're riding an elephant to work like that?
00:07:51
Speaker 4: People have those.
00:07:52
Speaker 1: My fiance is from Australia, so it's the same thing I tell people, like, Oh, Australia is beautiful and they're like, oh, but there's deadly snakes and spiders.
00:08:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, money cities Like if I get me.
00:08:03
Speaker 1: Out back, you know, if I'm out there, like at the Australia Zoo with the Irwins, I'm going to see some of that stuff.
00:08:08
Speaker 4: But otherwise I'm in a city.
00:08:12
Speaker 1: How did you happen to just travel there first doing something else and then that that caught your attention or did you travel there specifically for animal activism and then you decide to stay.
00:08:24
Speaker 2: It's mainly the second one. I did travel here once first actually for poker. I was out here for a poker term.
00:08:32
Speaker 4: Wait, yeah, I love that. That That poker is what.
00:08:36
Speaker 1: Brought you to South Africa and then you ended up staying for the activity it was.
00:08:39
Speaker 2: It was actually two things. It was poker and I was shooting a documentary for I think it was Say the Children or Feed the Children. It was one of these organizations and it was with oh gosh, there was a lot of people.
00:08:53
Speaker 3: You would know. Actually I can see the faces.
00:08:57
Speaker 1: It's okay, we're old, so I know buffer sometimes.
00:09:04
Speaker 2: So it was with a bunch of people, and so it was a trip where I got to do that. And then I did a big poker tournament here in South Africa. So the and the filming was in Kenya. So that was my first time to be in Africa. But that was like two thousand and six or two thousand and eight, and then I didn't think anything of it after that. So I didn't know about the poaching. I didn't know about any of that then. So when I saw that video of the elephant online and that flipped, that switch was flipped in me.
00:09:33
Speaker 3: I said, this is I.
00:09:35
Speaker 2: I kind of evaluated my life and the people in my life at that point. And there were a lot of people around me from South Africa. Some people were in South Africa and some were South Africans that were in New York with me. Like I just realized the universe was saying South Africa. I'm like, finally one day, I was like, okay, I hear you. Something's in South Africa for me.
00:09:56
Speaker 3: Got it?
00:09:57
Speaker 2: So I put together a fundraiser to raise funds to come out here to help a few organizations as a way to just start exploring like what could I do to help? And I got the names of some organizations through friends I knew and trusted and came out and said, Okay.
00:10:14
Speaker 3: Well what do you need. I'm going to buy you supplies. And I did like.
00:10:19
Speaker 2: Like an Amazon fundraiser as well, where people bought supplies for vets and like camera traps for in the field. And so I came with a bag full of supplies and then I had ten thousand dollars for three different charities where I could buy something for them that would help them in the field. And that was kind of where I started, and that was I think twenty fifteen. So I did that trip and went back to New York and there was this moment where everybody was standing at the crosswalk and everyone's like on their phone like this, and the crosswalk goes and everyone's walking as fast as they can but their faces down in their phone and I'm just watching this and there's it just kind of hit me that like everyone's racing like dealing with a problem, but I'm like, I don't feel like these are real problems, Like these are first world problems, but there's people dealing with real struggles out there and real issues. And I had seen like a different side of the world when I came to Africa, and I just felt like I wanted to be closer to the issues.
00:11:29
Speaker 3: I wanted to come out here.
00:11:31
Speaker 2: It was the only way I was going to learn and try to understand what I could do to make a difference and help.
00:11:35
Speaker 3: And I just decided in that moment.
00:11:39
Speaker 1: It's amazing when the universe puts you in that perspective where you see things in a different way and you go, you know what, there is nothing for me to serve here, So I need to figure out where I am more useful than I am right now in this space. And you and you dedicate yourself to that. That's amazing. And I think people find out at different ages and different times in their life, for sure.
00:12:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think as long as you find that, because I do feel like we all have a mission here and we're all here for a purpose, and some people the purpose is literally to have a family. That is a purpose, you.
00:12:18
Speaker 3: Know, to populate the world, to.
00:12:20
Speaker 2: Bring other people in that will have their mission and their purpose. But everyone has a reason for being here. And I think I always knew at a young age that animals were my purpose, helping give a voice to animals that didn't have that voice. And I just I didn't know what that looked like. I didn't know how I was going to help animals. That was just something that over time. I mean, I still question it all the time. Am I doing enough? Am I doing what I'm meant to be doing? Am I on the right path? Or should I be listening to something else?
00:12:52
Speaker 1: Was there something in particular that started that for you. Were you in a situation where you were like, god, I can I'd like, I really care about this animal, and then it sort of broadened your mind to things. Was there if you're looking back, because I strongly believe in like catalysts, like these moments that happen where it like a switch flips. Like you said you were standing on the street corner and you saw people walking with their phones. Was there something for you that was an absolute catalyst of like, it's animals, this is what I'm here for.
