Gina Johnson
An animal lover since early childhood, Gina has had an innate way with animals and always nurtured her pets. She started riding at age 5 and got her first horse at age 10. This taught her about the responsibility of caring for animals. She instinctively knew she wanted to work with animals professionally and has been doing so for 40 years. Becoming a Registered Veterinary Technician after high school her intention was to land a job at a wildlife park in her hometown of Redwood City, California, which she was able to do at age 19. Gina worked in the veterinary clinic and animal nursery where she raised many exotic species including tigers, lions, and chimpanzees for 6 years. After moving to the east coast, she worked as a veterinary technician at The Baltimore Zoo for 15 years in both clinical and laboratory work, specializing in a research project studying avian malaria in African penguins. Gina also traveled to Africa and Antigua with a veterinary team for volunteer projects. During this time, she began doing humane oversight on film sets involving animals and eventually moved to Los Angeles to do this full time, culminating in the opportunity to travel overseas for numerous film projects.
After 14 years Gina also became an on-set animal trainer in the San Francisco Bay Area and was involved in natural disaster animal rescue. In 2017, Gina married and moved to Australia where her husband manages an interactive tiger exhibit which he created 25 years ago at a zoological park – allowing Gina the good fortune to help raise tiger cubs once again. She happily continues to work as an on-set animal trainer, volunteer with Vets Beyond Borders to help animals victimized by wildfires, and put her vast skill-set to work by being a consultant with The Animal Protection Agency for the film industry on Australia’s Gold Coast.