June 20, 2025 • 35 mins
Step inside the incredible world of animal rescue with our latest episode! We sit down with Jessica Vaccaro, the dedicated Shelter Manager at Animal Rescue New Orleans (ARNO), to uncover the inspiring work they do every single day. From heartwarming adoption stories to the challenging realities of running a no-kill shelter in our community. Learn about ARNO's mission, their tireless efforts to care for abandoned and homeless animals, and how they work towards finding every furry friend a loving forever home. This episode is a must-listen for animal lovers, advocates, and anyone curious about making a difference right here in New Orleans.
If you're enjoying the show, a tip is a great way to support our rescue! You can do so here: Unwanted Feline Organization
#ARNO #AnimalRescueNewOrleans #NoKillShelter #AdoptDontShop #AnimalWelfare #NewOrleansAnimals #PetAdoption #CommunitySupport #Podcast #AnimalHeroes #NOLAPets
Mark as Played
Transcript
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.
Today's guest is Jessica with ARNO.
Hi, Jessica, thanks for joining me today.
Jessica (00:17):
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Dixie (00:19):
Sure.
To start, could you tell our listenersa bit about yourself and your role
with Animal Rescue New Orleans or Arno?
Jessica (00:27):
Yeah.
So my name is Jessica Vaccaro andI'm the shelter manager of Animal
Rescue New Orleans, or Arno for short.
I oversee our day-to-day operations,help shape long-term strategy, manage
our team of staffing volunteers.
And stay pretty involved with, therehabilitation and medical of the
(00:51):
animals within our organization.
No two days is ever the same at Arno.
Dixie (00:58):
And what inspired you to get involved in animal rescue?
Jessica (01:04):
I grew up surrounded by animals.
My grandparents showed boxers,so I grew up in the show world.
And then when I was 18, I joined the Armyactive duty as an animal care specialist.
And so I worked with the militaryworking dogs and also with the
clinics and shelters on bases.
(01:25):
So just from an early age, startedworking with them, fell in love with
the work, and when I got out of thearmy, I, continued on this path.
Dixie (01:37):
How did you get involved with doing the animal care specialist to begin with?
I've never heard of that before.
Jessica (01:43):
Yeah, it's very small MOS, and they actually only have it in
the army the DOD executive, thatposition, and we cover all branches.
And I just was lucky thatone of those was open.
I had not heard of it either.
I was 19, and I didn't even reallyunderstood everything I would be doing.
(02:04):
But it just, workedout because I loved it.
Dixie (02:09):
I knew they had animals, but I've never heard of anybody say they were
an animal care specialist in the army.
So that's pretty cool.
Jessica (02:17):
Yeah, it was really cool.
Besides people who I know fromserving with, I have never,
randomly met another veteran whohad this job either it's very small.
So yeah, it was just very lucky.
It was definitely kismet.
Dixie (02:32):
And thank you for serving too.
Jessica (02:35):
Oh, thank you.
Dixie (02:37):
What makes Arno's mission important to you?
Jessica (02:41):
We have a couple of things.
Arno is really multifacetedin the work that we do.
So we take in, behavior cases,medical cases, we work closely with.
open intake shelters in the area.
We also have a community assistanceprogram that helps us, provide
(03:02):
food and veterinary servicesfor low cost individuals, to
help keep animals in homes.
And we also assist on
natural disaster and neglect cases.
I like that.
Arno, to me, really encompasses whatrescue is about, which is helping our
(03:24):
community in a lot of different ways thatare impacted, in the animal rescue field.
Dixie (03:30):
I was always familiar with Arno, 'cause I'm of course from New Orleans,
so after Katrina they were really bigand involved in rescuing animals here.
So for those that are unfamiliar, can yougive us an overview of the organization's
history and also the primary goals?
Jessica (03:49):
Absolutely.
So ARNO was born in theaftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
It was started by animal lovers who sawthe thousands of animals who were left
behind in the city, and they starteddoing triage work here in the city.
They just all came together.
They had a passion to, help theseanimals and that passion never faded.
(04:12):
And it turned into this kind of grassrootsorganization that still is going on.
And actually, August, we'llmake our 20 year anniversary
from where it all started.
Yeah, it's a really neatkind of origin story.
And our still core goals are to,rescue, rehabilitate and rehome
(04:33):
animals, especially those who aresick, injured, and overlooked.
And we do all of this without anysort of government funding and we
do this, mainly volunteer driven.
Dixie (04:46):
How many volunteers does your organization have?
Jessica (04:50):
I think that's a really hard number to encapsulate just because
we have, a turnover of volunteers,but long term dedicated volunteers
who do, higher end task for us or whohave been with us for a long time.
At least 50 to 75 individuals.
But, for the people who come and helpwith animal care on those shifts each
(05:14):
day and all the other things, likelywe have, a hundred to 150 volunteers
at any, one in a month's time.
Dixie (05:25):
You said, you do have a quick turnover of volunteers.
What do you think the cause for that is?
Jessica (05:32):
A lot of people just come for different types of service hours, so
for schooling, for different programs.
So a lot of people are just coming fora set amount of hours to volunteer.
We get fortunate that, we do getpeople who come for limited time who
do end up sticking around, but it'sjust the nature, especially, we have
(05:53):
a lot of college students that come.
Who, don't stay in the city whenthey finish their degrees and stuff.
So I just like those kinds ofgirls we see high turnover in.
Dixie (06:06):
'Cause I know a lot of other organizations, they always say they
have a hard time getting volunteers,so that's why I asked the question.
I didn't know if it was somethingwhere, people show up and they think
they're gonna play with puppies orkitties all day and then they actually
find out they have to do some cleaning.
Jessica (06:21):
I'm quite sure that is definitely part of it as well.
It is really hard work.
And we certainly do get volunteers whothinks it's gonna be just hanging out
with the animals and they don't realize,that it's walking the dogs, cleaning the
kennels, doing dishes, doing laundry.
Also that kind of work, the kind ofbehind the scenes stuff that a lot
(06:43):
of people don't see and don't alwaysrealize that, that's part of it.
Dixie (06:49):
Are you doing the rescue work only in New Orleans or do
you go out to other areas as well?
Jessica (06:56):
We go out to other areas as well.
We pull a lot from our community.
So we pull a lot from OrleansParish and Jefferson Parish.
We also pull a lot from Terrebonne.
From St.
John.
We will help wherever wecan, we used to go up to St.