00:13:26
Speaker 4: I know it more than anything.
00:13:29
Speaker 3: I do.
00:13:29
Speaker 2: Remember driving down the street with my dad in Texas as a little girl and there would be say, a dead armadillo in the middle of the road and I would scream bloody murder. He'd slam on the brakes. What what what? I'm like, there was a dead animal in the road, like I would freak out, just as a little girl. And he's like, oh, I thought I was gonna hit a person. I'm like, as long as you don't hit an animal, Like I was just all about don't hit the animal. And it was just something that I think I was just born with. I we had a dog, and when the dog was no longer with us, my parents did not let me get another animal. And that's when I was like, well, I'm gonna have tons of animals then when I grow up, because I can, and you're not letting me have another animal.
00:14:12
Speaker 3: And it was all about the animals for me.
00:14:14
Speaker 2: It was just something I think I was born with that just over time developed almost in a almost in a way that it's like you don't even have control over it. It just happens, you know, It just happens. A dog comes to you, and now that dog is yours, it just happens they find you.
00:14:32
Speaker 1: For sure, was there someone in your life that like you modeled that behavi Was there an aunt or somebody that was that was very similar in the same way that you sort of watched and you thought, oh, that's really interesting. No, just completely your own amazing.
00:14:48
Speaker 2: I can't think of anyone in my life that was an animal person like me.
00:14:52
Speaker 4: Isn't it weird how that how that happens.
00:14:55
Speaker 1: It's so I have five kids, which is shocking for a lot of people to here. But I always say, like, it's really interesting that people get so caught up in this thing of like, oh, I want to I want to like raise a young version of myself or a little version of me, or a mini me or And kids are people, and they are absolutely unique and they're themselves no matter what you do, and you can either support that or you can that up early on, you know. So like to me, I always have a sense of like, oh, my job as a parent is to make sure that morally.
00:15:32
Speaker 4: They're good people. I don't care what they do, like.
00:15:36
Speaker 1: Your career, your passions, your thing or yours. Just be a good person while you're doing it. But it's so interesting that you just had this individual innate draw and need for this in your life and you found a passion with that.
00:15:51
Speaker 4: That's that's so incredible to hear.
00:15:53
Speaker 1: I think I wish that more people listened to that instinct and follow that, because there's so many people that are just kind of in these sort of dead end jobs and these things where they're just their jobs, like it's not really a it's not really a life or a career.
00:16:10
Speaker 4: It's not a passion.
00:16:11
Speaker 1: And so my dad always said to me, if you do something that you love doing, you'll never work a day in your life.
00:16:17
Speaker 4: And it's true. When you find some I love.
00:16:20
Speaker 1: What I do, and when I get to work doing any of those things, I love it. And getting up early sometimes sucks, Like yeah, you get up at four thirty in the morning, You're like, oh, this is you know, just I.
00:16:32
Speaker 4: Wish I had one more hour.
00:16:35
Speaker 1: So the two things can be true at the same time, you know, it's I don't feel like emotions are mutually exclusive. You can have two things. You can be proud of your friend and then you can also be envious of your friend at the same time and wish you had that opportunity. You can be jealous of them, like both things can live simultaneously.
00:16:52
Speaker 2: Well, look, the good thing is is that it's never too late to follow your passion. It's never too late, never too late. Reinvent yourself to do, to do your next chapter. You know, like having that job, it's great and it's a job, and we need jobs to survive. I mean, acting was my job, but my mission on the planet is the animals, right, And if I can find a way that my job supports my mission, than great, I'm winning. Then That's what I think it was given to me for. Is that platform is there to support the real work that I need to do.
00:17:27
Speaker 4: Sure, and it's a strange platform. I always say. So.
00:17:31
Speaker 1: I started acting when I was nine. I love acting, I love being on set doing it. But at the point when I turned fifty, I was like, God, there's so much more that I want to do than just be an actor. So I really got into this, into this place of wanting to connect with people and help people and sort of serve that way. And it's all about the legacy that I leave behind. And my legacy is I want to be kind to everyone that I meet. I want to like positively affect people. And I have this crazy platform I didn't ask for. But you know, nine O two one zero is this weird fucking thing that we were on it was like, oh my god, people actually give us what I say, so cool. Let me like, let me affect some positive change with that. Let me use this thing to accomplish what it is. I genuinely feel like I'm here to accomplish, which is I want to be. I want to help people as often as I can. And sometimes that's just with little like light bulb moments. Sometimes that's you know, doing charitable work. There are all different ways that I can that I can serve and do that.
