When was the last time you felt fear? Maybe you were about to give a speech or were confronted with a large spider in your basement. You palms got sweaty, your breath shorter and you felt your heart pounding in your chest. For Jan Creamer, president of Animal Defenders International — one of the toughest animal welfare groups in the world — fear is part of her job. And the stakes are much higher than for most of us. “Am I scared?” she says. “Over the years, I’ve learned to control it. Because whatever nerves I have, that stress is irrelevant compared to the fear the animals feel every day of their lives.”
In her line of work, Jan has ample opportunity to feel afraid. But behind her delicate frame and Doris Day appearance hides a modern day female Harrison Ford. She’s been drenched head-to-toe in pigs blood while filming slaughter houses in the Philippines, argued with enraged and armed circus owners in Bolivia, confronted injured lions and gone undercover in Europe to film circus elephant abuse.