Landry quite a bit, so wherever we canaccommodate, shelters that need help, we
(07:21):
try and help, but we do, try and maintainJefferson Parish and Orleans Parish
as kind of some of our top prioritiesjust because they are our community.
Dixie (07:32):
How many resident animals do you have?
Jessica (07:36):
We can house and shelter 45 dogs and probably about 50 cats.
And then in foster we typicallyhave about 75 animals.
In summer kitten season, that numbercan certainly go up in Foster.
Usually we have about, betweenFoster and in shelter, about
(08:00):
150 to 200 animals in our care.
Dixie (08:04):
How old is the oldest resident or how long has the
oldest resident been in your care?
Jessica (08:11):
Our oldest resident is Carol and we have had her for
unfortunately five years now.
Dixie (08:18):
And is she a cat or a dog?
Jessica (08:21):
She is a dog.
She is a beautiful littlesquatty body pit bull.
She needs to be an only child.
And it takes her a minute to warmup to people which has been what's
made it difficult placing her.
But she does warm up topeople pretty quickly.
And she has a lot of friends and alot of new friends who are always
(08:45):
working with volunteers, getting herintro to more people, so she just has
more walkers and people on her team.
Dixie (08:51):
And has she gone to any like trial homes and it just didn't work out?
Jessica (08:55):
No.
She has had a couple, likehandful of people apply to adopt
her, come meet her, and just.
haven't followed through, she has notgotten even a chance at a trial adoption.
She's been in foster, like short termfoster with some of our volunteers.
And she did well.
(09:16):
Like they didn't report any issues.
They just weren't in positionswhere they could keep her long term.
Dixie (09:21):
That's sad.
But I'm glad she's with y'allbecause at least she's okay.
Jessica (09:24):
Yeah..
And we're so lucky for the volunteerswe have because we just have so
many truly amazing humans who goabove and beyond for our animals.
And Carol, is one that tugs at all ofour heartstrings, she gets multiple
car rides every week, pupccinos, lotsof like special outings and trips.
Just because so many of ourvolunteers do, love her so much.
(09:46):
So we do try and do thebest we can for her.
Dixie (09:51):
And what about CAT resident?
What is the oldest CATresident that you have?
Jessica (09:56):
Oh goodness.
Nowhere near that I don't even thinkright now we have any cats that
they've even been with us for a year.
We don't have any like very longterm cats right now, honestly.
Our cat adoptions have been wonderful.
Dixie (10:15):
That's great.
Jessica (10:15):
Our cat adoption team who are all volunteers are amazing.
And they've been really successful inhelping to place like a lot of our kitties
with, medical or behavioral issues.
Yeah, I think like maybe six to eightmonths, maybe one of our long term kind
of ongoing medical cases right now.
But that's it.
And that's baby . He has just actuallyhad an abdominal ultrasound today.
(10:38):
'cause we're trying to figure out someissues that have been ongoing with
him.
Dixie (10:42):
Yeah, that, that's wonderful though that you're doing so well with the cats.
'cause usually it's the catsare little harder to adopt out.
Jessica (10:49):
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, knock on wood, they'vebeen doing a great job.
Dixie (10:56):
Do you do any transports?
Jessica (10:59):
We do not do transport from our shelter.
There, honestly, we just havenever really had a need to do it.
Typically, transport's kind ofcome into us so yeah, that's just
not really part of our mission.
Dixie (11:13):
And I do understand y'all have a new facility.
Jessica (11:18):
We do.
It is amazing.
It was a labor of love for sureand many years in the making.
We spent years fundraising andchecking properties out until
we were able to purchase a.
Property.
And then we spent, a few more yearsfundraising and campaigning to do all
(11:39):
of the construction and to, get allthe equipment and everything we need.
So we just moved in this year,the second week of February.
And we will actually be having ourgrand opening on June 28th from 2:00
PM to 5:00 PM and that will be opento the public for us to do tours
and show everyone our new space.
Dixie (12:02):
After the grand opening, are you open to the public if somebody
wants to go in, or do they haveto make an appointment with you?
Jessica (12:10):
People from the public have to make an appointment with us.
Our adoption team is allcompletely volunteer, so we do
everything with an appointment.
Dixie (12:20):
You mentioned some of the programs that you're involved with.
You said that you do disasters,neglect cases, and you help out
individuals to keep their pets.
And you mentioned the low cost program.
So what are the qualificationsfor the low cost program that
help people keep their pets?
Jessica (12:38):
Yeah, so our community assistance program is income based.
So we have a vetting process thatis done by one of my directors.
But typically it's just basedoff of income is how we do that.
And that helps to provide foodpreventatives and then necessary
medical care for these animals.
(12:59):
And.
We are always taking in, newpeople into this program.
So if there's anybody you know thatneeds assistance or wants to see if
they qualify, they can contact us atinfo at animal rescue new orleans.org
that will connect them with our directorwho oversees this program and she
can get the process started for them.
Dixie (13:21):
Is that like a long term or a short term program?
Jessica (13:26):
Either or.
It depends on the needs of the individual.
So we have some peoplethat we help long term.
We have some people that just needhelp, for a short amount of time.
We do both just dependent onthe needs of the individual
Dixie (13:40):
For the neglect, cases that you work, do you house the animals for the
authorities or how does that work exactly?
Jessica (13:48):
Yeah typically it's with national groups when they ask
us to assist with any cases thatthey're working on or situations.
Most recently we just assisted AnimalRescue Corps this past Friday in
Bienville Parish for a criminal.
case, which was a cruelty caseinvolving over 30 animals in a home
(14:09):
that was running itself like a rescue.
And we've worked on several cases likethat with the Animal Rescue Corps,
with Bissell Foundation, and withBest Friends and other organizations.
As situations have arisen inour community or in the area.
Dixie (14:28):
Do
you
physically go out to the property tohelp or do you just take in the animals?
Jessica (14:33):
Yeah, so we physically go out to help.
We usually go out to help with handling,extraction behavior, assessing if
just because everybody has to bevetted, before being transported.
And then in certain situations we takeanimals, if that's what they're asking
for, help with the case on Friday.
(14:53):
They had placement forall the animals with them.
So they all were all transportedback to their facility in Tennessee.
But we worked other cases where we'vetaken animals from the site , it's
probably more typical that we'rethere working support during the
case and that we typically will alsopull and leave with the animals.
Dixie (15:14):
Can I ask how the national groups get involved with that?
Cause I, usually here, it's like a localauthority that would go in and take
care of that or like a local shelter.
