Before most people think twice about the dangerous wildlife lurking around their yards, Jeannine Tilford is already strategizing how to protect them. As founder and CEO of Toad Busters, she has transformed a regional invasive species-control operation into an international force, all in the name of safeguarding pets, families, and fragile ecosystems. Her blueprint is bold but simple: turn silent threats into opportunities to build a scalable, purpose-driven enterprise.
Turning Frontline Experience Into Vision
Tilford’s career reads like a mosaic of animal passion and hands-on survival with nature’s unpredictability. She’s worked as a veterinary technician, a wildlife educator, a biology teacher, a registered nuisance wildlife control operator, and an equestrian trainer. Each step gave her unique insights into how nonnative species infiltrate neighborhoods and devastate biodiversity.
In Florida, her passion became professional. Toad Busters began as a homegrown service to remove invasive and poisonous cane toads from threatening or killing pets and local fauna. But under Tilford’s leadership, it has evolved into a multi-faceted business offering:
- Cane toad removal across southern and central Florida, responding to calls where pets’ lives are at stake.
- Pet Protect Fencing, a proprietary barrier system to prevent invasive animals from breaching residential zones.
- Emergency Poisoning Response Kits, designed to buy time when a pet is exposed to toxins.
Tilford also has a patent-pending solution in development to counter the New Guinea flatworm. This toxic, disease-carrying worm is a rising predator threatening crops, gardens, and safety in Florida as well as around the world, she says. Her mix of hands-on field expertise and strategic innovation gives Toad Busters more than technical credibility, it provides differentiation.
Scaling From Florida to the Gold Coast
The pivot overseas began when Australians began reaching out for help. Intrigued and alarmed, Tilford traveled to Queensland to assess the cane toad crisis firsthand. What she discovered was more dire than she expected.
With no structured service to defend homes and pets, Tilford saw a market and a mission. She launched Toad Busters International, partnering with Matt Brine, a local advocate who lost his dog to cane toad poisoning. Brine now spearheads day-to-day operations in Australia. Together, they offer removal operations, installation of Pet Protect Fencing, and the Emergency Poisoning Kits now adapted for the Australian environment. In a further move toward ecosystem-level control, they partnered with Watergum, a nonprofit deploying tadpole traps to disrupt breeding cycles.
Tilford is already looking ahead: in Australia, the company plans to assess threats like the New Guinea flatworm, bringing lessons learned in Florida to a second continent.
Business With Purpose and Momentum
Tilford’s journey isn’t merely about scaling operations, it’s about redefining what a nature-driven enterprise can look like. She mixes mission with revenue, creating lines of business that reinforce one another: removal services feed demand for fencing; defense technologies open future licensing possibilities.
She’s also embracing her passion for storytelling, education, and media. Tilford is developing an animated TV series called “What’s in My Yard?” aiming to help educate children and adults about the battles our planet faces due to invasive species, imperiled ecosystems, and other environmental challenges across the world that her character helps to save.
And in a personal twist that underscores her range, she’s also an accomplished singer/songwriter using her abilities to create the theme song and musical composition for the series, proof that for her, business and life are never separate.
Her trajectory mirrors many purpose-led founders: start small, test solutions in the field, scale what works, and keep expanding into new markets. But in Tilford’s case, she’s also navigating regulatory regimes, ecological complexity, and public awareness in two very different continents.
Lessons from the Toad Busters Playbook
- Domain credibility is essential: Because Tilford came through the ranks, from tech roles to wildlife educator to operator, her opinions carry weight. Tilford not only provides services, but she also understands the biology behind the threats.
- Innovation must parallel purpose: Fencing systems, response kits, and patented projects show that a mission-driven business must still invest in product development to scale.
- Local adaptation with global ambition: Her design for Australia is not a carbon copy of Florida. It’s adapting to Australia’s unique ecology, partners, and legal environment. Yet, the core mission remains to protect people, pets, and ecosystems.
- Storytelling and visibility matter: Invasive species control is niche, but when you frame it in terms of pet lives, home safety, and ecological collapse, it becomes urgent. Tilford is building a brand, not just a service.
The Next Leap
With Toad Busters now spanning two continents, Tilford is considering licensing, additional patents, and further geographic expansions where invasive species pressures are rising.
More than that, she aims to normalize the idea that every homeowner should have access to protection from invasive species. Her business promise is as strong as the social mission.
Jeannine Tilford is not just a CEO, she’s a strategist, a defender, and a visionary. She’s building a global enterprise that isn’t just about growth, but about meaning. And with pets, people, and ecosystems hanging in the balance, the world may just need more businesswomen like Tilford.