As a child, Christine Mott quickly realized her immense love and protective nature for animals. Now all grown up and wanting to share that love, Mott has written the award winning children’s book, “Free Bird: Flaco the Owl Dreams of Taking Flight”. This book aims to teach children that animals are living creatures with their own thoughts and feelings just like us. To support animals even further, Mott is donating half of the proceeds from the book to the Wild Bird Fund and is a member of several boards fighting for animal rights. To learn more about Christine Mott and her new book, read on.

Where are you based?
I’m a New Yorker living in Southern California.

I grew up in upstate NY and lived in NYC for 15 years before starting a new adventure in San Diego.

What inspired you to start writing?
I’ve always enjoyed writing as a form of expression. As a mom of two young children, most of my reading list is currently made up of picture books so it was a natural progression to want to create my own children’s book that was entertaining while gently carrying an important message.

Your new children’s book “Free Bird: Flaco the Owl’s Dreams Take Flight” is based on a true story. Could you tell us about the story that inspired this book and why you chose to write about it?
Flaco was an owl who lived in a small solitary enclosure for the first 12 years of his life at the Central Park Zoo until one night he seized the chance to escape and became a free bird. Imagine being denied all that was normal and natural for you — everything you dreamed of having — and then suddenly your dreams become reality. When he escaped, it was the first time in Flaco’s life where he had the chance to be an owl. He became a symbol of hope, freedom and perseverance that captivated the world.

As an Eurasian Eagle Owl, Flaco was the largest species of owl in the world with a 6 foot wingspan. In nature, Eagle owls fly up to 20 miles per day with a territory size of 30 sq. miles. In captivity Flaco never even had the chance to fly. He couldn’t hunt, socialize with other owls or engage in any natural behaviors. Instead he languished alone in a cage smaller than a city bus stop, next to the slamming doors of the penguin exhibit. At the zoo he never had the chance to live the life he deserved. Flaco’s old enclosure is still standing empty at the Central Park Zoo. I recently had the opportunity to see it with my own eyes. I had seen photos and read descriptions. But to see it myself, was just shocking. It’s quite frankly, atrocious that a magnificent bird like Flaco was imprisoned there for public entertainment.

That all changed one fateful winter night. Flaco gained freedom when a hole mysteriously appeared in the mesh ceiling of his cage. For an owl who had only know four walls his whole life, he bravely embraced the opportunity to choose his own destiny. In doing so he reclaimed his identity as an owl. He taught himself to fly and hunt for food. He made a home in the trees of Central Park and boldly expanded his territory throughout the city. He proudly hooted in the night sky (hooting was something very rarely did at the zoo). After his escape the zoo made many aggressive attempts to recapture him, asserting that an owl raised in captivity could not survive on his own in the wild. They laid out traps with food and played female mating calls. But Flaco outsmarted the traps and proved them all wrong, becoming the most famous owl in the world. Petitions emerged supporting Flaco’s bid for freedom and urging the zoo to call off their recapture attempts. The zoo finally relented and admirers cheered Flaco on as he learned to fly, find food and make a life for himself, enjoying the very best year of his life. Flaco was a quintessential New Yorker — a little guy against the world in the big city who against all odds, seizes his moment and achieves his dreams. He’s the character everyone wants to root for, and in fact he had millions around the world on his side.

I wrote Free Bird because I feel deeply that Flaco’s story must live on. His life and legacy showed the world that in the ways that truly matter, people and animals are the same. We all feel, we dream, we suffer, we feel joy. Every child can relate to having a big dream, and feeling like it might be impossible to achieve that dream. This book encourages children to dream big, persevere and believe in themselves. Allowing kids to identify with Flaco – his feeling and emotions – opens a door for children to consider the feelings of all animals. Creating a children’s book to celebrate Flaco’s amazing adventures allows Flaco’s legacy to live on as an ambassador for captive wild animals and to change hearts and minds of the next generation to reframe how we think about and treat our fellow earthlings.

What do you hope the children reading your book will learn?
Flaco’s story, his charisma and fame caused people to consider and identify with the emotional life of an owl — something that doesn’t happen every day. While kids will enjoy Flaco’s fun adventure and be inspired to follow their own dreams, I see Free Bird as an opportunity to cultivate compassion for animals, allowing children to sympathize with Flaco and other animals as individuals with feelings similar to our own.

Telling Flaco’s story from his own perspective in terms that children can understand really lays bare the fact that Flaco was a wild animal who was meant to be free. Many children (myself included) grew up going to zoos because we love animals and we are taught that zoos are good for animals. The book gently encourages readers to rethink the status quo and the treatment of animals in society:

⁃ How do you think Flaco felt about the zoo vs freedom?

⁃ Would you have made the same choice as Flaco?

⁃ Was the zoo the right place for Flaco?

 We love that one can learn facts about owls as we follow Flaco’s story. What is your favorite owl fact?
Owls are such amazing animals! It was hard to select which key facts to include in the book (as there are so many fascinating things about these birds). My favorite owl fact is that owls use their feather tufts on the top of their heads to indicate their moods and feelings such as excitement, fear, anger and relaxation.