Jessica (15:28):
A lot of times it's that.
Either the police department or theshelters are reaching out to them.
Typically it's because it's somethingoutside of like the capacity of
what that local shelter can handle.
For this case on this past Friday,I believe one of the shelter
managers in the area is whocontacted the group that came down.
(15:53):
And connected them with the sheriff'sdepartment for them to take over the case
or to take the animals from the case.
Dixie (16:01):
I'd like to talk a little bit about natural disasters too.
What are the more recentdisasters that you have worked?
Jessica (16:10):
Hurricane Ida was really the last kind of big thing in this area.
Dixie (16:17):
For disasters, do you typically just stay in Louisiana then?
Jessica (16:22):
Typically we shelter in place for our animals here.
We've provided support.
We've driven out supplies and differentthings out to and there's been other
hurricanes outside of New Orleans.
But yeah, when it's here in NewOrleans, we typically will shelter
in place and take care of the animalsat our shelter and help deal with.
(16:44):
Strays and found animals which isvery frequent during these situations,
especially when there's extended powerwater outage like there was with Ida.
I think we were at 12days in our area with out.
So yeah, we just help as we can withinour ability with that kind of stuff.
(17:04):
We also, had people black watercertified with the parish.
So we'll work on call or withLSART if needed for like water
rescue and state response as well.
That is all really based onjust like personnel though,
sometimes we have times where.
we have enough personnel, that wecan help, other times we don't have
(17:28):
enough and we just have to focus,on our own shelter and our own
needs.
Dixie (17:33):
And what certification was that?
I've never heard of that.
Jessica (17:38):
Black Water Rescue.
It's a type of water rescue,specifically for animal rescue
responders, so for animal water rescue.
Dixie (17:51):
Hurricanes, of course, you just touched on this a little bit, that we
have power outages do you have a backupgenerator for the shelter, or how do
you combat these power outages with allthese animals that you're sheltering?
Jessica (18:04):
Yeah, so we do now, which is so exciting.
We have a natural gasgenerator at our new shelter.
That was one of our big,non-negotiables when we moved in.
Like we're designing, this new shelter.
But before that we had gas rungenerators, and we typically had
five to six to run the whole shelter.
(18:26):
Whenever anything weather related, thatwe had notice on, we would always put
out like a lot of posts and emails totry and move as many of our animals into
foster as possible just to try and keep.
The amount of animals in the shelteras low as possible, which has also
(18:46):
been our saving grace with some ofthese more extreme weather conditions.
Dixie (18:54):
Can you tell people what should they have for hurricane
season coming up for their own pets?
Can you go over what, a good disasterkit would be to have, or a hurricane kit?
Jessica (19:06):
Yeah, absolutely.
What I keep for my personal animalsevery year is I always make copies,
updated copies of their vaccine records.
I put those in.
Ziploc bags.
I also take a picture of those.
So I have it on my phone as well.
Easily accessible.
I make sure I have about a week'sworth of food for each of my animals,
(19:27):
a month's worth of any medications for'em, and then a week's worth of water.
I also keep on hand some over thecounter, calming supplements for 'em.
And then, of course, I always keepmarked collars on my dogs because those
are the anti-slip collars and leashes.
I also keep a roll of dog bags in theirgo bags, and I also keep popup water bowl
(19:52):
and food bowls for them both as well.
So I have a little.
Go bag for my animals for disasterstuff and I repack that, every
year usually at the start of June.
Dixie (20:06):
That's great.
And why do you do the copiesof the vaccine records?
Jessica (20:12):
Yeah, just in case anything ends up being more
catastrophic than we realize.
And we have to evacuate or if I needto go stay with a family member out of
state, I just wanna make sure that Ihave, proof of their vaccines, their
rabies vaccine and their microchipon hand and ready to go, especially
if I'm moving them over state lines.
Dixie (20:32):
Yeah, that's definitely a great thing to have.
Everybody should have that.
Jessica (20:37):
Absolutely.
Dixie (20:38):
And everybody should have some kind of go bag, like you said, ready
to go that you can just grab and take.
And get out the door if you have to.
Jessica (20:45):
Yeah.
I do like my own, disaster kitfor my animals every year in June.
And I just find too, I it just givesyou a peace of mind when things happen.
You don't have to scramble,you don't need to be stressed
because you know you're prepared.
And that way, you canfocus on other things.
And I'm sure that's kindalike the military in me.
I'm a big, planner, beingprepared is very important to me.
(21:09):
Yeah, I highly recommendto everybody out there.
Dixie (21:13):
Yep.
And hurricane season is coming up, so
Jessica (21:16):
Yes.
It is
Dixie (21:18):
not fun.
Jessica (21:19):
No, especially not with animals.
It definitely adds on some morelayers there when you have animals
or kids, just when you haveany sort of dependent, right?
Dixie (21:31):
Yeah.
And it, it's stressful, especiallyfor me 'cause I have cats, so like
it's different with cats and dogs too.
Jessica (21:38):
Yeah.
It's tough.
Dixie (21:39):
I try to keep 'em in their kennels.
I don't take 'em out of their kennelsuntil we get to the destination
and then I'll have these biggerpopup things that they can go in.
Jessica (21:50):
Nice.
And do you use the thefeliaway spray at all?
Dixie (21:54):
I will for the ones I have that get a little bit stressed out,
luckily most of mine are, okay.
They might meow for maybe 15, 20minutes and then they calm down.
Jessica (22:04):
Okay.
So they're like, we've been through
this before.
Dixie (22:08):
They're not too bad.
But I know there's people thathave to sedate their cats,
Jessica (22:12):
oh, yeah.
Dixie (22:12):
What strategies have proven to be the most effective in terms
of successful animal rescues
Jessica (22:19):
I would say probably, building trust with people in the community,
with other organizations, with theshelters we're pulling throughout
from I think, fostering communitybuilding those relationships within
our community is key to anything thatwe do in animal rescue because when.
(22:41):
People know that they can trustyou when they know that you're
gonna do the right thing.
When they know that you're,you will offer, support.
I think it just makes everything easierbecause other open intake shelters know
that you're resource that they can contactwhen they need help with certain animals.
Members of the community, knowthat they can reach out for help.
(23:01):
When they need it.
And, even other rescues, know that ifthey, need help in a situation or, maybe
there's an animal that needs help andthey don't have space at the moment.
They know that we're aresource that they can call.
So I think yeah, that's probably beenone of the biggest, parts of our success.
