September 19, 2025 • 47 mins
This week on the show, we're talking about two groundbreaking programs that are changing the game for animal rescue. We sit down with Finnegan Dowling of Mutual Rescue to learn all about the Language Accessibility and Doggie Day Out initiatives.
The Language Accessibility program helps connect non-English speaking families with adoptable pets, while the Doggie Day Out initiative gives shelter dogs a much-needed break from the kennel and a chance to show their true personalities. Join us as we explore how these two simple but powerful programs are making a huge difference in getting more pets adopted into loving homes.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dixie (00:02):
Welcome to Animal Posse, the podcast dedicated to the
people and rescues making adifference in the lives of animals.
Hi Finn,
Thank you for coming on the show.
I am looking forward to learningall about mutual rescue.
Finn (00:16):
Excellent.
It's really nice to meet you, by the way
Dixie (00:18):
To start, if you could please introduce yourself and tell us a
little bit about mutual rescue.
Finn (00:25):
Okay, well my name is Finnegan Dowling and I am the shelter program and
engagement manager for mutual rescue.
A little bit about me.
I've been in animal sheltering since 1992.
We were adopting out pteradactyls at thatpoint, and well I left a couple of times.
I've pretty much stayedclose to the field.
What Mutual Rescue is it's an organizationthat works to get people more involved
(00:49):
with their local community shelters.
Not just , because we believe that helpsthe pets, but because that we believe that
when pets and people engaged together,people's lives are changed forever.
And so we believe when you helpanimals, you help people too.
Would we do a number ofdifferent things to demonstrate.
Just how powerful theeffect of mutual rescue is.
(01:11):
We have, I think about 33short films on our website that
tell stories of rescue pets.
Changing the lives of the people whoadopted them and helping them grow
and heal through different situations.
And , our films are really well done.
A bunch of them have won awards.
We have two that will be travelingwith international film festivals
this year, which is very exciting.
(01:33):
And then on the shelter side ofthings, we do a couple of things.
We work with shelters to help them startnew programs to better engage with their
communities, like Day Foster Field Trip.
And, we also work to make it to makeshelters more accessible to the community.
So we do a lot of getting basically whitelabeled resources translated into Spanish
(01:54):
by a native speaker in Guadalajara.
We have an amazing translator.
And then any shelter that needs.
Resources in Spanish on pet health,pet behavior can go ahead and download
those and put their logos on them.
On the other side, what we do is wework with corporations that want to
partner with local shelters and a lot of.
(02:16):
Corporations automatically default toan organization like HSUS or A-S-P-C-A
or best Friends that does great work.
But unfortunately those dollarsreally don't reach the local
shelters that need them the most.
So what we do is we work with corporationsthat want to do a national partnership,
(02:37):
would want the money to go to localshelters, and we put together groups
of local shelters in the corporations.
Geographic footprint.
And then do you know, marketingcampaigns, partnerships in which the
monies from the corporations thenimmediately goes , to those shelters
involved in those partnerships.
And in that way, instead of everybodyfighting over the same small
(03:00):
amount of philanthropy that goes.
Towards animal welfare.
We're trying to grow the pie andthen get that money immediately
to where the work is being done.
Which is to the local sheltersand communities around America.
Dixie (03:14):
That's amazing.
And those are great programs too.
I would definitely wannalearn more about your language
accessibility program as well.
As the day foster programs.
But before we get into that, sinceyou have been in animal sheltering
for so long, what was your.
Spark that got you intoanimal welfare to begin with?
Finn (03:36):
I really wish I had some great story about how I grew up
completely dedicated to animals andlike came to this with a laser focus.
But I will be honest with you, thatis just like, like when people fall
in love with their pets, that'sjust not the way it happened.
Right.
. I went to a great college in WashingtonState, evergreen State College, and I
(03:58):
was, I went to school when I was younger.
I was 16 or 17, and my school wasvery involved in the community
and they had a rule that the firstyear you had to volunteer so many
hours in order to pass the year.
And me being a little bit younger anda little bit stupider decided that
I would completely ignore this untilthe last two weeks of the school year.
(04:21):
And then all of a sudden I hadlike some ridiculous amount of
hours that I had to do or else Iwould not pass the school year.
And the only place thatwould take me being 17.
Having to do something absurd, likea hundred hours or something in a
month was the local community, themunicipal animal shelter, which at the
(04:42):
time was like 20 kennels or something.
And so I was like, cool.
And I went in and I was in college toget a degree in long form journalism.
And I did actually, , I do actuallyhave a degree in journalism and I
don't know what it was, but I found.
So much purpose and so much healingand so much positivity there.
(05:05):
And that it just became,even after I finished those
hours, I stayed working there.
I wound up getting a summer job there.
And over the time that I lived in thattown in Washington on and off for eight
or nine years, I worked for that shelter.
I interned there in themarketing department.
Even though I was getting a degreein journalism, it was, I had to
(05:25):
do an internship of some sort.
And so , they had me writingall of their materials and then
yeah, it just went from there.
And, , I just wound up never leaving, Iwas an animal control officer and then I
went on to work in shelters in Colorado,California, Florida, and Nicaragua.
And it just, even with my degreein long form journalism, it's
(05:46):
just always been my passion.
Dixie (05:48):
Yeah, that's a pretty cool story.
So since you do have that degreein journalism, do you use that to
write articles for animal welfare?
Finn (05:59):
I have in the past, yes.
I used to, I've written for the Bark,I've written for Huffington Post.
And a couple of other, oh, I forget,there's a couple of places that
my writing has been published.
I've written a lot for , the mutualrescue blog, and then before I came
to Mutual Rescue, I was actually,, themarketing manager, , or the marketing,
(06:20):
, for Humane Society of Silicon Valley.
And I wrote a ton of stuff thereand we wound up winning some awards
for it, like just for some goofy.
Sort of marketing posts that I did.
So I've always stayed close towriting in the work that I do.
But even though I love writing, my,my big passion right now is not just
the animals, but shelter people.
(06:42):
Frontline workers are my tribeand they inspire me every day.
So while I love doing the writingparts of my job, I really love working
with the shelter workers a lot.
'cause I feel most at home doing that.
Dixie (06:57):
With the language accessibility program with mutual
rescue, tell us how that gotstarted and why is that beneficial?
Finn (07:07):
I will start with why that's beneficial and we'll talk about, and full
disclaimer, my name is Finnegan Dowling.
I am obviously not Latino.
My family's actually Boston Irish.
But it came about for a bunch of reasons.
Number one, when I was younger, I wentand worked in a shelter in Nicaragua
for a couple years and that was avery eyeopening experience to me of
(07:31):
how many cultural miscommunicationsthere are and how we tend to really
view things in the US through.
Without thinking of other people'straditions, other people's cultures,
and what I saw in Nicaragua.
Was a culture of people who reallyloved their pets, doing the absolute
best they could with limited resources.
(07:54):
And that was really eye-opening to mebecause I had a lot of preconceptions
having, coming from American sheltering,which I hate to say it, but does have a
really big problem with being prejudicedagainst migrant communities and
communities that speak other languages.
It's not even that we're prejudice towardsthem, it's that we completely ignore.
(08:16):
And I don't believe that is on purpose.
I believe that is a lot of times a lackof resources and a lack of knowledge.
But , why is this important?
Is because, A, we're not adoptingout as many pets we as we could
be from a sheltering perspective.
I'll get to the humanperspective in a second.
B.
We're taking in animals.
(08:36):
We don't need to be taking in.
We're not engaging our fullcommunity for foster, for adoption.
One of the things I teach is I teachmarketing workshops and how to write
for difficult animals or how to writefor social media for long stay pets.
And I always hear from when I'mteaching, well, we put out so many
(08:56):
pleases and the community isn't, andnobody in the community is listening.
And my question is always.
Did you really ask everybody?
Because I live in Texas, population ofmy state is 28% Spanish speaking at the
in home, which means that two out ofthree more, almost three out of 10 people
prefer to get, are more comfortableprocessing information in Spanish and we
(09:22):
are not providing for those people, butthen we're villainizing that population.
For years, sheltering , has completelyignored the people in their community
that speak other languages and thenat the same time villainize them
for not taking advantage of theprograms or not following the rules.
When in reality we've never madeany attempt in a lot of cases to
(09:45):
even try to engage them or try toshow them the resources and programs
and everything that are available.
So that's a huge problemon a sheltering side.
Everybody knows that we're full right now.
Like what could you do with almost 30%more of your community helping you out?
Like from a sheltering side,that's huge on the human side.
Let's just talk about thediffering experiences that a
(10:08):
Spanish speaker would have.
Versus an English speaking personat a shelter and in a lot of
shelters, and there are someshelters that are not like this.
There are a lot of shelters thatdo really well at having bilingual
staff that do really well atworking to find ways to communicate.
But let's say that mostshelters, you have a cat.
Let's call this cat Tom.
(10:29):
Okay?
Here's Tom, the cat.
Tom isn't using his litter box.
So in most shelters now, we worka lot on diversion, meaning can
we help you to keep that pet?
So Jane Smith comes in with Tom andshe speaks English and she says,
Tom doesn't, Tom isn't using thelitter box and I have to give him up.
(10:51):
And in most shelters, becausewe are really focusing on
diversion now, we'll say.
Can we help you with that?
Before you surrender him, can we giveyou some behavioral materials that
might help you solve the problems?
A lot of times litter box issues canbe an easy fix, that sort of thing.
