Origin

Jack Pherson was a sound technician who tried to find out how Mitchell Hundred's powers worked and find a way to cash in on it. He was having no luck until his pet African Grey parrot repeated the sound bite of Hundred's voice, Jack suddenly (and painfully) gained the ability to talk to animals, first hearing some lice on his colleague's head an subsequently killing her. Pherson took to wearing an Irish walking cloak and championing extremist animal rights causes.

Meeting the Machine and an Enemy for Life

Pherson went about causing havoc at the New York Zoo to draw the Great Machine into a meeting, he got his attention when he released some monkeys from the zoo and had them attack people.