Helped us to, stay successful doing rescueis just fostering those relationships and,
(23:26):
building trust like within the community.
Dixie (23:29):
And on the flip side, have there been any approaches to rescue that
haven't worked as well as anticipated?
Jessica (23:36):
I think a lot of things are trial and error just in general.
Like with anything.
Maybe the things that are theleast successful for us is
when we overextend ourselves.
Just in general, beingmainly volunteer driven.
Having enough people to do all the thingswe wanna do and to do all the things
we wanna do well can be challenging.
(23:57):
Maybe overcommitting ourselves, to eventsand different exposure things, which,
ideally would be a great thing, butwhen you don't have enough volunteers
to, man the event, bring animals to theevent or, to the, these things, then
they ultimately are not successful.
So I think that would be probably thebiggest thing is just over extension.
Dixie (24:21):
Could you discuss your process for screening potential adopters to ensure
animals go to safe and loving homes?
Jessica (24:28):
Yeah, absolutely.
So it starts off with ourapplication which is on our website.
Once an application is filled in,that's gonna go over to one of our
volunteer adoption team members.
They are gonna read through that, whichthe application really just covers
lifestyle experience and kind of theperson's expectations for pet ownership.
(24:51):
Then we're gonna do a virtual home check.
This is mainly we're, checking theyards for, issues with fencing,
poisonous plants, that kind of thing.
And then if the person has owneda pet before, we are going to,
call the vet just to verify, that.
Vaccines were done, preventativeswere done, that kind of thing.
And then lastly, if they rent, we doalways call the landlord to ensure
(25:14):
that, the tenant has spoken to themand gotten approval for the animal.
We do try and make our processmore kind of a conversation
as opposed to a checklist.
And one of the things I think is reallyneat about our adoption process is
that you get paired with an adoptioncounselor and their whole job is just to
(25:36):
help find you, the perfect pet for you.
And they really go above and beyond,in doing that, which I think is
really special and really cool.
Dixie (25:45):
And are people open to that?
When you help them find the petfor them as opposed to just
picking out the one that they want.
Jessica (25:55):
Yeah, certainly.
Some people they see a picture, a video,or they meet an animal at an event and
they fall in love and that's totally fine.
We have other people that, maybethe animal they chose or have an
adoption application and goes home,or, maybe the animal they chose after
they meet them isn't the right fit.
And in that case we have, ourstaff who our staff does playgroups
(26:19):
every weekday at the shelter.
So the majority of all ofour dogs in shelter are
playgroups every day with them.
So that team really knowsthe behavior for the dogs.
Best.
So they'll work with dog adopters.
We have these questions we go throughwith them about what they're looking
for, their lifestyle, this, that,size, any of those preferences.
(26:39):
And then our slate group team willhelp pair 'em with they'll make a short
list of dogs that they think match whatthey're looking for and will do meets.
And then we do the samething on the cat side with.
Our cat leads who will we don't play herefor the cats, but we have, cats in our
cat condos who are, co housed with othercats and some different things that'll
(27:00):
help us determine best fit for people.
Dixie (27:03):
What about first time adopters?
If they've never had a vet,
Jessica (27:08):
We just usually ask for a professional reference.
Or typically we'll ask them to call avet and just get an estimate for some
of the basic services for the year,just so they have an understanding
of what they're looking to payout of pocket with pet ownership.
Dixie (27:24):
Do you offer any kind of post-adoption support or resources?
Jessica (27:28):
Oh yes.
We do a ton.
So we always check in and weprovide a lot of resources and we
always make ourselves available.
We will help with, training.
We'll follow up if there's anymedical issues and help with that.
If there's any supplies that we think,will help the animal adjust better, help
(27:49):
cope with any issues, we'll supply those.
So we really always wanna make sure thatour adopters feel very supported and
they don't feel like they just got stuck.
And if something doesn't work out,,we always take our animals back.
No judgment.
Whether it's been a week or a year or fiveyears since adoption, and that is part
of our contract that if it doesn't workout, our animals always come back to us.
Dixie (28:14):
Do you have any successful adoption stories that you could share?
Jessica (28:19):
Yeah.
A ton.
I will I'll talk about one that's.
Close to my heart.
And that is about our black labin a wheelchair named Titan.
He was found when he was about 10weeks old, dragging himself down the
side of the road out in Lafourche.
They didn't know if he was, trulyparalyzed or if there was just
(28:40):
inflammation that was causing like atemporary paralysis in his back legs.
We ended up taking him, not knowingwhat his future was gonna look like,
but we just knew that we had to try.
So we took him, put him through,physical therapy around the clock here.
He needed multiple surgeries.
And now he's doing great.
He is thriving, zooming aroundin his wheelchair goes to a
(29:03):
dog park multiple times a weekis out and about all the time.
And why it's close to my heart isbecause I'm the one that adopted
him after I fostered him for a year.
Yeah.
So I wasn't looking for anotherdog, but he was just, the right one.
So I have.
Two kind of specialneeds dogs at my house.
My other one is also an ARNO alum.
(29:27):
And her name is Brynn.
She's nine now.
I adopted her eight years ago.
She was found, dumped in a plastic cratewith her mom in the middle of the night.
And she was about 11 months old.
She had really bad neuropathy, which islike a nerve disorder and semi feral.
So it was actually when I firststarted at ARNO and she just
(29:50):
hugged up my heartstrings andI started working with her.
And once I built up, her trust,I took her home to foster
her and I just fell in love.
So those are my two foster fails.
Dixie (30:02):
I think everybody in rescue has some of those, and I
always say I have the reject cats.
Jessica (30:08):
Oh yeah.
Dixie (30:08):
I mean they're not really it's like the ones that nobody else wants.
Like I have one, she doesn'thave any eyes, so she was born
completely blind, no eyes.
And then of course we have a tripod.
And he doesn't know that he'smissing an arm and she doesn't
know she's missing eyes.
Jessica (30:23):
It's amazing how they adjust so quickly, like they're
animals are just so resilient.
It's just truly amazes me,
Dixie (30:31):
It does.
And it's a shame that the special needones are overlooked because I think the
special need ones, they're absolutelyamazing when you spend time with them.
Jessica (30:41):
I agree.
Yeah I agree wholeheartedly and I thinkthey just make your life so much richer.
I know, my two over here I couldn'timagine my life without Now.
If you'd asked me, five years agoif I thought I would have a dog in
a wheelchair, I'd probably be like.
What, so it's funny, with doing this workdoes make us I think, more amenable too
(31:03):
to giving these special guys a chance,
Dixie (31:06):
Yeah.