And we're able to de deter a lot of.
Surrenders that way by helpingpeople solve really basic problems.
(11:14):
Ms.
Smith takes her, takes Tom, and shegoes home and she feels empowered
and she feels like that shelterreally values her as a pet owner and
values the bond between her and Tom.
So now let's have another familygo in and let's have them be
Spanish speakers and they haveTom and we can give them any name.
I won't even try to give them a name.
But anyway, so this familygoes in and they speak Spanish.
(11:38):
First of all, they bring, go inand place Tom on the table, and
immediately, if there's not a bilingualstaff person at the front desk,
they have to find somebody to go up.
What's going?
So first of all, thisfamily now feels like.
They're not really welcome at thisshelter and anything to begin with.
(11:59):
Not even that they're not welcome,but it's just not set up for them.
It's not designed for them.
That sort of thing, thatexperience of being like, whoa,
there's nothing here for me.
But then they do get somebodyand they communicate, well,
Tom's not using the litter box.
Well, we don't have any materialsto help you and nobody, we
don't really have enough Spanishspeakers to talk you through.
(12:20):
Possible litter box issues, and wedon't have any handouts for you to
keep Tom, so we're just gonna take Tom,
what is the difference between theexperience of those two people?
What are we telling that community whenwe really need all of our community
to feel welcome and to feel that theshelter has resources for them and the
(12:42):
shelter values their bond with their pet?
What do we say when we do that?
And it's not the shelter's faultbecause like I said, many of
them don't have the resources.
But to be able to do that or.
I don't know, maybe, they haveleadership that is not seeing the full
picture, but it's just not happening.
And so , our big thing is what ifwe just came up with all of these
(13:06):
resources, put them out there.
Any shelter can take them, puttheir own logo on them and use them.
So maybe when that family comes inwith Tom and he's having litter box
issues, they can not only keep Tom fromcoming into the shelter, but they can
also show that family, Hey, we value.
That bond between Tom and yourfamily, just as much as we valued Mrs.
(13:27):
Smith's bond with her cat, and we really,we're, and we're gonna empower you to
help Tom and keep him in your home.
It's a big thing.
Dixie (13:37):
How many instructional videos do you have that would
be accessible in Spanish?
Finn (13:45):
Right now we don't have any videos.
We have 50 handouts thatare translated into Spanish.
They're all written at allof the information is solid.
It's all positive reinforcement.
Training and basic health and vetcare on different subjects like
litter box issues for adoptions,introducing a new dog to your home.
(14:07):
Some health things,fleas, spay and neuter.
We have all of those handouts available,and it's one click to download each
handout and two clicks for any shelterto add their own logo at the top,
and then they can just go ahead andstart using them and giving them out.
What we're working on right nowwith our translator who's amazing.
He is Danielle Luna of LunaLanguages in Guadalajara, Mexico,
(14:30):
and he is also a Spanish teacher.
With about nine years of experienceteaching people all over the world,
and he is putting together, we havetwo that are in post-production
and three that and more coming.
And we're doing a series of shortvideos that will also live on the
same web webpage as the handouts.
And those videos will teachanimal shelter workers.
(14:51):
Really basic Spanish.
We're not trying to teach anybodyto be fluent, we, but just
things like vocabulary wordsthat you'll hear in the shelter.
How to greet a Spanish speaker,how to figure out what's going on.
Just some basic words so that atleast when that family comes in, you
can show them that you are makingthat effort and that you're trying
(15:12):
to communicate with them and also.
These lessons the ones thatwe have done, they're fun.
They're three to five minutes long, soit's just something that shelters workers
can watch in between appointments whenthey get a slow minute at the desk.
Ha.
There's never a slow minute at the desk.
I know that.
But, just something that'sreally fun and easy.
And so we have, I think actually,I think we're up to three now.
(15:34):
They're in veteran post-production,and it will be a whole series of videos
that will take people first throughhow to pronounce the vowels, how to
pronounce things, and then into words,and then just into basic interactions.
So, and those will alsolive on our website as well.
Dixie (15:51):
For small rescues or foster based rescues, do you have any resources
for them to say recruit new volunteers
in Spanish
Finn (16:02):
speaking volunteers?
Dixie (16:03):
Correct?
Finn (16:05):
I do not.
However, that is an excellent idea.
I have presented on languageand cultural accessibility with
the incredible Jackie Hernandez.
Of she works for Nebraska Humane,but she's also the head of an
organization called so which is Soar.
I can never remember.
(16:25):
Solidarity of Latin Americanshelter workers and basically
solidarity of shelter workers nowfor the Latin American community.
And she has some great examples.
That I could send you from NebraskaHumane of how they have gone about
recruiting bilingual volunteers.
So know, well, we don't have thoseresources because we try to keep
(16:47):
things pretty general and withthings like that, we have gotten
requests for a white label form.
But the problem is that everybody'srequirements for foster and
volunteer are very different.
But you can literally.
Write something up and getit translated for $25 a page.
And it seems like with those shelters,you would actually be looking for more of
(17:10):
a bilingual shelter worker who would beable to read in English in both Spanish.
So I think putting thoseplease out in English.
That you need bilingualworkers would actually help.
As long as you specify you are lookingfor a bilingual worker, because it sounds
like what you're looking for, what you'reasking about is help for these rescues to
(17:31):
help them have somebody that can actuallyspeak to Spanish speakers on site.
Dixie (17:36):
Correct, correct.
Or if you have a foster, and let'ssay you find a Spanish speaking only
Foster and you only speak English,just a way to communicate with them.
Now another tool.
Could you use like, like aAI tool to speak with them?
Finn (17:54):
You could, but you do have to be a little bit careful about it.
And I will tell you becausethere's a lot of terms that we use.
In English about our petsthat just do not translate
into Spanish.
And for that, so for that like,for basic information, yes.
(18:15):
But I'll give you a fun example is thatwhen we started doing the handouts,
one of the ones we did was was, ondealing with juvenile dogs in rough play
with juvenile, like how to keep yourjuvenile dog from being jumpy and mouthy.
And we used the termwrestling with your dog.
And of course Daniel, ourtranslator, he was like, what?
(18:36):
He calls me up and he goes,what is wrestling with the dog?
Because he's Mexican, heis born and bred in Mexico.
And I'm like, excuse me?
He's like, what do you meanby wrestling with the dog?
So I explained it to him and Iforget what term he used, but he
was like, oh, okay, it's this.
And so then I went to AI and I put inwrestling with the dog and asked it to
(18:58):
translate it to Spanish, and it gave mein Spanish doing lucha libre with your
dog, which is a hysterical chat, GPTprompt, but does not make any sense.
So you've gotta be a little bit carefulwith something like that, with using
chat GPT for stuff like that, likebehavioral or really specific stuff.
(19:21):
But it can function prettywell for that as well.
The other option I would tell, Iwould really encourage small foster
based rescues and smaller sheltersto do is to consider reaching out to
local colleges or community collegesand recruiting volunteer translators.
Recruiting people saying, Hey, we'relooking for volunteer bilingual
(19:42):
translators that can be available,that if I need to talk to my Spanish
speaking foster parent they can jump ona three-way call and translate with me.
It's a really easy volunteerjob for maybe somebody who's in
college and can't always come outto help but wants to help, can do.
And so maybe try looking, re recruitingfor a bilingual person who's willing to
(20:04):
be a translation volunteer via phone.
Dixie (20:07):
That's good advice.
Are there any plans toexpand to other languages?
Finn (20:12):
Yes.
Yes.
In fact one of the, we offer allof the blanks in English as well,
just so that people shelters knowwhat they're handing out in English.
I think it was Good ShepherdHumane Society in Arkansas.
I was talking to, I believe he's thedirector over there, I forget his name,
but he also works with, I believe it'sthe Rural Rescue Network and where they
(20:36):
are at, they have a very large populationof people who speak the language.
Karen, which is a language thatis spoken on the border of, I
wanna say Thailand and Myanmar.
But they have, that area has a largemeat processing plant and that employs
a lot of migrants who only speak Karen.
(20:56):
And so Good Shepherd Humane istranslating our originals into
Karen for their population.
And when they do that, they've graciouslyoffered to let us have those translations.
So we will also have them in Karen.
That was not the next language weplanned to expand into, but it's
opportunistic and we'll take it.
(21:16):
And we know Minnesota has alarge population of and Illinois.
Both have large populationsof Karen speakers as well.
But we are our plans for our nextofficial language that we will expand
into will probably be Vietnameseor Chinese, where we will look
demographically at where to go nextof where the greatest need is next.
(21:37):
Yes, we definitely have plans thatthis will not just be Spanish.
Spanish is just the firstone we're rolling out.
As far as we know, we're the firstshelter to do this and so as our first
organization to do this, so we're stillworking out the kinks with Spanish.
Dixie (21:51):
Great.
That's awesome.
And it's good to know that you'reexpanding to the other languages as well.
I was actually gonna ask about Vietnamese,'cause we have a large Vietnamese
population here where I am in Louisiana.
Finn (22:02):
Yes.
Yeah, we have a large Vietnamesepopulation here too, in Corpus Christi
and where mutual rescue is based outof, which is we're a national initiative
of Humane Society, Silicon Valley.
And that in that area, it, there is a,an awful lot of Vietnamese speakers.
So actually Vietnamese wasgoing to be our next language.
Dixie (22:22):
So now onto your day, foster programs for shelters.
Can you give us an overview of that?
