The Individual Animal

In the latest episode of the Individual Animal, "I'll Send You Some Tips," we interview Caitlin Quinn of HeARTs Speak to talk about marketing shelter pets.

While the entirety of the episode isn't about Covid-19, one of the reasons we wanted to have Caitlin on the show was to discuss ways shelters can market their dogs during this time. How do you discuss current events and bring levity to a situation without crossing a line that gives off a dismissive vibe?

This can be a challenge, especially if you're a lover of dark humor. That's why we asked Caitlin that tough question of how the heck do you market shelter pets during a pandemic? To hear her expert opinion, push play now!

For resources from HeARTs Speak, check out their Covid-19 communication tools and resources.

"Don't Go There, That's the Bad Part of Town," is something people used to say to this week's guest on the Individual Animal. When Kim Wolf lived in New York, people would tell her to stay out of neighborhoods because they judged people based on socio-economic and racial stereotypes. But Kim isn't one to do what people tell her, because she knows that stereotypes don't solve problems and that talking to individuals does.

Kim, a former AFF employee, has worked in both animal welfare and in human services. She's always gone places people told her not to go and when she does, she makes sure she paves a path for people to follow.

Read more on our website.

We confess the title of this article is a bit clickbaity, because as we learn from our podcast guest, Janis Bradley, dogs and people have been working things out and creating happy families together for centuries.

Still, we wanted to have Janis on this episode of the Individual Animal to talk about the relevance of breed in choosing a companion animal – and that is not-so-coincidentally the name of her book, which you can order here.

Big spoiler: Breed isn't all that relevant. It's the personality that matters.

For full references and more information, visit our website.

Listen to part 1 of this series.

"Pound." "Stray." "Abandoned." "Problem." "Kill shelter."

"Dogs nobody wants."

These are not simply words and phrases. They are value judgments we place on dogs and people. Words have meaning and often, they have an impact that is greater than our intent.

Cynthia Bathurst once said "Language reflects habit, not thought," meaning that we often choose terms that are easy, familiar, and comfortable without taking the time to reflect on how those terms fit into the context of today's society - or even whether or not those words and phrases truly reflect what we mean to say.

In animal welfare, how we use language affects the animals in our care, the people who care for those animals and the people who want to give those animals homes. It also impacts the general public, some of whom may never interact with our animals at all.

In this episode of the Individual Animal, Cynthia Bathurst, the Executive Director of Safe Humane Chicago, joins Nikki, Regina, and Stacey to talk about why language matters. We discuss specific terms, some of which we mention above.

We also touch on some beloved phrases like "forever home" and "foster fail," because even words that come from the best intentions can carry negativity that can create impossible standards for individuals to live up to.

Welcome to a special edition of the Individual Animal. What follows is a reenactment of the deposition of Cindy Rarrat. She is a private contractor working with Sioux City Animal Adoption and Rescue Center.

Animal Farm Foundation is helping to bring a lawsuit against Sioux City's "pit bull" dog ban.

The website for the lawsuit states:

"Despite acknowledging that her officers have no training, she insists that they all know the breed standards for the breeds included in the ban and that they have enough animal experience to know exactly what characteristics make a pit bull a pit bull, though she cannot name those characteristics herself. "Forty years of experience tells me I know." Cindy maintains that certain breeds are more aggressive than others, and that physical characteristics are indicative of behavior. When presented with science that states even experienced people misidentify breeds based on visual identification 60% of the time, Cindy insists that her visual identification and knowledge trumps all while also insisting that breed determinations are made by consensus at animal control."

Rarrat's deposition shows that lack of training and knowledge the animal control officers of Sioux City have.

You can learn more about the lawsuit and read the depositions at siouxcitylawsuit.org and donate to help us end breed-specific legislation.

"Pound." "Stray." "Abandoned." "Problem." "Kill shelter."

"Dogs nobody wants."

These are not simply words and phrases. They are value judgments we place on dogs and people. Words have meaning and often, they have an impact that is greater than our intent.

Cynthia Bathurst once said "Language reflects habit, not thought," meaning that we often choose terms that are easy, familiar, and comfortable without taking the time to reflect on how those terms fit into the context of today's society - or even whether or not those words and phrases truly reflect what we mean to say.

In animal welfare, how we use language affects the animals in our care, the people who care for those animals and the people who want to give those animals homes. It also impacts the general public, some of whom may never interact with our animals at all.

In this episode of the Individual Animal, Cynthia Bathurst, the Executive Director of Safe Humane Chicago, joins Nikki, Regina, and Stacey to talk about why language matters. We discuss specific terms, some of which we mention above.

We also touch on some beloved phrases like "forever home" and "foster fail," because even words that come from the best intentions can carry negativity that can create impossible standards for individuals to live up to.

This is part 1 of our language episode. Part 2 will be released in two weeks.

In this episode of the Individual Animal, we dive deep into the process of shelter transports. We talk about how to get the process rolling, why it's safer than you might think it is, and why it's good for dogs and people.

