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She has had the opportunity to interact and play with elephants in Africa as well as hold an alligator in Jamaica. St. Kitts was where she got her education on green monkeys, and the Dominican Republic was where she got her experience tracking wild dogs. She is known as Elaine Irvin, and she is an animal advocate as well as the creator and host of the weekly television show "Animals Everywhere." This program highlights a wide range of animals, as well as the people who care for them and other animal experts. "Animals Everywhere," which has been running for the past two years on WFSB in Hartford and Cox Three, a local origination cable education channel that runs throughout New England, was just recently picked up by the Outdoor Channel and will soon be seen three times a week on that network. Irvin has expressed her optimism that the show will be broadcast on Animal Planet before the year is over. The lighthearted and entertaining documentary "Animals Everywhere" features Irvin's personal interactions with the animals that she films. She is the first to admit that she is not an animal expert; however, she, just like her viewers, is passionate about animals, and on her shows, she eagerly absorbs information from those who are considered to be experts in the field. Irvin's height and beauty give her the appearance of a fashion model rather than the host of an animal show. She laughed as she said, "My friends laugh at me because I love wearing little skirts and little shoes and getting my nails and hair done and all of that good stuff, but when I am working, like on my elephant show, I am right there in the dung." "My friends laugh at me because I love wearing little skirts and little shoes and getting my nails and hair done and all of that good stuff." Irvin was born and raised in Scotland, but as a child she lived in a number of different countries due to the fact that her father served in the United States military. She currently resides in South Glastonbury with her husband, Edwin Chandler. After some time, her family relocated to Connecticut, and that is where she has called home for the past two decades. She claims that her affection for animals dates back to her childhood. "Ever since I was a little boy, I've had a habit of bringing home stray animals. You name it: avian species, canine and feline companions. I rescued a baby squirrel. There was a period of time when I was a child when we kind of went overboard with the number of animals we kept in our home, although our home wasn't necessarily filled with animals on a regular basis. Irvin recalled with a chuckle that they had some cats that they had rescued and that all of a sudden they had kittens and then they had kittens. Although I drove my mother absolutely crazy, she has always had a soft spot in her heart for animals. Irvin ultimately decided to major in film and communications while he was in college. After completing her education, she started working as a videographer for Donner Photographic right after they hired her. In addition, she was employed on "The Gayle King Show," and she has held the position of photojournalist at WFSB since the year 1998. Irvin combined two of her passions a few years ago when she started producing her own Manchester cable access program called "A Pound of Hope." In the program, she featured animals that were available for adoption from local pounds and shelters in an effort to find them loving homes. Soon after, Irvin started showcasing other animals from around the state of Connecticut on her show. These animals included the horses from the Hartford Police Mounted Unit and the seals from the Maritime Center in Norwalk. Irvin read an article a few years ago about a program at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas, where orangutans were being taught to communicate through the use of touch-screen monitors and lexigrams – pictures of words and items that the orangutans had learned. The orangutans were being taught to communicate through the use of these tools. Irvin explained what happened next by saying, "We went down and did that piece, and it went from there." We came to the conclusion that these tales were amusing and entertaining, and that people enjoyed reading them. She came to the conclusion that her humble show had the potential to develop into something much more significant. Simply giving it a new name that emphasized the wide range of fauna she wished to record on film was all that was required. She came to the conclusion that "Animals Everywhere" was the most appropriate title. And her objective is to go all over the world in search of animals to use in her stories. She and her crew, which includes her husband, whom she refers to as "Cameraman Ed," have traveled to South Africa, Jamaica, and St. Kitts, in addition to locations within the United States, in order to film the incredible animals that they care for. They put on a show in Jamaica that featured crocodiles and alligators. She held a crocodile without fear, despite the fact that it scratched her when it snapped a little too closely at her. They shot footage of elephants at Botswana's Kruger National Park for their documentary. According to Irvin, "They are very large creatures, and sometimes I jump right into things because I need to touch everything." "Marula, one of the elephants, kept trying to charge me," the trainer said. However, she was only joking around. She would bring me a stick to play with, just like a dog would. However, she would slap you and then she would knock me off my feet. Her show that was filmed in the Dominican Republic and in which she shed light on the large number of wild dogs that inhabit the island is one of the shows that will stick out in people's memories the most. She conducted interviews with veterinarians who traveled to the island in an effort to help control the island's dog population by spaying and neutering as many dogs as they could. She was filming one day when she came across a man in the neighborhood who was kicking a small puppy. She grabbed it with both hands and engaged in combat with the man who was mistreating it. She made the decision to bring the puppy back to the United States with her and gave her the name "Samana," after the town from which she had been rescued. Irvin rescued a pit bull named Chalcedonly in Hartford five years ago, and Samana quickly became friends with him. According to Irvin, upcoming shows will feature flamingos and manatees in Florida, two-toed sloths in Costa Rica, wallabies and koala bears in Australia, and Tasmanian devils in New Zealand. Other countries include Australia and New Zealand. She emphasized that the most important thing to her is for her audience to have a good time while learning about animals, including the more serious aspects of the animal world. "There's a lot of laughter in our shows. I don't want to show the tragic side of things. I would like to give tours of the Dominican Republic to interested parties. It is exciting, there is an island involved, and the climate is tropical, but these dogs have issues," she stated. "However, I do my best to approach it in a light-hearted manner. A great deal of music, as well as a good time. Show the public a lot of the positive things that are there and the positive things that the animals have, but also bring to the public's attention the fact that some of these animals still have needs. She went on to explain that "the animals need us in many different ways." "It is our responsibility to keep an eye on how we treat the natural world and the animals in it,"

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