Finn (22:31):
So, just to give an explanation on what Day Foster
is, we call it Doggy Day Out.
Different shelters all have theirown names for their own programs.
We call it Doggy Day Out.
And what Doggy Day Out is where youcan go to an animal shelter for a day.
You can go to an animal shelterand basically take a dog.
An adoptable pet outfor a foster field trip.
(22:54):
You can go for a walk in the park.
You can go get a pup cup together.
You can go have lunchon a pet friendly patio.
You can just.
Meander through the city.
You can basically just give the doga break from the shelter and also
give it a chance to be seen by morepeople than just visit the shelter.
And research has shown that dogs thatgo out on day, foster field trips are
(23:18):
five times more likely to get adopted.
And dogs that if the peoplekeep the dog for a sleepover.
They're 14 times morelikely to be adopted.
And the, this program particularly isa magic bullet for getting large dogs,
blocky head dogs that generally justdo not show well in a shelter setting.
This project or this program is a magicbullet for getting these dogs adopted.
(23:43):
Because people can see how theybehave in the real world and can
see like, oh, when they're not beingcompletely crazy in their kennel.
They're also great for makingbetter adoptions because as shelter
workers, we only know what we see.
We might have, when a dog, an animalcomes into our shelter, we might have
some background from the prior owner, butreally what we're judging the animal on is
(24:06):
the behavior we're seeing in the shelter.
So the more you can get animalsoutside of the shelter and see how
they behave in normal situations.
The better you can match, makeadoptions, the better understanding
you have of their temperament.
And the public loves it as well.
People really love it.
And we thought this program was soimportant back in, I think, 2017,
(24:27):
that every shelter should have itthat we did, we're very big on, on
easy to use, download resources,put your logo on it and go.
And so we created the Doggy Day Outtoolkit, which is, you can download
it and it's about 40 pages long.
Don't get scared.
It's not homework, but what itis it's a manual for the shelter
on how to start the program.
(24:48):
There's a manual forparticipants in the program.
There's template documents that you canuse, and it's all in a word file, so
you can just take whatever you need.
Change the text as you need to,again, add your own logos to it.
And it's like a program in a box.
And it's been really goodfor helping smaller shelters
get a program up from zero.
(25:10):
'cause look, you've alreadygot the manuals, you've got a
very, the template for differentforms that you can work off of.
So there you go.
I present on this program a lot,and I've worked with VCA charities
a couple times to co-facilitatethree-day workshops for groups of
shelters on starting these programs.
And they have spread all across thecountry, and they're absolutely magical,
(25:34):
like I said, and the public lovesthem, and when shelters start them,
they start to see people that neverwould've come into the shelter before.
Come in 'cause people wanna help andif you give them an easy low lift way
to help, they will show up in droves.
Dixie (25:52):
You said you do see a lot of adoptions for the big dogs coming
from this doggy day out program.
Is it usually the people thatare doing the short term foster
and doing the sleepovers?
Or is it also just beneficial forthe dog's wellbeing in general?
So that.
The next time they interact withsomebody, they might interact better.
Finn (26:13):
It's I don't have data, like solid data on the amount of how
many of the participants actuallywound up taking, adopting the dogs.
I believe there isnational data from the Dr.
Lisa Gunter study that she did.
Which is absolutely excellent,which was the one that showed that
(26:34):
five times increase and that 14times increase for sleepovers.
I've seen some I knowit varies regionally.
Like to go back to my friend Jackieat Nebraska, I believe she said
that she saw a lot of adoptionscome directly from participants.
But what you see a lot more is what Ilike to call like partner marketing and
(26:55):
word of mouth, which is that somebodytakes a day out a dog out for the day.
And the other, the thing,one of the things that Dr.
Lisa Gunther's study showed was thatlike the median age of people that
participated in this were in their, likein thirties, so pretty tech savvy group
of people that are on social media.
So people take a dog out for theday and they take photos and they
(27:18):
put it on their social media.
And now that dog's that reach.
Beyond just people whofollow the shelters page.
And also it has the effect of acting asa personal recommendation, which is the
strongest form of recommendation there is.
We can write that Bucky is agood dog on our website till the
(27:40):
dog, till the cows come home.
But if your best friend comes upand says, Hey, I took this dog Bucky
out yesterday and he's a great dog,you're gonna believe that a lot more.
So a lot of that we see too, is thatthe people that take these dogs out,
even if they don't adopt them, theywind up becoming advocates for them,
and that helps them get adopted.
(28:01):
And that advocacy can look as simple as.
Just posting about theirdog on their social media or
that advocacy can look like.
I've seen people pay the adoption feesfor their dog, the dog they took out,
or bring, gifts or whatever that will besent with the dog that he is adopted out.
But we do see that conversionto advocacy for that pet.
(28:24):
And I think it's Kristen Hassanwho has said, seen is saved.
And when you get these dogs outtathe shelter and you get them seen.
You have people advocatingfor them, it works.
Dixie (28:39):
What are some of the most common misconceptions people have about
taking a shelter dog on a day out?
Finn (28:46):
The public is like all in for this.
So most of the misconceptions that I'veseen have come from shelters and they've
tend to come from high barrier shelters.
The public's misconception, just toanswer that really quickly, is that it's
like rent a dog that you can call upand say like, Hey, I wanna take a six
month old French bulldog out for six.
(29:09):
Yeah, that's not gonna happen.
You're gonna get the dogsthat are in the shelter.
And most of the shelters arereally prioritizing the dogs
that are going to be large dogs.
But I think that are gonna be thelong stay dogs and those tend to
be larger, but I think the public'smisconceptions would really be, the
dog will be sad when it comes back.
(29:31):
And I hear that from the shelters too.
Cortisol studies showed that, no,that's not the way that works.
Dr.
El Gunter, who's incredible, if you havethe chance to look at any of her research.
Amazing.
She did a study on the cortisol levelsand what she found is that the cortisol
levels, the stress levels of the dog godown when they go out, obviously they're
(29:51):
out there having a good time and then whenthey come back in, they just re return
to the same level they were at before.
So the dog is not getting morestressed from coming back at all.
It's just really reacting to in thesame amount of stress to being in a
shelter, but it's functioning the waythat a weekend functions for humans.
(30:16):
Meaning that if you leave work onFriday and you're stressed and then you
get relaxed over the weekend and yougo back to work on Monday and you're
stressed, does that mean that you wouldgo give up that weekend to not have
to go back to work and be stressed?
No, you're not making the dog sad bytaking it out and bringing it back.
(30:36):
That's not the way that works.
That's literally the dog isjust going back to the exact
same way it was in the shelter.
But maybe now it's a little bitmore tired and has had a great day
and it's been seen by the public.
The big conception misconceptionsI get from shelters, people
are gonna steal the dogs.
(30:56):
No, they're not.
I'm sure it can happen.
But if you wanna get, if you're lookingto do something nefarious with a dog, you
are not gonna go to an animal shelter.
Show them your id, sign a bunch of legalforms, have them walk you out to your car
with the dog and see your license plate.
To do something nefarious to a dog.
(31:18):
You can go on Facebook, youcan go on Craigslist and get
a dog with no questions asked.
So no people are not going to stealthe dogs or do bad things to them.
People are also think,what if the dog gets lost?
What if the dog gets into a fight?
Obviously, there areguardrails around this program.
The first thing that I tell everybodywhen they start a program is no dog parks.
(31:41):
You will never be taking a dog toa dog park and that all of your
participants need to know that this is.
Not a dog park activity.
This is not a go play with otherdogs activity or meet strange dogs.
This is for that dog to get someone-on-one attention and a stress
break, and it needs to always beon leash and an adult always has
(32:02):
to be in charge of that leash.
The only exception to that is if you'rebringing the dog to your home with no
other pets and you're letting the dogplay in your fenced backyard for a couple
hours, which is great, or even let youknow, then you can take the dog off leash.
But no and if shelters are reallyworried about it, I just tell 'em
to go buy a pack of air tags andair tag the dogs when they go out.
(32:23):
I have air tags in all my luggage.
But yeah, the misconceptions are that thisprogram's a lot more dangerous than it is.
It's really not that peopleare gonna steal the dogs.
They're not going to, that thedogs are going to be heartbroken
and miserable when they come back.
Nope.
Data shows the answer tothat is a big old, solid.
No, it's pretty much all positive.
Dixie (32:43):
That's cool.
Now, are there any ways to implementa similar program for cats?,
Of course, I know you couldn'tgo take a cat out on a walk, but.
For shelters that do have like a largecat population, is there any kind of
way you could do like a weekend programfor cats that would be beneficial?
Finn (33:01):
I don't have the behavioral data on that, but like I am a firm believer
of, and in any kind of short term foster,I am a firm believer in any opportunity
you have an animal to get, you haveto get an animal out of the shelter
and see how it behaves in real life.
Be it for a weekend,that is an opportunity.
(33:23):
I also believe that we are not jailers.
It is not our purpose to take theseanimals into shelter or rescue and hold
them hostage, and they have to stay there.
These animals have done nothing wrong.
They have the right to goexperience normal life, and it
is not our place to defer that.
(33:43):
So if you have somebody thatsays, I would like to take Ms.
Kitty home for the weekend.
Then yes, I believe that a program that'sa beneficial program would I put some
guardrails around it, just knowing cats?
Yeah, definitely.