A few months back, we did an episode of the Individual Animal where we spoke with Chris Bender about his experiences doing shelter transports. The response to that was mixed, with some people commenting that it was life-saving for the animals in their shelter and others commenting that transporting meant that dogs at the destination were going to suffer at the expense of the transport dogs. Others made the wild and unsubstantiated claim that shelter transport within the U.S. caused diseases to spread.

Within the group of organizations who do transport dogs from other communities, there are a subset that do not transport "pit bull" dogs. This is because they follow the self-fulfilling prophecy that there's a "pit bull" problem or worse, that they subscribe to Roger Haston's belief that "these are the dogs nobody wants."

What Sasha Wilkerson and the rest of the great folks at the Lenawee Humane Society found is the simple truth that transporting dogs from one community to another saves lives. It's good for dogs and it's good for adopters.

It's also good to step outside of your own community and find out what reality is like for other communities who might not have your resources.

In 2018, My Pit Bull Is Family volunteers called over 300 supposedly dog friendly apartments in the Twin Cities. What they found was that only 12 of them accepted dogs regardless of what they looked like.

The reality is that when people surrender their dogs because they've moved, it's not necessarily because they are heartless. It's more than likely because they have nowhere to go that will accept their pet. The Twin Cities encompasses Minneapolis and St. Paul, plus several surrounding suburbs. That's a large area with a big population of individuals. Individuals who cannot simply pick up and move to a completely different geographic location.

The lack of pet owner accessible housing is a real issue and when we talk about why dogs are being surrendered to shelters, this is one of the main issues that we need to address. We need to not shame the owners. We need to look at how we can work with landlords and property managers, as well as communities, to fix what is broken.

On top of that, Shannon mentions that many of the pet owner accessible apartments are not affordable. We all know that there is a huge shortage of affordable housing across the country. That number shrinks even further for people who have pets.

For Shannon, and also for us at AFF, the way to address these issues is to work together. In the podcast, Shannon talks about the importance of building a community with organizations and individuals to help you achieve your goals.

Along those lines, we talk about something we discussed in our previous housing podcast, property managers and landlords aren't the enemy. Most people are reasonable. When we view individuals as allies rather than adversaries, we get a lot farther in bringing dogs and people together to end discrimination.

For this episode of the Individual Animal, we spoke with Dr. Kelsea Brown from the National Canine Research Council. Kelsea recently relocated to Chicago and what she encountered while looking for housing surprised us.

First, she had some rules:

1. Unless a place specifically said "no pets," she applied, even if it said there were breed restrictions.
2. She had her facts about canine science and behavior ready.
3. She emphasized that she was a responsible dog owner and that she would continue to take responsibility for her pets.

Kelsea has two dogs and two cats, and her many people perceive her dogs to be "pit bull" dogs. But Kelsea and her husband have never had their dogs' DNA tested. They just consider them dogs. They didn't consider breed restrictions because they don't know their dogs' heritage and they don't need to know that to know that they are great pets.

We can't dismiss the fact that Kelsea's experience comes from a place of privilege and we get into more of that in the podcast episode.

But there is something to be said for the action plan she had and the approach to working with others that she took - in fact, that last part is key. Kelsea said multiple times that she approached the process with the assumption that people are reasonable, so that if she reasonably explained the facts and explained that she was a responsible dog owner that her chances of getting an apartment she liked were pretty good.

Listen to the episode to find out how it all turned out. And tune in next week where we dig deeper into this issue with Shannon Glenn from My Pit Bull Is Family.

Hi and welcome to the latest episode of the Individual Animal a podcast about dogs, people, and discrimination. Nikki and Regina discuss animal welfare, canine science, discrimination, and other issues facing dogs and people. There's often witty banter and sarcasm, even for the serious subjects - because that's who we are and how we cope.

After a brief hiatus, we're back! After some banter, we get into the difference between service dogs, emotional support animals, and therapy dogs.

We all know people with disabilities face discrimination, even more so when they have a service dog - and you can triple that discrimination when they have a dog who does not match people's expectations of what a service dog should look like.

We've written before about why people need emotional support animals. Not respecting that need is also discrimination. We've seen that play out with Delta's ban on service and emotional support dogs visually identified as "pit bulls."

Tackling the individual subjects of service dogs and emotional support animals requires a lot of unpacking. Before we do a deep dive, we wanted to lay the groundwork and establish some basics.

There is a difference between an emotional support animal and a service dog - a difference that the media and the public often do not understand. Sometimes, the term therapy dog gets thrown around as if it were synonymous with both of those terms.

We also talk about our personal thoughts on the instances of people faking disabilities in order to take their dogs into non-dog friendly spaces. We touch on the importance of language here and why we need to stop saying "faking a service dog" and reframe it in the proper context, which is that people are actually faking a disability.

And on that topic, we want to make sure that business owners and employees know how they can protect their customers and protect the rights of people with disabilities.

As you can tell, we cover a lot of issues under this topic! Grab a drink and listen to us go on some tangents.

You can follow Pepe the Service Dog on Instagram and see some pics of service dog Koda on his person's account. You can keep track of Regina's guide dog on Facebook.

*There are some times in this episode where we reference that an emotional support animal is prescribed by a doctor or physician, but they can be prescribed by any mental health care professional.