Animals & Us
Alison Papas
Alison left corporate success to direct a wildlife sanctuary, discovering that empathy with boundaries is what sustains a life devoted to caring.
You don't have to be in crisis to call.
Alison Papas spent her career in pharmaceuticals and marketing before moving to Muskoka, Ontario, where she volunteered at Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary. What started as a part-time role became a full-time calling. Today she directs advancement and communications for the sanctuary, work that fills her in a way corporate jobs never did. Every day, people thank her for what she does. She feels she is making a difference on something that matters to her deeply.
At Aspen Valley, over 1,000 animals arrive each year needing rescue, rehabilitation, and release back into the wild. The sanctuary also cares for permanent residents from roadside zoos, runs education programs, and recently created a foster program for animals displaced from facilities outside Canada while they wait for permanent homes. Alison has witnessed individual stories that stay with her: Maeve, a moose calf expelled from her mother during a highway truck collision, learning to be wild alongside Maverick, another orphaned calf. Two bear cubs found clinging to their dead mother after an illegal shooting. River otters learning to fend for themselves before soft release. Before release, orphaned animals spend months or even years in large pre-release enclosures where they practice survival skills. Bears learn to find food, peel logs for insects, and hibernate. Otters spend seasons learning to fish. The sanctuary does not release an animal until it shows genuine capability to survive.
Alison loves animals more than people, though not because she is cold. She finds in them an innocence and lack of judgment that human relationships do not offer. Working with animals has taught her that empathy without boundaries leads to burnout. The answer is knowing you cannot save them all, holding space for the ones you do help, and trusting that making a difference for one life matters. Her message to the world is simple: give wildlife distance, never feed them, never visit places that let you hold them for photos, and drive the speed limit. Let them be wild.
⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses abuse & exploitation, which some listeners may find distressing.
If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available: • Blue Knot Foundation (complex trauma): 1300 657 380 · blueknot.org.au • 1800RESPECT (family, domestic & sexual violence): 1800 737 732 · 1800respect.org.au
Every story here belongs to the person who lived it. They said yes to sharing it, and we sat with it carefully before it went up. Nothing here is exaggerated and nothing is used without permission. Read how we handle these stories ↗
Kintsugi Heroes · Registered Australian not-for-profit · kintsugiheroes.com.au ↗