Obviously you're not gonna take 'emout on a walk, and maybe if you were
gonna bring home an older cat forthe weekend, you would say, Hey,
(34:05):
she needs to stay in your bedroomwith the door closed and and
the litter box in the bathroom.
Just 'cause we know a lot of timeswhen cats are in new places, it's
a lot less overwhelming for themto be in a smaller area first.
So if you were doing a short-termfoster, I would just say maybe that
would be the guardrails you would putaround it, is that you just say, Hey,
(34:26):
we're just gonna ask that you keep 'emin an enclosed area until they start
to seem a little bit more comfortable,
Dixie (34:31):
yeah, I think that could work.
I do cat rescue, so knowing catbehavior, you always will see these
cats that you're like, oh yeah, youcan bring them into your house, and
they're gonna be totally comfortable.
And then you have these otherones that are like, no, it's gonna
take them a while to warm up.
You have to have them in theirlike little safe, small place.
But yeah, I think like a weekend thing.
I never thought about doing likea weekend thing, but I think that
(34:52):
could even be beneficial for people.
Just to experience kittens,fostering kittens for a weekend
rather than fostering 'em.
Oh, definitely.
The whole time from, them reaching anage and size that they can be spayed,
neutered, and then go up for adoption.
Finn (35:08):
Oh, and not only that, but imagine how many more fosters you would have.
If your fosters knew that they couldgo away for the weekend and there
would be somebody that could take theirpet, their foster for the weekend,
and so they wouldn't have to canceltheir trip or not, or choose between
fostering and or taking a trip.
(35:29):
Or they just knew like, Hey, thesekittens are driving me nuts and
I just need a break for 24 hours.
If they knew that was an option.
And I wish I had this study in front ofme, but there was a great study and one
of the big from, I wanna say Maddie'sfund, and one of the biggest fears that
people had about fostering was not knowinghow long they would have the animal.
(35:49):
And so if you have short-termfoster, you can become a lot more
flexible with your long-term fosters.
You can tell them like, Hey, we'vegot Becky, she only does weekends, if.
You wanna foster, but you know thatyou'd like to have your weekends free,
then we can still use you as a foster.
That's great.
So it opens the pool of fostersup a lot bigger and I do think
(36:10):
it could work for an adult cat.
But just like with doggy day out, youdon't send every dog on a doggy day out.
Obviously there are some dogsthat it's just not gonna work for.
Right?
Be it because they're very reactive.
And it would be the same thing with cats.
Like you would not send that shy caton a weekend foster, but kittens or
like the big Tom who just got neutered,who's got cheeks out to the walls, who
(36:34):
just like rolls over on his stomachevery time anyone looks at him.
Like, yeah, send himout to a weekend Foster.
Great.
Dixie (36:41):
And even if they didn't get adopted by the people that are doing the
temporary fostering, it gets 'em moresocialized And get 'em more exposure.
Finn (36:50):
and the more you can give your foster homes flexibility, the more foster
homes you'll have, the more you will give.
And also even just having a shortterm foster for a cat that's
returned that happens in rescue.
People adopt a kitten and then theyrealize, I don't know, maybe their
kids are too rough for it, or somethinglike that, and they need to return it.
(37:13):
And you don't have afoster home available.
You call a weekend foster person, and thatat least buys you some time or a short
term foster to make a longer term plan forthat animal I am a firm believer in short
term foster and also a lot of people.
That start at short-term fosters, Ithink that's something like up to 37%
(37:33):
will convert to longer term fostering.
So it's a great gateway drug for peopleto get into to get their feet wet with
fostering until they get comfortableenough to take on long-term fosters.
Dixie (37:46):
Another thing too, with a doggy day out and doing say the
weekend is it ever an issue wherepeople might flake out, bring the dog.
Home, say like on a Friday the sheltercould be closed on a Saturday, but
then they like totally flake outand they're like, I can't do this.
I need to bring the dog back.
Is that ever a problem?
Finn (38:05):
Yeah, I mean I definitely, I believe it is.
Where we are not a shelter.
We're a national initiative andI work with a lot of shelters
and I have heard of that program.
And again, that's a guardrailyou have to have in place.
And one of the things we alwaystell people to do is to have
one dedicated cell phone number.
Most shelters already have an emergencyline either for the, just for the ACOs
(38:30):
or for the regular foster base in casesomething either longer term foster
base in case there's an emergency.
Or just having a burner cell phone thatyou use for it that somebody is carrying
if there are dogs out for the weekendso that person has a number to call,
where there will always be a personon the other end that can take the dog
(38:51):
and bring it back into the shelter.
Be it a manager or something like that.
Dixie (38:55):
And for listeners who might be interested in a doggy
day out either for their.
Group or to even contact their shelter,to tell their shelter about this program.
How would they go ahead to get'em to get started with this?
Finn (39:11):
But if you are just a person in an area and you wanna take a dog out and
see if there's shelters around you mutualRescue has a doggy day out directory
that goes by state of shelters that weknow have programs and that have been
asked to be added to the directory.
And there's over a hundred inshelters in that directory.
(39:31):
Just because your shelter is notlisted in that directory does not
mean that they do not have a program.
I do know of some programs that have askednot to be listed because the demand for
this program is so high that they bookup far in advance, and so they don't
want any more advertisement for it.
But so first of all, my firstsuggestion would be check the directory.
(39:54):
It's mutual rescue.org,
and then just click onthe doggy day out button.
The other thing you can doif you want your shelter to
have one, is just go ask them.
I never encourage people to badgeyour shelter workers about things.
But you can always send an email andsuggest, Hey, I heard about this program.
Do you guys have any plans ondoing this or anything like that?
(40:16):
And if you do and you wantto, you can send them a link.
Mutual Rescue has, on their, on thatDoggy Day Out there is page, there
is a page Doggy Day Out for sheltersand you can send them that page
where they can download the DoggyDay Out toolkit and look it over.
Basically, I would tell, justtell 'em, ask their shelter.
And not every shelter can or will havedoggie day out, either because of staffing
(40:39):
or resource issues, even though there'sa lot of ways to make this program
work, even with very small staffing.
I know shelters that have two staffmembers that run this program.
It's a very easy program toutilize volunteers to run.
But either because of resources,because of population, or because of
like odd municipality laws which arereally weird all over the country.
(41:04):
But, a lot of shelters do have it.
I can tell you there, there's programsin Alaska and Wyoming and when, if you
can go to Alaska and take a dog out,you probably can take one out near you,
Dixie (41:15):
Uhhuh.
Yeah.
Well, thank you so much forsharing the information on
these two programs, the languageaccessibility and the doggy day out.
I know personally, I'm gonna go takea look at the flyers that you have.
And share some of those on mysocial media to try to reach some
of the Spanish speaking population.
And I'm also considering tryingto do a a weekend foster for
(41:38):
cats and see how that goes.
Finn (41:40):
I definitely would.
I would try pilotingit maybe with kittens.
When I was.
Younger, I briefly worked in the child,in at a group home for foster children.
And respite fostering was a really, wasan integral part of that foster system
for people which were weekend fosters thatwould give the regular fosters a break if
(42:01):
they needed to go outta town or one weekfosters, and so respite, call it short
term foster, call it Weekend Warriors.
You can come up with alot of fun names for it.
What is the one that Ithink Animal Foundation has?
Like the gruel Gobblers.
But yeah, definitely I think it's agreat idea for cats and honestly, once
(42:23):
we get through getting the languageaccessibility thing turned in, it's
definitely something I would a projectI would wanna consider working on doing
a toolkit for looking to research about.
Dixie (42:33):
Both of them are really great programs and I didn't
know about either one of 'em.
Now before we end the call, is thereanything else that you would like to add?
Finn (42:42):
No just, I'm very grateful to be on today.
Thank you so much.
If you have any suggestions formore cat focused handouts that
are needed, please let me know.
We are working on what to doif you find kittens and on
caring for neonatal handouts.
In Spanish because wehad a request for that.
(43:04):
Actually, there's a couple of groupsin LA that do cat foster and the
majority of their foster base is Spanishspeaking , so we know that, there
is a culture of animal welfare and.
Families really deeply love their petsand wanna help and why not engage them,
Dixie (43:19):
I could definitely collaborate with you on stuff for cats.
I teach a bottle feeding and foster class,and I would love to be able to reach
more people because there's not enough.
Cat fosters or bottle feeders as there is.
So the more people that wecould get involved, the better.
Finn (43:35):
Exactly.
All right, well, thankyou so much for having me.
Dixie (43:38):
All right, well, thank you.
I appreciate it.
We hope you join us next week.
If you know somebody that loves animalsas much as I do, please send 'em our way.
We would love to talk to 'em.
If you are enjoying our show, pleaseconsider leaving us a donation.
A hundred percent goes to our animals
Paws in
(44:02):
the night Claws in thefight Whiskers twitch and
tails
take flight
They’re calling in Stories to spinFrom the wild to the heart within
(44:24):
Broken wings and hopeful springsWe’re the voices for these things
animal posse hear the call.
We stand together.
Big and small Rescue tales We’vegot it all Animal posse Saving
(44:52):
them
all
The vet’s got tips The rescuer’sgrit The foster homes where love
won’t quit From a pup in the rain toa bird in pain , Every soul’s worth
(45:20):
the
strain
Animal posse
Hear the call
We stand together Big
(45:45):
and small Rescue tales We’ve gotit all Animal posse Saving them all
Every caller tells a tale, everyhowl a whispered wail, we rise up.
We never
(46:06):
fail.