00:18:43
Speaker 4: I love. I love animals, so I always have.
00:18:46
Speaker 1: I've always had pets, I've always had animals around me, and I've had every kind of animal you can think of, snakes and dogs and goats and rabbits and like everything except for legal ones, except for ones that you shouldn't have.
00:19:00
Speaker 2: But good, good, I like to hear that that are just that that just feel caged up, and you've got them because it's fun to have.
00:19:09
Speaker 4: Exactly Well.
00:19:10
Speaker 2: The thing and the thing with conservation that I didn't know when I got into it is that the way to truly protect the animals is to work with and uplift the people. So you know, it's kind of hand in hand so as much as my passion and my reason is for the animals, it means I'm also working with the people and and I'm uplifting and helping people, So I I kind of get the best of both worlds there.
00:19:48
Speaker 1: Before I let you go, because I know you have rhinos to say this, like I'm the last person that you need to be talking to, I want to ask you uh quickly before we go.
00:19:59
Speaker 4: And it's kind kind of it's a thing for me.
00:20:01
Speaker 1: It's a question that I it's something I love talking about and we've we've touched on it a little bit before, But what is what.
00:20:08
Speaker 4: Do you want your legacy to be?
00:20:11
Speaker 1: Like? What when people look back on you? What is the thing that is the most important for you?
00:20:17
Speaker 2: The work that I'm doing with my charity and hopefully the work I haven't done yet. I think that there's a lot more to come. We're we're starting to try to work with the surrounding communities. And there's an amazing, enormous community right next to where our sanctuary is and we've just started engaging with them, and there's a lot that I'm hoping to be able to do with them for them, and and I'm i Yeah, we have lots of hopes and dreams there that we're working towards. We have a fundraiser at the end of June in Las Vegas that I'm doing during.
00:20:55
Speaker 4: Can you please invite me to that, like.
00:21:00
Speaker 3: My celebrity like bounties in the tournament.
00:21:02
Speaker 4: For sure, be amazing.
00:21:05
Speaker 3: All right, actually you do it, I will send it.
00:21:08
Speaker 4: Do please start.
00:21:10
Speaker 2: We are just starting to, like we just put tickets on sale and I'm just starting to ask people to come and be like celebrity bounties and be a part of it. And We've got some really cool things that are starting to swirl around it and suppress that will come and I'm excited. And so that's been my focus right now. So once we do well with that, then we have money to do the next chapter of like what we're doing out here with the sanctuary and the community and the programs and so yeah, I mean, I think I know that I want my legacy to be about the work that I'm doing, the giving back and the things that I'm trying to leave behind on the planet to make it a better place for people.
00:21:55
Speaker 3: And animals and environment.
00:21:58
Speaker 2: So the more I can do that, the more I can build that legacy to leave behind a better planet than I had coming into.
00:22:08
Speaker 3: You know, that's that's amazing, that's amazing.
00:22:12
Speaker 4: I love that, Shannon.
00:22:13
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for sitting with me today and sharing everything that's happening for you right now.
00:22:20
Speaker 4: Could not happen to a better person.
00:22:22
Speaker 1: I'm just absolutely, I'm so happy for you. I'm so happy that we finally got to like meet and do this.
00:22:31
Speaker 4: I'll see you in June.
00:22:32
Speaker 1: Do not forget to send you an invite and all the information that you can.
00:22:37
Speaker 4: I'd love to be there. Sharna doesn't play poker, but all teacher who learn.
00:22:45
Speaker 2: Teacher like, it's going to be such a fun time. I would love to have you both out there as my guy.
00:22:50
Speaker 4: Amazing. For sure.
00:22:52
Speaker 1: Her birthday is in June, so there's no better way to celebrate.
00:22:55
Speaker 4: A birthday than doing that. What day is it the twenty first?
00:22:58
Speaker 1: And then our three year old his birthday is the twenty eighth, Well that's.
00:23:02
Speaker 3: The day of the event, the twenty eight Sunday, the twenty eighth.
00:23:04
Speaker 1: There you go, and that's his birthday. Well we'll bring him out to Vegas with us. Yay, thank you, thank you, Shanon. It's so nice to finally meet you.
00:23:12
Speaker 3: Yes, it's nice to finally meet you, and I'll see you soon.
00:23:14
Speaker 4: Are you ready to redefine your chapter two?
00:23:17
Speaker 1: You need some advice on how to navigate it. We are here to help, so send us an email or leave us a voicemail. All the info is in the show notes. Follow us on socials, I Do Part two and iHeartRadio podcast where falling in love is the main objective, or maybe it's more important to fall in love with yourself.