I’m delighted to welcome Amelia Perrin to the Project Coyote team as our new Communications Manager. In her first blog, she shares the experiences and perspectives that have shaped her commitment to compassionate conservation and coexistence.
At Project Coyote, we believe that meaningful change begins with both science and story and Amelia brings a powerful combination of both to our work protecting wild carnivores and fostering a more humane relationship with the natural world.
Please join me in welcoming Amelia and in learning more about the journey that led her here.
– Sarah Taylor, Operations & Communications Director
I remember the first time I stood far enough out on the open range that I couldn’t see a paved road, a person, or a building in any direction, just where the land met the sky. I smelled the sweet smell of sagebrush floating through the air and watched tumbleweeds blow across the yellow, pink, and purple flowers growing in the sand. It was the first time in my life I understood, in my body rather than my head, what we mean when we say “wild.” It was also the place where I learned what we stand to lose.
From the moment I was born, and I mean that quite literally, I was born into animal advocacy.
Way back in July 1997, my mom was working for an animal protection group, fighting cruel chimpanzee research when she was nine months pregnant with me. Then, as she was writing a press release with a colleague about a government report on the issue, her water broke. Like all good media professionals would, she finished the press release, then brought me into the world. The very next day, my birthday, she was quoted on the subject in the New York Times.
Even with a baby on her hip, my tenacious and passionate mom didn’t slow down. She continued to advocate for animals, bringing me along with her. As a newborn, I attended meetings in Marin County alongside my mom and Project Coyote founder Camilla Fox, with ranchers to stop lethal wild carnivore control. At the time, the county had a contract with USDA Wildlife Services to shoot, poison, and eradicate coyotes at the behest of ranchers. My mom, Camilla, and Cindy Machado from the Marin Humane Society were asking the county to redirect that money towards nonlethal management like guard dogs, fencing, and strobe lights. The county listened, and the program, which ranchers once lamented would put them out of business completely, was eventually embraced by them, citing a significant reduction in livestock loss.
One of the most shocking and impactful issues in my life was dog chaining. Across the rural North Carolina county I grew up in, dogs, mainly pitbulls and hounds, were chained to trees, cars, or poles, for the entirety of their lives. Many were starving, abused, and worst of all, victims of brutal dogfighting – one of the worst-kept secrets in the county. When I was eight, I started speaking at county meetings, going head-to-head with kingpin dog fighters and the coon hunting club, working to pass ordinances that would ban 24/7 chaining of dogs. This prompted my lifelong love affair with pitbulls and led me to get my first one, Chrissy.
As I grew older, I continued to grow more passionate about animals, especially horses. I was completely enamored with the wild west and the horses who roamed our public lands. I began advocating for them, from bake sales raising money for wild horse sanctuaries to actually going to Washington, D.C. with my mom to speak at Bureau of Land Management public meetings and lobby Congress when I was 12.
That passion eventually led me to a seven-year tenure at a leading wild horse advocacy organization. Together, I helped grow it from a small campaign to a large grassroots movement for wild horses. I led investigations that uncovered slaughter scandals, including my work that was the basis for a New York Times front-page exposé, legislation, and litigation ending inhumane federal policies. I cut my teeth in the wild horse world, where the arc of change is long, but I am honored to have played a role in moving the needle forward for our nation’s wild herds.
Animal advocacy has been entwined with my life in a way that cannot be ignored. I now live with my partner and our two rescued pitbulls, Mac, who I found running on the streets of Sacramento, and spent two weeks gaining her trust before I brought her home to me, and Rocky, our silly little (who’s actually very big!) seven-month-old puppy.
Throughout it all, I learned the value of animals just existing, not for our use, not for their value to us, but just for themselves. They have their own lives, their own families, their own worlds we are not a part of, and that is what true wildness is. And I believe that in a world where we’ve lost so much wildness, it’s never been more important to pick up the torch and fight for what’s left. I’m honored and excited to bring that fight to Project Coyote.