This
is
the
bond
The holy grail
(46:26):
Animal posse Hear the call We standtogether Big and small Rescue tales We’ve
got it all Animal posse Saving them all
(46:50):
Every caller tells a tale Every howla whispered wail We rise up We never
fail This is the bond The holy grail.
Song by Suno.ai
Welcome to Animal Posse, the podcast dedicated to the
people and rescues making adifference in the lives of animals.
Hi Finn,
Thank you for coming on the show.
I am looking forward to learningall about mutual rescue.
Finn (00:16):
Excellent.
It's really nice to meet you, by the way
Dixie (00:18):
To start, if you could please introduce yourself and tell us a
little bit about mutual rescue.
Finn (00:25):
Okay, well my name is Finnegan Dowling and I am the shelter program and
engagement manager for mutual rescue.
A little bit about me.
I've been in animal sheltering since 1992.
We were adopting out pteradactyls at thatpoint, and well I left a couple of times.
I've pretty much stayedclose to the field.
What Mutual Rescue is it's an organizationthat works to get people more involved
(00:49):
with their local community shelters.
Not just , because we believe that helpsthe pets, but because that we believe that
when pets and people engaged together,people's lives are changed forever.
And so we believe when you helpanimals, you help people too.
Would we do a number ofdifferent things to demonstrate.
Just how powerful theeffect of mutual rescue is.
(01:11):
We have, I think about 33short films on our website that
tell stories of rescue pets.
Changing the lives of the people whoadopted them and helping them grow
and heal through different situations.
And , our films are really well done.
A bunch of them have won awards.
We have two that will be travelingwith international film festivals
this year, which is very exciting.
(01:33):
And then on the shelter side ofthings, we do a couple of things.
We work with shelters to help them startnew programs to better engage with their
communities, like Day Foster Field Trip.
And, we also work to make it to makeshelters more accessible to the community.
So we do a lot of getting basically whitelabeled resources translated into Spanish
(01:54):
by a native speaker in Guadalajara.
We have an amazing translator.
And then any shelter that needs.
Resources in Spanish on pet health,pet behavior can go ahead and download
those and put their logos on them.
On the other side, what we do is wework with corporations that want to
partner with local shelters and a lot of.
(02:16):
Corporations automatically default toan organization like HSUS or A-S-P-C-A
or best Friends that does great work.
But unfortunately those dollarsreally don't reach the local
shelters that need them the most.
So what we do is we work with corporationsthat want to do a national partnership,
(02:37):
would want the money to go to localshelters, and we put together groups
of local shelters in the corporations.
Geographic footprint.
And then do you know, marketingcampaigns, partnerships in which the
monies from the corporations thenimmediately goes , to those shelters
involved in those partnerships.
And in that way, instead of everybodyfighting over the same small
(03:00):
amount of philanthropy that goes.
Towards animal welfare.
We're trying to grow the pie andthen get that money immediately
to where the work is being done.
Which is to the local sheltersand communities around America.
Dixie (03:14):
That's amazing.
And those are great programs too.
I would definitely wannalearn more about your language
accessibility program as well.
As the day foster programs.
But before we get into that, sinceyou have been in animal sheltering
for so long, what was your.
Spark that got you intoanimal welfare to begin with?
Finn (03:36):
I really wish I had some great story about how I grew up
completely dedicated to animals andlike came to this with a laser focus.
But I will be honest with you, thatis just like, like when people fall
in love with their pets, that'sjust not the way it happened.
Right.
. I went to a great college in WashingtonState, evergreen State College, and I
(03:58):
was, I went to school when I was younger.
I was 16 or 17, and my school wasvery involved in the community
and they had a rule that the firstyear you had to volunteer so many
hours in order to pass the year.
And me being a little bit younger anda little bit stupider decided that
I would completely ignore this untilthe last two weeks of the school year.
(04:21):
And then all of a sudden I hadlike some ridiculous amount of
hours that I had to do or else Iwould not pass the school year.
And the only place thatwould take me being 17.
Having to do something absurd, likea hundred hours or something in a
month was the local community, themunicipal animal shelter, which at the
(04:42):
time was like 20 kennels or something.
And so I was like, cool.
And I went in and I was in college toget a degree in long form journalism.
And I did actually, , I do actuallyhave a degree in journalism and I
don't know what it was, but I found.
So much purpose and so much healingand so much positivity there.
(05:05):
And that it just became,even after I finished those
hours, I stayed working there.
I wound up getting a summer job there.
And over the time that I lived in thattown in Washington on and off for eight
or nine years, I worked for that shelter.
I interned there in themarketing department.
Even though I was getting a degreein journalism, it was, I had to
(05:25):
do an internship of some sort.
And so , they had me writingall of their materials and then
yeah, it just went from there.
And, , I just wound up never leaving, Iwas an animal control officer and then I
went on to work in shelters in Colorado,California, Florida, and Nicaragua.
And it just, even with my degreein long form journalism, it's
(05:46):
just always been my passion.
Dixie (05:48):
Yeah, that's a pretty cool story.
So since you do have that degreein journalism, do you use that to
write articles for animal welfare?
Finn (05:59):
I have in the past, yes.
I used to, I've written for the Bark,I've written for Huffington Post.
And a couple of other, oh, I forget,there's a couple of places that
my writing has been published.
I've written a lot for , the mutualrescue blog, and then before I came
to Mutual Rescue, I was actually,, themarketing manager, , or the marketing,
(06:20):
, for Humane Society of Silicon Valley.
And I wrote a ton of stuff thereand we wound up winning some awards
for it, like just for some goofy.
Sort of marketing posts that I did.
So I've always stayed close towriting in the work that I do.
But even though I love writing, my,my big passion right now is not just
the animals, but shelter people.
(06:42):
Frontline workers are my tribeand they inspire me every day.
So while I love doing the writingparts of my job, I really love working
with the shelter workers a lot.
'cause I feel most at home doing that.
Dixie (06:57):
With the language accessibility program with mutual
rescue, tell us how that gotstarted and why is that beneficial?
Finn (07:07):
I will start with why that's beneficial and we'll talk about, and full
disclaimer, my name is Finnegan Dowling.
I am obviously not Latino.
My family's actually Boston Irish.
But it came about for a bunch of reasons.
Number one, when I was younger, I wentand worked in a shelter in Nicaragua
for a couple years and that was avery eyeopening experience to me of
(07:31):
how many cultural miscommunicationsthere are and how we tend to really
view things in the US through.
Without thinking of other people'straditions, other people's cultures,
and what I saw in Nicaragua.
Was a culture of people who reallyloved their pets, doing the absolute
best they could with limited resources.
(07:54):
And that was really eye-opening to mebecause I had a lot of preconceptions
having, coming from American sheltering,which I hate to say it, but does have a
really big problem with being prejudicedagainst migrant communities and
communities that speak other languages.
It's not even that we're prejudice towardsthem, it's that we completely ignore.
(08:16):
And I don't believe that is on purpose.
I believe that is a lot of times a lackof resources and a lack of knowledge.
But , why is this important?
Is because, A, we're not adoptingout as many pets we as we could
be from a sheltering perspective.
I'll get to the humanperspective in a second.
B.
We're taking in animals.
(08:36):
We don't need to be taking in.
We're not engaging our fullcommunity for foster, for adoption.
One of the things I teach is I teachmarketing workshops and how to write
for difficult animals or how to writefor social media for long stay pets.
And I always hear from when I'mteaching, well, we put out so many
(08:56):
pleases and the community isn't, andnobody in the community is listening.
And my question is always.
Did you really ask everybody?
Because I live in Texas, population ofmy state is 28% Spanish speaking at the
in home, which means that two out ofthree more, almost three out of 10 people
prefer to get, are more comfortableprocessing information in Spanish and we
(09:22):
are not providing for those people, butthen we're villainizing that population.
For years, sheltering , has completelyignored the people in their community
that speak other languages and thenat the same time villainize them
for not taking advantage of theprograms or not following the rules.
When in reality we've never madeany attempt in a lot of cases to
(09:45):
even try to engage them or try toshow them the resources and programs
and everything that are available.
So that's a huge problemon a sheltering side.
Everybody knows that we're full right now.
Like what could you do with almost 30%more of your community helping you out?
Like from a sheltering side,that's huge on the human side.
Let's just talk about thediffering experiences that a
(10:08):
Spanish speaker would have.
Versus an English speaking personat a shelter and in a lot of
shelters, and there are someshelters that are not like this.
There are a lot of shelters thatdo really well at having bilingual
staff that do really well atworking to find ways to communicate.
But let's say that mostshelters, you have a cat.
Let's call this cat Tom.
(10:29):
Okay?
Here's Tom, the cat.
Tom isn't using his litter box.
So in most shelters now, we worka lot on diversion, meaning can
we help you to keep that pet?
So Jane Smith comes in with Tom andshe speaks English and she says,
Tom doesn't, Tom isn't using thelitter box and I have to give him up.
(10:51):
And in most shelters, becausewe are really focusing on
diversion now, we'll say.
Can we help you with that?
Before you surrender him, can we giveyou some behavioral materials that
might help you solve the problems?
A lot of times litter box issues canbe an easy fix, that sort of thing.
And we're able to de deter a lot of.
Surrenders that way by helpingpeople solve really basic problems.
(11:14):
Ms.
Smith takes her, takes Tom, and shegoes home and she feels empowered
and she feels like that shelterreally values her as a pet owner and
values the bond between her and Tom.