Congratulations on your award! Your book was the winner of the 2025 Children’s Book International Competition by the American Writing Awards in the animals/pet category. Has receiving this award combined with the mass amount of positive feedback your book has gotten from the public made you more inclined to continue writing?
I’ve been delighted with the book award and positive feedback on my book. Of course the best reviews I can get are from the children themselves! I just finished a book tour in New York and had so much fun engaging with young fans. I would love to continue writing and creating more picture books that can entertain children while planting seeds of compassion for animals.

We love that 50% of the proceeds from the book will be donated to the Wild Bird Fund! Could you tell us a little bit about why you chose this organization and what they do?
The Wild Bird Fund is a nonprofit organization that rehabilitates sick, injured and orphaned wildlife and releases them back to the wilds of New York City. Each year, they rehabilitate more than 9,500 animals, including hundreds of species from sparrows, pigeons, squirrels, rabbits, and possums to owls, hawks, falcons, duck and geese. Their rehabilitation work includes x-rays, diagnostic testing, surgery, medication, bandaging, splinting, physical therapy and special diets. WBF also provides community education to inspire awareness, accountability, action and humane treatment of wild animals.

Organizations like WBF and other sanctuaries that rescue and rehabilitate wild animals are unsung heroes. Zoos love to toute their conservation efforts but the truth is that very few animals are ever released to the wild from zoos and only a very small fraction of their budgets go to conservation efforts. In contrast, wildlife rescue and wildlife sanctuaries are all about putting the animals’ best interests first rather than profit and entertainment. This is the direction we should be going with wildlife conservation.

Animal protection is a very important issue to you. What started your journey to advocating for animals?
I think every kid is born with an innate love for animals and I’m no different. I’ve loved animals as long as I can remember and my relationships with my pets helped me understand from an early age that we share feelings and emotions. That grew into a mission to help stop their suffering. I chose to stop eating animals at the age of 11 when I learned about the horrors of animal agriculture and became vegan a few years later. Sometimes it feels impossible to stop the immense suffering in the world, but just like Flaco demonstrated, we have to keep trying.

With your work as an attorney you advise a lot of organizations with focuses on animal protection and sustainability. What are some of the organizations you work with and why?
I believe in the saying that “those who can, should.” My background is corporate law, having worked most of my career at a Wall Street law firm and then as general counsel for a global trade association. I like to think that all of that was just “moonlighting” as my true passion has always been helping animals. I strive to use my time and talents to help organizations that are working to make the world a better place for animals and people. I’m currently a board member of Pacific Animal Welfare Society (PAWS of Coronado) and Lantern Publishing & Media and have served on the boards of Catskill Animal Sanctuary, NADAP (a social services organization supporting disadvantaged and vulnerable people), and was a founding board member of Empire State Humane Voters (now Voters for Animal Rights). I am a founding member of Save the Trees Coronado, where we have successfully saved five mature trees from destruction by the City (and currently working on a campaign to save five other trees). I also work with cutting-edge companies like BlueNalu trying to replace traditional animal agriculture with cell-cultured foods.

You’re a former chair of the Animal Law Committee of the New York Bar Association. Could you tell us about some of the work you did while a part of this committee?
The Animal Law Committee (ALC) is an amazing group of lawyers who care about changing the law to help animals. The NYC Bar Association’s ALC was the very first animal law committee of any bar association in the U.S. As Chair and a long time officer and member of the ALC, I led legal and policy efforts to improve animal welfare, including drafting and lobbying legislation, and legislative reports and providing training to organizations and the public on a wide range of federal state, and local laws and regulations. Specific issues I worked on included intensive confinement of farm animals, federal preemption of state regulation of the slaughter and handling of downed animals, environmental regulation of factory farms, use of antibiotics in animal agriculture, “ag gag” laws, animal welfare standards in USDA organics, modernization of state animal cruelty codes, regulations of puppy mills, pet stores and pet dealers, and the link between animal cruelty and interpersonal violence.

What kind of policies and change do you hope to see in the future regarding animal and environmental law?
Inhumane treatment of animals in society is ubiquitous. There are too many individual items on my animal law wish list to discuss here, but at the center of them all is the need to reverse the legal conclusion that animals are property. Most people would agree that there is a difference between a couch and a dog or a car and a pig, but the law considers them all to be mere property. The law is always years behind public opinion, but to change the law we need to continue to change hearts and minds to care about animals.

Are there any more upcoming projects we should be on the lookout for? Will we be learning about any other NYC animals?
Right now I’m basking in the joy of brining Free Bird into the world, but by habit I’m a multi-tasker so I’m definitely starting to think ahead about future projects involving animals…stay tuned!

It has been a rough few years, and we expect at least four more. How have you been staying positive?
I like the old bumper sticker slogan: Think globally, act locally. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with the sheer amount of suffering and problems in the world. We shouldn’t ever lose sight of big picture goals, but we should focus on what we can do individually, in our own communities. Often individual actions can be so much more powerful than we can ever imagine. They cause change, inspire and set the stage for others to do their part.

What is your motto in life?
In a world where you can be anything, be kind.

To learn more about Christine Mott, please check out the links below:
Instagram: @christine_mott_esq
https://lanternpm.org/book/free-bird/
https://www.christinemott.com
https://www.wildbirdfund.org
https://www.artinrescue.com

Christine Mott - Animal Advocacy is for All Ages