They're amazing.
Absolutely amazing.
The things that they can do.
I think everybody should see
it.
It
really is amazing.
Jessica (31:15):
Yes,
I agree.
My one's staring at me right now.
Yes, we're talking about you.
Dixie (31:21):
So how does Arno engage with the local community to raise awareness about
animal welfare and promote adoptions?
Jessica (31:29):
So it is a lot of, social media these days.
We post a lot on our Instagram,our TikTok, and our Facebook.
We try to post the kind of workwe're doing, the kind of things we're
seeing, the things we need help with.
What I enjoy about the way that wedo this is that, we don't do a lot of
(31:49):
angry or shaming posts, I think we doa pretty good job about, staying like
upbeat and honest and letting peopleknow and like the ways that we need help.
And we also do, a lot of events aswell where we're out in the community,
showcasing ARNO and the animals andtalking about the work that we do.
We also have, our needs out on likevolunteer match with kind of the
(32:13):
help that we need to for, this.
And yeah, I think that probably,encapsulates it of what we
do the majority of for that.
Dixie (32:26):
What message would you like to share with our listeners
about the importance of animalrescue and animal welfare?
Jessica (32:34):
Ooh, so
rescue ultimately is about second chances.
And not always, just for the animals.
Adopting and fostering andvolunteering I think can be
transformative for the people as well.
Doing something that matters, caring forthose who can't care for themselves is.
(32:58):
Really special and important.
And I think it, changes something withinus making the world a better place.
So yeah, I think it's, really specialall around for us and for the animals,
Dixie (33:10):
For those who wanna support Arno, what are the most
impactful ways they can contribute?
Jessica (33:16):
Yeah.
Volunteering.
Volunteering giving your time isalways the best way to help ARNO.
There are so many ways you can helpby coming, helping with animal care
events, volunteering or fostering.
We have other volunteer positionslike administration ones as well.
(33:37):
And then of course, if you're able todonate, especially monthly support really
helps us plan out and respond quickly.
Every little bit helps us truly.
And then, helping to promote us.
If you see one of our posts, onsocial media, please share it.
Please like it, please interact with it.
That helps us, if you have a friendor family member looking to adopt
(34:01):
or volunteer send of our way.
So those are probably some ofthe most impactful ways that
people can help support us.
Dixie (34:08):
And what is your website too?
Jessica (34:11):
It is www.animalrescueneworleans.org.
Dixie (34:17):
Thank you.
And before we end the call, is thereanything else you would like to add?
Jessica (34:24):
Oh, for anybody in the immediate area, we would love to see
you come out for our grand opening.
That is going to be on Saturday, June 28thfrom 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM we will have a lot
going on, including we'll be giving tours.
And if you do come by,please come meet me.
Again, my name's Jessica and I'd behappy to give anybody who comes a
(34:45):
tour of the new facility and talkto you about Arno more in depth.
Dixie (34:50):
That sounds like fun and congratulations on the grand opening too.
It's very exciting tohave that in the area.
Jessica (34:56):
Yeah.
Thank you so much.
Dixie (34:58):
All right.
Thank you for taking thetime to speak with me today.
I appreciate it.
Jessica (35:02):
Yeah, thank you for having me.
It was a pleasure.
Welcome to Animal Posse, the podcast dedicated to the
people and rescues, making adifference in the lives of animals.
Today's guest is Jessica with ARNO.
Hi, Jessica, thanks for joining me today.
Jessica (00:17):
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Dixie (00:19):
Sure.
To start, could you tell our listenersa bit about yourself and your role
with Animal Rescue New Orleans or Arno?
Jessica (00:27):
Yeah.
So my name is Jessica Vaccaro andI'm the shelter manager of Animal
Rescue New Orleans, or Arno for short.
I oversee our day-to-day operations,help shape long-term strategy, manage
our team of staffing volunteers.
And stay pretty involved with, therehabilitation and medical of the
(00:51):
animals within our organization.
No two days is ever the same at Arno.
Dixie (00:58):
And what inspired you to get involved in animal rescue?
Jessica (01:04):
I grew up surrounded by animals.
My grandparents showed boxers,so I grew up in the show world.
And then when I was 18, I joined the Armyactive duty as an animal care specialist.
And so I worked with the militaryworking dogs and also with the
clinics and shelters on bases.
(01:25):
So just from an early age, startedworking with them, fell in love with
the work, and when I got out of thearmy, I, continued on this path.
Dixie (01:37):
How did you get involved with doing the animal care specialist to begin with?
I've never heard of that before.
Jessica (01:43):
Yeah, it's very small MOS, and they actually only have it in
the army the DOD executive, thatposition, and we cover all branches.
And I just was lucky thatone of those was open.
I had not heard of it either.
I was 19, and I didn't even reallyunderstood everything I would be doing.
(02:04):
But it just, workedout because I loved it.
Dixie (02:09):
I knew they had animals, but I've never heard of anybody say they were
an animal care specialist in the army.
So that's pretty cool.
Jessica (02:17):
Yeah, it was really cool.
Besides people who I know fromserving with, I have never,
randomly met another veteran whohad this job either it's very small.
So yeah, it was just very lucky.
It was definitely kismet.
Dixie (02:32):
And thank you for serving too.
Jessica (02:35):
Oh, thank you.
Dixie (02:37):
What makes Arno's mission important to you?
Jessica (02:41):
We have a couple of things.
Arno is really multifacetedin the work that we do.
So we take in, behavior cases,medical cases, we work closely with.
open intake shelters in the area.
We also have a community assistanceprogram that helps us, provide
(03:02):
food and veterinary servicesfor low cost individuals, to
help keep animals in homes.
And we also assist on
natural disaster and neglect cases.
I like that.
Arno, to me, really encompasses whatrescue is about, which is helping our
(03:24):
community in a lot of different ways thatare impacted, in the animal rescue field.
Dixie (03:30):
I was always familiar with Arno, 'cause I'm of course from New Orleans,
so after Katrina they were really bigand involved in rescuing animals here.
So for those that are unfamiliar, can yougive us an overview of the organization's
history and also the primary goals?
Jessica (03:49):
Absolutely.
So ARNO was born in theaftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
It was started by animal lovers who sawthe thousands of animals who were left
behind in the city, and they starteddoing triage work here in the city.
They just all came together.
They had a passion to, help theseanimals and that passion never faded.
(04:12):
And it turned into this kind of grassrootsorganization that still is going on.