So now let's have another familygo in and let's have them be
Spanish speakers and they haveTom and we can give them any name.
I won't even try to give them a name.
But anyway, so this familygoes in and they speak Spanish.
(11:38):
First of all, they bring, go inand place Tom on the table, and
immediately, if there's not a bilingualstaff person at the front desk,
they have to find somebody to go up.
What's going?
So first of all, thisfamily now feels like.
They're not really welcome at thisshelter and anything to begin with.
(11:59):
Not even that they're not welcome,but it's just not set up for them.
It's not designed for them.
That sort of thing, thatexperience of being like, whoa,
there's nothing here for me.
But then they do get somebodyand they communicate, well,
Tom's not using the litter box.
Well, we don't have any materialsto help you and nobody, we
don't really have enough Spanishspeakers to talk you through.
(12:20):
Possible litter box issues, and wedon't have any handouts for you to
keep Tom, so we're just gonna take Tom,
what is the difference between theexperience of those two people?
What are we telling that community whenwe really need all of our community
to feel welcome and to feel that theshelter has resources for them and the
(12:42):
shelter values their bond with their pet?
What do we say when we do that?
And it's not the shelter's faultbecause like I said, many of
them don't have the resources.
But to be able to do that or.
I don't know, maybe, they haveleadership that is not seeing the full
picture, but it's just not happening.
And so , our big thing is what ifwe just came up with all of these
(13:06):
resources, put them out there.
Any shelter can take them, puttheir own logo on them and use them.
So maybe when that family comes inwith Tom and he's having litter box
issues, they can not only keep Tom fromcoming into the shelter, but they can
also show that family, Hey, we value.
That bond between Tom and yourfamily, just as much as we valued Mrs.
(13:27):
Smith's bond with her cat, and we really,we're, and we're gonna empower you to
help Tom and keep him in your home.
It's a big thing.
Dixie (13:37):
How many instructional videos do you have that would
be accessible in Spanish?
Finn (13:45):
Right now we don't have any videos.
We have 50 handouts thatare translated into Spanish.
They're all written at allof the information is solid.
It's all positive reinforcement.
Training and basic health and vetcare on different subjects like
litter box issues for adoptions,introducing a new dog to your home.
(14:07):
Some health things,fleas, spay and neuter.
We have all of those handouts available,and it's one click to download each
handout and two clicks for any shelterto add their own logo at the top,
and then they can just go ahead andstart using them and giving them out.
What we're working on right nowwith our translator who's amazing.
He is Danielle Luna of LunaLanguages in Guadalajara, Mexico,
(14:30):
and he is also a Spanish teacher.
With about nine years of experienceteaching people all over the world,
and he is putting together, we havetwo that are in post-production
and three that and more coming.
And we're doing a series of shortvideos that will also live on the
same web webpage as the handouts.
And those videos will teachanimal shelter workers.
(14:51):
Really basic Spanish.
We're not trying to teach anybodyto be fluent, we, but just
things like vocabulary wordsthat you'll hear in the shelter.
How to greet a Spanish speaker,how to figure out what's going on.
Just some basic words so that atleast when that family comes in, you
can show them that you are makingthat effort and that you're trying
(15:12):
to communicate with them and also.
These lessons the ones thatwe have done, they're fun.
They're three to five minutes long, soit's just something that shelters workers
can watch in between appointments whenthey get a slow minute at the desk.
Ha.
There's never a slow minute at the desk.
I know that.
But, just something that'sreally fun and easy.
And so we have, I think actually,I think we're up to three now.
(15:34):
They're in veteran post-production,and it will be a whole series of videos
that will take people first throughhow to pronounce the vowels, how to
pronounce things, and then into words,and then just into basic interactions.
So, and those will alsolive on our website as well.
Dixie (15:51):
For small rescues or foster based rescues, do you have any resources
for them to say recruit new volunteers
in Spanish
Finn (16:02):
speaking volunteers?
Dixie (16:03):
Correct?
Finn (16:05):
I do not.
However, that is an excellent idea.
I have presented on languageand cultural accessibility with
the incredible Jackie Hernandez.
Of she works for Nebraska Humane,but she's also the head of an
organization called so which is Soar.
I can never remember.
(16:25):
Solidarity of Latin Americanshelter workers and basically
solidarity of shelter workers nowfor the Latin American community.
And she has some great examples.
That I could send you from NebraskaHumane of how they have gone about
recruiting bilingual volunteers.
So know, well, we don't have thoseresources because we try to keep
(16:47):
things pretty general and withthings like that, we have gotten
requests for a white label form.
But the problem is that everybody'srequirements for foster and
volunteer are very different.
But you can literally.
Write something up and getit translated for $25 a page.
And it seems like with those shelters,you would actually be looking for more of
(17:10):
a bilingual shelter worker who would beable to read in English in both Spanish.
So I think putting thoseplease out in English.
That you need bilingualworkers would actually help.
As long as you specify you are lookingfor a bilingual worker, because it sounds
like what you're looking for, what you'reasking about is help for these rescues to
(17:31):
help them have somebody that can actuallyspeak to Spanish speakers on site.
Dixie (17:36):
Correct, correct.
Or if you have a foster, and let'ssay you find a Spanish speaking only
Foster and you only speak English,just a way to communicate with them.
Now another tool.
Could you use like, like aAI tool to speak with them?
Finn (17:54):
You could, but you do have to be a little bit careful about it.
And I will tell you becausethere's a lot of terms that we use.
In English about our petsthat just do not translate
into Spanish.
And for that, so for that like,for basic information, yes.
(18:15):
But I'll give you a fun example is thatwhen we started doing the handouts,
one of the ones we did was was, ondealing with juvenile dogs in rough play
with juvenile, like how to keep yourjuvenile dog from being jumpy and mouthy.
And we used the termwrestling with your dog.
And of course Daniel, ourtranslator, he was like, what?
(18:36):
He calls me up and he goes,what is wrestling with the dog?
Because he's Mexican, heis born and bred in Mexico.
And I'm like, excuse me?
He's like, what do you meanby wrestling with the dog?
So I explained it to him and Iforget what term he used, but he
was like, oh, okay, it's this.
And so then I went to AI and I put inwrestling with the dog and asked it to
(18:58):
translate it to Spanish, and it gave mein Spanish doing lucha libre with your
dog, which is a hysterical chat, GPTprompt, but does not make any sense.
So you've gotta be a little bit carefulwith something like that, with using
chat GPT for stuff like that, likebehavioral or really specific stuff.
(19:21):
But it can function prettywell for that as well.
The other option I would tell, Iwould really encourage small foster
based rescues and smaller sheltersto do is to consider reaching out to
local colleges or community collegesand recruiting volunteer translators.
Recruiting people saying, Hey, we'relooking for volunteer bilingual
(19:42):
translators that can be available,that if I need to talk to my Spanish
speaking foster parent they can jump ona three-way call and translate with me.
It's a really easy volunteerjob for maybe somebody who's in
college and can't always come outto help but wants to help, can do.
And so maybe try looking, re recruitingfor a bilingual person who's willing to
(20:04):
be a translation volunteer via phone.
Dixie (20:07):
That's good advice.
Are there any plans toexpand to other languages?
Finn (20:12):
Yes.
Yes.
In fact one of the, we offer allof the blanks in English as well,
just so that people shelters knowwhat they're handing out in English.
I think it was Good ShepherdHumane Society in Arkansas.
I was talking to, I believe he's thedirector over there, I forget his name,
but he also works with, I believe it'sthe Rural Rescue Network and where they
(20:36):
are at, they have a very large populationof people who speak the language.
Karen, which is a language thatis spoken on the border of, I
wanna say Thailand and Myanmar.
But they have, that area has a largemeat processing plant and that employs
a lot of migrants who only speak Karen.
(20:56):
And so Good Shepherd Humane istranslating our originals into
Karen for their population.
And when they do that, they've graciouslyoffered to let us have those translations.
So we will also have them in Karen.
That was not the next language weplanned to expand into, but it's
opportunistic and we'll take it.
(21:16):
And we know Minnesota has alarge population of and Illinois.
Both have large populationsof Karen speakers as well.
But we are our plans for our nextofficial language that we will expand
into will probably be Vietnameseor Chinese, where we will look
demographically at where to go nextof where the greatest need is next.
(21:37):
Yes, we definitely have plans thatthis will not just be Spanish.
Spanish is just the firstone we're rolling out.
As far as we know, we're the firstshelter to do this and so as our first
organization to do this, so we're stillworking out the kinks with Spanish.
Dixie (21:51):
Great.
That's awesome.
And it's good to know that you'reexpanding to the other languages as well.
I was actually gonna ask about Vietnamese,'cause we have a large Vietnamese
population here where I am in Louisiana.
Finn (22:02):
Yes.
Yeah, we have a large Vietnamesepopulation here too, in Corpus Christi
and where mutual rescue is based outof, which is we're a national initiative
of Humane Society, Silicon Valley.
And that in that area, it, there is a,an awful lot of Vietnamese speakers.
So actually Vietnamese wasgoing to be our next language.
Dixie (22:22):
So now onto your day, foster programs for shelters.
Can you give us an overview of that?
Finn (22:31):
So, just to give an explanation on what Day Foster
is, we call it Doggy Day Out.
Different shelters all have theirown names for their own programs.
We call it Doggy Day Out.
And what Doggy Day Out is where youcan go to an animal shelter for a day.
You can go to an animal shelterand basically take a dog.
An adoptable pet outfor a foster field trip.
(22:54):
You can go for a walk in the park.
You can go get a pup cup together.
You can go have lunchon a pet friendly patio.
You can just.
Meander through the city.
You can basically just give the doga break from the shelter and also
give it a chance to be seen by morepeople than just visit the shelter.
And research has shown that dogs thatgo out on day, foster field trips are
(23:18):
five times more likely to get adopted.
And dogs that if the peoplekeep the dog for a sleepover.
They're 14 times morelikely to be adopted.
And the, this program particularly isa magic bullet for getting large dogs,
blocky head dogs that generally justdo not show well in a shelter setting.
This project or this program is a magicbullet for getting these dogs adopted.
(23:43):
Because people can see how theybehave in the real world and can
see like, oh, when they're not beingcompletely crazy in their kennel.
They're also great for makingbetter adoptions because as shelter
workers, we only know what we see.
We might have, when a dog, an animalcomes into our shelter, we might have
some background from the prior owner, butreally what we're judging the animal on is
(24:06):
the behavior we're seeing in the shelter.
So the more you can get animalsoutside of the shelter and see how
they behave in normal situations.
The better you can match, makeadoptions, the better understanding
you have of their temperament.
And the public loves it as well.
People really love it.
And we thought this program was soimportant back in, I think, 2017,
(24:27):
that every shelter should have itthat we did, we're very big on, on
easy to use, download resources,put your logo on it and go.
And so we created the Doggy Day Outtoolkit, which is, you can download
it and it's about 40 pages long.
Don't get scared.
It's not homework, but what itis it's a manual for the shelter
on how to start the program.
(24:48):
There's a manual forparticipants in the program.
There's template documents that you canuse, and it's all in a word file, so
you can just take whatever you need.
Change the text as you need to,again, add your own logos to it.
And it's like a program in a box.
And it's been really goodfor helping smaller shelters
get a program up from zero.
(25:10):
'cause look, you've alreadygot the manuals, you've got a
very, the template for differentforms that you can work off of.
So there you go.
I present on this program a lot,and I've worked with VCA charities
a couple times to co-facilitatethree-day workshops for groups of
shelters on starting these programs.
And they have spread all across thecountry, and they're absolutely magical,
(25:34):
like I said, and the public lovesthem, and when shelters start them,
they start to see people that neverwould've come into the shelter before.
Come in 'cause people wanna help andif you give them an easy low lift way
to help, they will show up in droves.
Dixie (25:52):
You said you do see a lot of adoptions for the big dogs coming
from this doggy day out program.
Is it usually the people thatare doing the short term foster
and doing the sleepovers?
Or is it also just beneficial forthe dog's wellbeing in general?
So that.
The next time they interact withsomebody, they might interact better.
Finn (26:13):
It's I don't have data, like solid data on the amount of how
many of the participants actuallywound up taking, adopting the dogs.
I believe there isnational data from the Dr.
Lisa Gunter study that she did.
Which is absolutely excellent,which was the one that showed that
(26:34):
five times increase and that 14times increase for sleepovers.
I've seen some I knowit varies regionally.
Like to go back to my friend Jackieat Nebraska, I believe she said
that she saw a lot of adoptionscome directly from participants.
But what you see a lot more is what Ilike to call like partner marketing and
(26:55):
word of mouth, which is that somebodytakes a day out a dog out for the day.
And the other, the thing,one of the things that Dr.
Lisa Gunther's study showed was thatlike the median age of people that
participated in this were in their, likein thirties, so pretty tech savvy group
of people that are on social media.
So people take a dog out for theday and they take photos and they
(27:18):
put it on their social media.
And now that dog's that reach.
Beyond just people whofollow the shelters page.
And also it has the effect of acting asa personal recommendation, which is the
strongest form of recommendation there is.
We can write that Bucky is agood dog on our website till the
(27:40):
dog, till the cows come home.
But if your best friend comes upand says, Hey, I took this dog Bucky
out yesterday and he's a great dog,you're gonna believe that a lot more.
So a lot of that we see too, is thatthe people that take these dogs out,
even if they don't adopt them, theywind up becoming advocates for them,
and that helps them get adopted.
(28:01):
And that advocacy can look as simple as.
Just posting about theirdog on their social media or
that advocacy can look like.
I've seen people pay the adoption feesfor their dog, the dog they took out,
or bring, gifts or whatever that will besent with the dog that he is adopted out.
But we do see that conversionto advocacy for that pet.
(28:24):
And I think it's Kristen Hassanwho has said, seen is saved.
And when you get these dogs outtathe shelter and you get them seen.
You have people advocatingfor them, it works.
Dixie (28:39):
What are some of the most common misconceptions people have about
taking a shelter dog on a day out?
Finn (28:46):
The public is like all in for this.
So most of the misconceptions that I'veseen have come from shelters and they've
tend to come from high barrier shelters.
The public's misconception, just toanswer that really quickly, is that it's
like rent a dog that you can call upand say like, Hey, I wanna take a six
month old French bulldog out for six.
(29:09):
Yeah, that's not gonna happen.
You're gonna get the dogsthat are in the shelter.
And most of the shelters arereally prioritizing the dogs
that are going to be large dogs.
But I think that are gonna be thelong stay dogs and those tend to
be larger, but I think the public'smisconceptions would really be, the
dog will be sad when it comes back.
(29:31):
And I hear that from the shelters too.
Cortisol studies showed that, no,that's not the way that works.
Dr.
El Gunter, who's incredible, if you havethe chance to look at any of her research.
Amazing.
She did a study on the cortisol levelsand what she found is that the cortisol
levels, the stress levels of the dog godown when they go out, obviously they're
(29:51):
out there having a good time and then whenthey come back in, they just re return
to the same level they were at before.
So the dog is not getting morestressed from coming back at all.
It's just really reacting to in thesame amount of stress to being in a
shelter, but it's functioning the waythat a weekend functions for humans.
(30:16):
Meaning that if you leave work onFriday and you're stressed and then you
get relaxed over the weekend and yougo back to work on Monday and you're
stressed, does that mean that you wouldgo give up that weekend to not have
to go back to work and be stressed?
No, you're not making the dog sad bytaking it out and bringing it back.
(30:36):
That's not the way that works.
That's literally the dog isjust going back to the exact
same way it was in the shelter.
But maybe now it's a little bitmore tired and has had a great day
and it's been seen by the public.
The big conception misconceptionsI get from shelters, people
are gonna steal the dogs.
(30:56):
No, they're not.
I'm sure it can happen.
But if you wanna get, if you're lookingto do something nefarious with a dog, you
are not gonna go to an animal shelter.
Show them your id, sign a bunch of legalforms, have them walk you out to your car
with the dog and see your license plate.
To do something nefarious to a dog.
(31:18):
You can go on Facebook, youcan go on Craigslist and get
a dog with no questions asked.
So no people are not going to stealthe dogs or do bad things to them.
People are also think,what if the dog gets lost?
What if the dog gets into a fight?
Obviously, there areguardrails around this program.
The first thing that I tell everybodywhen they start a program is no dog parks.
(31:41):
You will never be taking a dog toa dog park and that all of your
participants need to know that this is.
Not a dog park activity.
This is not a go play with otherdogs activity or meet strange dogs.
This is for that dog to get someone-on-one attention and a stress
break, and it needs to always beon leash and an adult always has
(32:02):
to be in charge of that leash.
The only exception to that is if you'rebringing the dog to your home with no
other pets and you're letting the dogplay in your fenced backyard for a couple
hours, which is great, or even let youknow, then you can take the dog off leash.
But no and if shelters are reallyworried about it, I just tell 'em
to go buy a pack of air tags andair tag the dogs when they go out.
(32:23):
I have air tags in all my luggage.
But yeah, the misconceptions are that thisprogram's a lot more dangerous than it is.
It's really not that peopleare gonna steal the dogs.
They're not going to, that thedogs are going to be heartbroken
and miserable when they come back.
Nope.
Data shows the answer tothat is a big old, solid.
No, it's pretty much all positive.
Dixie (32:43):
That's cool.
Now, are there any ways to implementa similar program for cats?,
Of course, I know you couldn'tgo take a cat out on a walk, but.
For shelters that do have like a largecat population, is there any kind of
way you could do like a weekend programfor cats that would be beneficial?
Finn (33:01):
I don't have the behavioral data on that, but like I am a firm believer
of, and in any kind of short term foster,I am a firm believer in any opportunity
you have an animal to get, you haveto get an animal out of the shelter
and see how it behaves in real life.
Be it for a weekend,that is an opportunity.
(33:23):
I also believe that we are not jailers.
It is not our purpose to take theseanimals into shelter or rescue and hold
them hostage, and they have to stay there.
These animals have done nothing wrong.
They have the right to goexperience normal life, and it
is not our place to defer that.
(33:43):
So if you have somebody thatsays, I would like to take Ms.
Kitty home for the weekend.
Then yes, I believe that a program that'sa beneficial program would I put some
guardrails around it, just knowing cats?
Yeah, definitely.
Obviously you're not gonna take 'emout on a walk, and maybe if you were
gonna bring home an older cat forthe weekend, you would say, Hey,
(34:05):
she needs to stay in your bedroomwith the door closed and and
the litter box in the bathroom.
Just 'cause we know a lot of timeswhen cats are in new places, it's
a lot less overwhelming for themto be in a smaller area first.