And actually, August, we'llmake our 20 year anniversary
from where it all started.
Yeah, it's a really neatkind of origin story.
And our still core goals are to,rescue, rehabilitate and rehome
(04:33):
animals, especially those who aresick, injured, and overlooked.
And we do all of this without anysort of government funding and we
do this, mainly volunteer driven.
Dixie (04:46):
How many volunteers does your organization have?
Jessica (04:50):
I think that's a really hard number to encapsulate just because
we have, a turnover of volunteers,but long term dedicated volunteers
who do, higher end task for us or whohave been with us for a long time.
At least 50 to 75 individuals.
But, for the people who come and helpwith animal care on those shifts each
(05:14):
day and all the other things, likelywe have, a hundred to 150 volunteers
at any, one in a month's time.
Dixie (05:25):
You said, you do have a quick turnover of volunteers.
What do you think the cause for that is?
Jessica (05:32):
A lot of people just come for different types of service hours, so
for schooling, for different programs.
So a lot of people are just coming fora set amount of hours to volunteer.
We get fortunate that, we do getpeople who come for limited time who
do end up sticking around, but it'sjust the nature, especially, we have
(05:53):
a lot of college students that come.
Who, don't stay in the city whenthey finish their degrees and stuff.
So I just like those kinds ofgirls we see high turnover in.
Dixie (06:06):
'Cause I know a lot of other organizations, they always say they
have a hard time getting volunteers,so that's why I asked the question.
I didn't know if it was somethingwhere, people show up and they think
they're gonna play with puppies orkitties all day and then they actually
find out they have to do some cleaning.
Jessica (06:21):
I'm quite sure that is definitely part of it as well.
It is really hard work.
And we certainly do get volunteers whothinks it's gonna be just hanging out
with the animals and they don't realize,that it's walking the dogs, cleaning the
kennels, doing dishes, doing laundry.
Also that kind of work, the kind ofbehind the scenes stuff that a lot
(06:43):
of people don't see and don't alwaysrealize that, that's part of it.
Dixie (06:49):
Are you doing the rescue work only in New Orleans or do
you go out to other areas as well?
Jessica (06:56):
We go out to other areas as well.
We pull a lot from our community.
So we pull a lot from OrleansParish and Jefferson Parish.
We also pull a lot from Terrebonne.
From St.
John.
We will help wherever wecan, we used to go up to St.
Landry quite a bit, so wherever we canaccommodate, shelters that need help, we
(07:21):
try and help, but we do, try and maintainJefferson Parish and Orleans Parish
as kind of some of our top prioritiesjust because they are our community.
Dixie (07:32):
How many resident animals do you have?
Jessica (07:36):
We can house and shelter 45 dogs and probably about 50 cats.
And then in foster we typicallyhave about 75 animals.
In summer kitten season, that numbercan certainly go up in Foster.
Usually we have about, betweenFoster and in shelter, about
(08:00):
150 to 200 animals in our care.
Dixie (08:04):
How old is the oldest resident or how long has the
oldest resident been in your care?
Jessica (08:11):
Our oldest resident is Carol and we have had her for
unfortunately five years now.
Dixie (08:18):
And is she a cat or a dog?
Jessica (08:21):
She is a dog.
She is a beautiful littlesquatty body pit bull.
She needs to be an only child.
And it takes her a minute to warmup to people which has been what's
made it difficult placing her.
But she does warm up topeople pretty quickly.
And she has a lot of friends and alot of new friends who are always
(08:45):
working with volunteers, getting herintro to more people, so she just has
more walkers and people on her team.
Dixie (08:51):
And has she gone to any like trial homes and it just didn't work out?
Jessica (08:55):
No.
She has had a couple, likehandful of people apply to adopt
her, come meet her, and just.
haven't followed through, she has notgotten even a chance at a trial adoption.
She's been in foster, like short termfoster with some of our volunteers.
And she did well.
(09:16):
Like they didn't report any issues.
They just weren't in positionswhere they could keep her long term.
Dixie (09:21):
That's sad.
But I'm glad she's with y'allbecause at least she's okay.
Jessica (09:24):
Yeah..
And we're so lucky for the volunteerswe have because we just have so
many truly amazing humans who goabove and beyond for our animals.
And Carol, is one that tugs at all ofour heartstrings, she gets multiple
car rides every week, pupccinos, lotsof like special outings and trips.
Just because so many of ourvolunteers do, love her so much.
(09:46):
So we do try and do thebest we can for her.
Dixie (09:51):
And what about CAT resident?
What is the oldest CATresident that you have?
Jessica (09:56):
Oh goodness.
Nowhere near that I don't even thinkright now we have any cats that
they've even been with us for a year.
We don't have any like very longterm cats right now, honestly.
Our cat adoptions have been wonderful.
Dixie (10:15):
That's great.
Jessica (10:15):
Our cat adoption team who are all volunteers are amazing.
And they've been really successful inhelping to place like a lot of our kitties
with, medical or behavioral issues.
Yeah, I think like maybe six to eightmonths, maybe one of our long term kind
of ongoing medical cases right now.
But that's it.
And that's baby . He has just actuallyhad an abdominal ultrasound today.
(10:38):
'cause we're trying to figure out someissues that have been ongoing with
him.
Dixie (10:42):
Yeah, that, that's wonderful though that you're doing so well with the cats.
'cause usually it's the catsare little harder to adopt out.
Jessica (10:49):
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, knock on wood, they'vebeen doing a great job.
Dixie (10:56):
Do you do any transports?
Jessica (10:59):
We do not do transport from our shelter.
There, honestly, we just havenever really had a need to do it.
Typically, transport's kind ofcome into us so yeah, that's just
not really part of our mission.
Dixie (11:13):
And I do understand y'all have a new facility.
Jessica (11:18):
We do.
It is amazing.
It was a labor of love for sureand many years in the making.
We spent years fundraising andchecking properties out until
we were able to purchase a.
Property.
And then we spent, a few more yearsfundraising and campaigning to do all
(11:39):
of the construction and to, get allthe equipment and everything we need.
So we just moved in this year,the second week of February.
And we will actually be having ourgrand opening on June 28th from 2:00
PM to 5:00 PM and that will be opento the public for us to do tours
and show everyone our new space.
Dixie (12:02):
After the grand opening, are you open to the public if somebody
wants to go in, or do they haveto make an appointment with you?
Jessica (12:10):
People from the public have to make an appointment with us.
Our adoption team is allcompletely volunteer, so we do
everything with an appointment.