So if you were doing a short-termfoster, I would just say maybe that
would be the guardrails you would putaround it, is that you just say, Hey,
(34:26):
we're just gonna ask that you keep 'emin an enclosed area until they start
to seem a little bit more comfortable,
Dixie (34:31):
yeah, I think that could work.
I do cat rescue, so knowing catbehavior, you always will see these
cats that you're like, oh yeah, youcan bring them into your house, and
they're gonna be totally comfortable.
And then you have these otherones that are like, no, it's gonna
take them a while to warm up.
You have to have them in theirlike little safe, small place.
But yeah, I think like a weekend thing.
I never thought about doing likea weekend thing, but I think that
(34:52):
could even be beneficial for people.
Just to experience kittens,fostering kittens for a weekend
rather than fostering 'em.
Oh, definitely.
The whole time from, them reaching anage and size that they can be spayed,
neutered, and then go up for adoption.
Finn (35:08):
Oh, and not only that, but imagine how many more fosters you would have.
If your fosters knew that they couldgo away for the weekend and there
would be somebody that could take theirpet, their foster for the weekend,
and so they wouldn't have to canceltheir trip or not, or choose between
fostering and or taking a trip.
(35:29):
Or they just knew like, Hey, thesekittens are driving me nuts and
I just need a break for 24 hours.
If they knew that was an option.
And I wish I had this study in front ofme, but there was a great study and one
of the big from, I wanna say Maddie'sfund, and one of the biggest fears that
people had about fostering was not knowinghow long they would have the animal.
(35:49):
And so if you have short-termfoster, you can become a lot more
flexible with your long-term fosters.
You can tell them like, Hey, we'vegot Becky, she only does weekends, if.
You wanna foster, but you know thatyou'd like to have your weekends free,
then we can still use you as a foster.
That's great.
So it opens the pool of fostersup a lot bigger and I do think
(36:10):
it could work for an adult cat.
But just like with doggy day out, youdon't send every dog on a doggy day out.
Obviously there are some dogsthat it's just not gonna work for.
Right?
Be it because they're very reactive.
And it would be the same thing with cats.
Like you would not send that shy caton a weekend foster, but kittens or
like the big Tom who just got neutered,who's got cheeks out to the walls, who
(36:34):
just like rolls over on his stomachevery time anyone looks at him.
Like, yeah, send himout to a weekend Foster.
Great.
Dixie (36:41):
And even if they didn't get adopted by the people that are doing the
temporary fostering, it gets 'em moresocialized And get 'em more exposure.
Finn (36:50):
and the more you can give your foster homes flexibility, the more foster
homes you'll have, the more you will give.
And also even just having a shortterm foster for a cat that's
returned that happens in rescue.
People adopt a kitten and then theyrealize, I don't know, maybe their
kids are too rough for it, or somethinglike that, and they need to return it.
(37:13):
And you don't have afoster home available.
You call a weekend foster person, and thatat least buys you some time or a short
term foster to make a longer term plan forthat animal I am a firm believer in short
term foster and also a lot of people.
That start at short-term fosters, Ithink that's something like up to 37%
(37:33):
will convert to longer term fostering.
So it's a great gateway drug for peopleto get into to get their feet wet with
fostering until they get comfortableenough to take on long-term fosters.
Dixie (37:46):
Another thing too, with a doggy day out and doing say the
weekend is it ever an issue wherepeople might flake out, bring the dog.
Home, say like on a Friday the sheltercould be closed on a Saturday, but
then they like totally flake outand they're like, I can't do this.
I need to bring the dog back.
Is that ever a problem?
Finn (38:05):
Yeah, I mean I definitely, I believe it is.
Where we are not a shelter.
We're a national initiative andI work with a lot of shelters
and I have heard of that program.
And again, that's a guardrailyou have to have in place.
And one of the things we alwaystell people to do is to have
one dedicated cell phone number.
Most shelters already have an emergencyline either for the, just for the ACOs
(38:30):
or for the regular foster base in casesomething either longer term foster
base in case there's an emergency.
Or just having a burner cell phone thatyou use for it that somebody is carrying
if there are dogs out for the weekendso that person has a number to call,
where there will always be a personon the other end that can take the dog
(38:51):
and bring it back into the shelter.
Be it a manager or something like that.
Dixie (38:55):
And for listeners who might be interested in a doggy
day out either for their.
Group or to even contact their shelter,to tell their shelter about this program.
How would they go ahead to get'em to get started with this?
Finn (39:11):
But if you are just a person in an area and you wanna take a dog out and
see if there's shelters around you mutualRescue has a doggy day out directory
that goes by state of shelters that weknow have programs and that have been
asked to be added to the directory.
And there's over a hundred inshelters in that directory.
(39:31):
Just because your shelter is notlisted in that directory does not
mean that they do not have a program.
I do know of some programs that have askednot to be listed because the demand for
this program is so high that they bookup far in advance, and so they don't
want any more advertisement for it.
But so first of all, my firstsuggestion would be check the directory.
(39:54):
It's mutual rescue.org,
and then just click onthe doggy day out button.
The other thing you can doif you want your shelter to
have one, is just go ask them.
I never encourage people to badgeyour shelter workers about things.
But you can always send an email andsuggest, Hey, I heard about this program.
Do you guys have any plans ondoing this or anything like that?
(40:16):
And if you do and you wantto, you can send them a link.
Mutual Rescue has, on their, on thatDoggy Day Out there is page, there
is a page Doggy Day Out for sheltersand you can send them that page
where they can download the DoggyDay Out toolkit and look it over.
Basically, I would tell, justtell 'em, ask their shelter.
And not every shelter can or will havedoggie day out, either because of staffing
(40:39):
or resource issues, even though there'sa lot of ways to make this program
work, even with very small staffing.
I know shelters that have two staffmembers that run this program.
It's a very easy program toutilize volunteers to run.
But either because of resources,because of population, or because of
like odd municipality laws which arereally weird all over the country.
(41:04):
But, a lot of shelters do have it.
I can tell you there, there's programsin Alaska and Wyoming and when, if you
can go to Alaska and take a dog out,you probably can take one out near you,
Dixie (41:15):
Uhhuh.
Yeah.
Well, thank you so much forsharing the information on
these two programs, the languageaccessibility and the doggy day out.
I know personally, I'm gonna go takea look at the flyers that you have.
And share some of those on mysocial media to try to reach some
of the Spanish speaking population.
And I'm also considering tryingto do a a weekend foster for
(41:38):
cats and see how that goes.
Finn (41:40):
I definitely would.
I would try pilotingit maybe with kittens.
When I was.
Younger, I briefly worked in the child,in at a group home for foster children.
And respite fostering was a really, wasan integral part of that foster system
for people which were weekend fosters thatwould give the regular fosters a break if
(42:01):
they needed to go outta town or one weekfosters, and so respite, call it short
term foster, call it Weekend Warriors.
You can come up with alot of fun names for it.
What is the one that Ithink Animal Foundation has?
Like the gruel Gobblers.
But yeah, definitely I think it's agreat idea for cats and honestly, once
(42:23):
we get through getting the languageaccessibility thing turned in, it's
definitely something I would a projectI would wanna consider working on doing
a toolkit for looking to research about.
Dixie (42:33):
Both of them are really great programs and I didn't
know about either one of 'em.
Now before we end the call, is thereanything else that you would like to add?
Finn (42:42):
No just, I'm very grateful to be on today.
Thank you so much.
If you have any suggestions formore cat focused handouts that
are needed, please let me know.
We are working on what to doif you find kittens and on
caring for neonatal handouts.
In Spanish because wehad a request for that.
(43:04):
Actually, there's a couple of groupsin LA that do cat foster and the
majority of their foster base is Spanishspeaking , so we know that, there
is a culture of animal welfare and.
Families really deeply love their petsand wanna help and why not engage them,
Dixie (43:19):
I could definitely collaborate with you on stuff for cats.
I teach a bottle feeding and foster class,and I would love to be able to reach
more people because there's not enough.
Cat fosters or bottle feeders as there is.
So the more people that wecould get involved, the better.
Finn (43:35):
Exactly.
All right, well, thankyou so much for having me.
Dixie (43:38):
All right, well, thank you.
I appreciate it.
We hope you join us next week.
If you know somebody that loves animalsas much as I do, please send 'em our way.
We would love to talk to 'em.
If you are enjoying our show, pleaseconsider leaving us a donation.
A hundred percent goes to our animals
Paws in
(44:02):
the night Claws in thefight Whiskers twitch and
tails
take flight
They’re calling in Stories to spinFrom the wild to the heart within
(44:24):
Broken wings and hopeful springsWe’re the voices for these things
animal posse hear the call.
We stand together.
Big and small Rescue tales We’vegot it all Animal posse Saving
(44:52):
them
all
The vet’s got tips The rescuer’sgrit The foster homes where love
won’t quit From a pup in the rain toa bird in pain , Every soul’s worth
(45:20):
the
strain
Animal posse
Hear the call
We stand together Big
(45:45):
and small Rescue tales We’ve gotit all Animal posse Saving them all
Every caller tells a tale, everyhowl a whispered wail, we rise up.
We never
(46:06):
fail.
This
is
the
bond
The holy grail
(46:26):
Animal posse Hear the call We standtogether Big and small Rescue tales We’ve
got it all Animal posse Saving them all
(46:50):
Every caller tells a tale Every howla whispered wail We rise up We never
fail This is the bond The holy grail.
Song by Suno.ai
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