Dixie (12:20):
You mentioned some of the programs that you're involved with.
You said that you do disasters,neglect cases, and you help out
individuals to keep their pets.
And you mentioned the low cost program.
So what are the qualificationsfor the low cost program that
help people keep their pets?
Jessica (12:38):
Yeah, so our community assistance program is income based.
So we have a vetting process thatis done by one of my directors.
But typically it's just basedoff of income is how we do that.
And that helps to provide foodpreventatives and then necessary
medical care for these animals.
(12:59):
And.
We are always taking in, newpeople into this program.
So if there's anybody you know thatneeds assistance or wants to see if
they qualify, they can contact us atinfo at animal rescue new orleans.org
that will connect them with our directorwho oversees this program and she
can get the process started for them.
Dixie (13:21):
Is that like a long term or a short term program?
Jessica (13:26):
Either or.
It depends on the needs of the individual.
So we have some peoplethat we help long term.
We have some people that just needhelp, for a short amount of time.
We do both just dependent onthe needs of the individual
Dixie (13:40):
For the neglect, cases that you work, do you house the animals for the
authorities or how does that work exactly?
Jessica (13:48):
Yeah typically it's with national groups when they ask
us to assist with any cases thatthey're working on or situations.
Most recently we just assisted AnimalRescue Corps this past Friday in
Bienville Parish for a criminal.
case, which was a cruelty caseinvolving over 30 animals in a home
(14:09):
that was running itself like a rescue.
And we've worked on several cases likethat with the Animal Rescue Corps,
with Bissell Foundation, and withBest Friends and other organizations.
As situations have arisen inour community or in the area.
Dixie (14:28):
Do
you
physically go out to the property tohelp or do you just take in the animals?
Jessica (14:33):
Yeah, so we physically go out to help.
We usually go out to help with handling,extraction behavior, assessing if
just because everybody has to bevetted, before being transported.
And then in certain situations we takeanimals, if that's what they're asking
for, help with the case on Friday.
(14:53):
They had placement forall the animals with them.
So they all were all transportedback to their facility in Tennessee.
But we worked other cases where we'vetaken animals from the site , it's
probably more typical that we'rethere working support during the
case and that we typically will alsopull and leave with the animals.
Dixie (15:14):
Can I ask how the national groups get involved with that?
Cause I, usually here, it's like a localauthority that would go in and take
care of that or like a local shelter.
Jessica (15:28):
A lot of times it's that.
Either the police department or theshelters are reaching out to them.
Typically it's because it's somethingoutside of like the capacity of
what that local shelter can handle.
For this case on this past Friday,I believe one of the shelter
managers in the area is whocontacted the group that came down.
(15:53):
And connected them with the sheriff'sdepartment for them to take over the case
or to take the animals from the case.
Dixie (16:01):
I'd like to talk a little bit about natural disasters too.
What are the more recentdisasters that you have worked?
Jessica (16:10):
Hurricane Ida was really the last kind of big thing in this area.
Dixie (16:17):
For disasters, do you typically just stay in Louisiana then?
Jessica (16:22):
Typically we shelter in place for our animals here.
We've provided support.
We've driven out supplies and differentthings out to and there's been other
hurricanes outside of New Orleans.
But yeah, when it's here in NewOrleans, we typically will shelter
in place and take care of the animalsat our shelter and help deal with.
(16:44):
Strays and found animals which isvery frequent during these situations,
especially when there's extended powerwater outage like there was with Ida.
I think we were at 12days in our area with out.
So yeah, we just help as we can withinour ability with that kind of stuff.
(17:04):
We also, had people black watercertified with the parish.
So we'll work on call or withLSART if needed for like water
rescue and state response as well.
That is all really based onjust like personnel though,
sometimes we have times where.
we have enough personnel, that wecan help, other times we don't have
(17:28):
enough and we just have to focus,on our own shelter and our own
needs.
Dixie (17:33):
And what certification was that?
I've never heard of that.
Jessica (17:38):
Black Water Rescue.
It's a type of water rescue,specifically for animal rescue
responders, so for animal water rescue.
Dixie (17:51):
Hurricanes, of course, you just touched on this a little bit, that we
have power outages do you have a backupgenerator for the shelter, or how do
you combat these power outages with allthese animals that you're sheltering?
Jessica (18:04):
Yeah, so we do now, which is so exciting.
We have a natural gasgenerator at our new shelter.
That was one of our big,non-negotiables when we moved in.
Like we're designing, this new shelter.
But before that we had gas rungenerators, and we typically had
five to six to run the whole shelter.
(18:26):
Whenever anything weather related, thatwe had notice on, we would always put
out like a lot of posts and emails totry and move as many of our animals into
foster as possible just to try and keep.
The amount of animals in the shelteras low as possible, which has also
(18:46):
been our saving grace with some ofthese more extreme weather conditions.
Dixie (18:54):
Can you tell people what should they have for hurricane
season coming up for their own pets?
Can you go over what, a good disasterkit would be to have, or a hurricane kit?
Jessica (19:06):
Yeah, absolutely.
What I keep for my personal animalsevery year is I always make copies,
updated copies of their vaccine records.
I put those in.
Ziploc bags.
I also take a picture of those.
So I have it on my phone as well.
Easily accessible.
I make sure I have about a week'sworth of food for each of my animals,
(19:27):
a month's worth of any medications for'em, and then a week's worth of water.
I also keep on hand some over thecounter, calming supplements for 'em.
And then, of course, I always keepmarked collars on my dogs because those
are the anti-slip collars and leashes.
I also keep a roll of dog bags in theirgo bags, and I also keep popup water bowl
(19:52):
and food bowls for them both as well.
So I have a little.
Go bag for my animals for disasterstuff and I repack that, every
year usually at the start of June.
Dixie (20:06):
That's great.
And why do you do the copiesof the vaccine records?
Jessica (20:12):
Yeah, just in case anything ends up being more
catastrophic than we realize.
And we have to evacuate or if I needto go stay with a family member out of
state, I just wanna make sure that Ihave, proof of their vaccines, their
rabies vaccine and their microchipon hand and ready to go, especially
if I'm moving them over state lines.
Dixie (20:32):
Yeah, that's definitely a great thing to have.
Everybody should have that.
Jessica (20:37):
Absolutely.
Dixie (20:38):
And everybody should have some kind of go bag, like you said, ready
to go that you can just grab and take.
And get out the door if you have to.
Jessica (20:45):
Yeah.
I do like my own, disaster kitfor my animals every year in June.
And I just find too, I it just givesyou a peace of mind when things happen.
You don't have to scramble,you don't need to be stressed
because you know you're prepared.
And that way, you canfocus on other things.
And I'm sure that's kindalike the military in me.
I'm a big, planner, beingprepared is very important to me.
(21:09):
Yeah, I highly recommendto everybody out there.
Dixie (21:13):
Yep.
And hurricane season is coming up, so
Jessica (21:16):
Yes.
It is
Dixie (21:18):
not fun.
Jessica (21:19):
No, especially not with animals.
It definitely adds on some morelayers there when you have animals
or kids, just when you haveany sort of dependent, right?
Dixie (21:31):
Yeah.
And it, it's stressful, especiallyfor me 'cause I have cats, so like
it's different with cats and dogs too.
Jessica (21:38):
Yeah.
It's tough.
Dixie (21:39):
I try to keep 'em in their kennels.
I don't take 'em out of their kennelsuntil we get to the destination
and then I'll have these biggerpopup things that they can go in.
Jessica (21:50):
Nice.
And do you use the thefeliaway spray at all?
Dixie (21:54):
I will for the ones I have that get a little bit stressed out,
luckily most of mine are, okay.
They might meow for maybe 15, 20minutes and then they calm down.
Jessica (22:04):
Okay.
So they're like, we've been through
this before.
Dixie (22:08):
They're not too bad.
But I know there's people thathave to sedate their cats,
Jessica (22:12):
oh, yeah.
Dixie (22:12):
What strategies have proven to be the most effective in terms
of successful animal rescues
Jessica (22:19):
I would say probably, building trust with people in the community,
with other organizations, with theshelters we're pulling throughout
from I think, fostering communitybuilding those relationships within
our community is key to anything thatwe do in animal rescue because when.
(22:41):
People know that they can trustyou when they know that you're
gonna do the right thing.
When they know that you're,you will offer, support.
I think it just makes everything easierbecause other open intake shelters know
that you're resource that they can contactwhen they need help with certain animals.
Members of the community, knowthat they can reach out for help.
(23:01):
When they need it.
And, even other rescues, know that ifthey, need help in a situation or, maybe
there's an animal that needs help andthey don't have space at the moment.
They know that we're aresource that they can call.
So I think yeah, that's probably beenone of the biggest, parts of our success.
Helped us to, stay successful doing rescueis just fostering those relationships and,
(23:26):
building trust like within the community.
Dixie (23:29):
And on the flip side, have there been any approaches to rescue that
haven't worked as well as anticipated?
Jessica (23:36):
I think a lot of things are trial and error just in general.
Like with anything.
Maybe the things that are theleast successful for us is
when we overextend ourselves.
Just in general, beingmainly volunteer driven.
Having enough people to do all the thingswe wanna do and to do all the things
we wanna do well can be challenging.
(23:57):
Maybe overcommitting ourselves, to eventsand different exposure things, which,
ideally would be a great thing, butwhen you don't have enough volunteers
to, man the event, bring animals to theevent or, to the, these things, then
they ultimately are not successful.
So I think that would be probably thebiggest thing is just over extension.
Dixie (24:21):
Could you discuss your process for screening potential adopters to ensure
animals go to safe and loving homes?
Jessica (24:28):
Yeah, absolutely.
So it starts off with ourapplication which is on our website.
Once an application is filled in,that's gonna go over to one of our
volunteer adoption team members.
They are gonna read through that, whichthe application really just covers
lifestyle experience and kind of theperson's expectations for pet ownership.
(24:51):
Then we're gonna do a virtual home check.
This is mainly we're, checking theyards for, issues with fencing,
poisonous plants, that kind of thing.
And then if the person has owneda pet before, we are going to,
call the vet just to verify, that.
Vaccines were done, preventativeswere done, that kind of thing.
And then lastly, if they rent, we doalways call the landlord to ensure
(25:14):
that, the tenant has spoken to themand gotten approval for the animal.
We do try and make our processmore kind of a conversation
as opposed to a checklist.
And one of the things I think is reallyneat about our adoption process is
that you get paired with an adoptioncounselor and their whole job is just to
(25:36):
help find you, the perfect pet for you.
And they really go above and beyond,in doing that, which I think is
really special and really cool.
Dixie (25:45):
And are people open to that?
When you help them find the petfor them as opposed to just
picking out the one that they want.
Jessica (25:55):
Yeah, certainly.
Some people they see a picture, a video,or they meet an animal at an event and
they fall in love and that's totally fine.
We have other people that, maybethe animal they chose or have an
adoption application and goes home,or, maybe the animal they chose after
they meet them isn't the right fit.
And in that case we have, ourstaff who our staff does playgroups
(26:19):
every weekday at the shelter.
So the majority of all ofour dogs in shelter are
playgroups every day with them.
So that team really knowsthe behavior for the dogs.
Best.
So they'll work with dog adopters.
We have these questions we go throughwith them about what they're looking
for, their lifestyle, this, that,size, any of those preferences.
(26:39):
And then our slate group team willhelp pair 'em with they'll make a short
list of dogs that they think match whatthey're looking for and will do meets.
And then we do the samething on the cat side with.
Our cat leads who will we don't play herefor the cats, but we have, cats in our
cat condos who are, co housed with othercats and some different things that'll
(27:00):
help us determine best fit for people.
Dixie (27:03):
What about first time adopters?
If they've never had a vet,
Jessica (27:08):
We just usually ask for a professional reference.
Or typically we'll ask them to call avet and just get an estimate for some
of the basic services for the year,just so they have an understanding
of what they're looking to payout of pocket with pet ownership.
Dixie (27:24):
Do you offer any kind of post-adoption support or resources?
Jessica (27:28):
Oh yes.
We do a ton.
So we always check in and weprovide a lot of resources and we
always make ourselves available.
We will help with, training.
We'll follow up if there's anymedical issues and help with that.
If there's any supplies that we think,will help the animal adjust better, help
(27:49):
cope with any issues, we'll supply those.
So we really always wanna make sure thatour adopters feel very supported and
they don't feel like they just got stuck.
And if something doesn't work out,,we always take our animals back.
No judgment.
Whether it's been a week or a year or fiveyears since adoption, and that is part
of our contract that if it doesn't workout, our animals always come back to us.
Dixie (28:14):
Do you have any successful adoption stories that you could share?
Jessica (28:19):
Yeah.
A ton.
I will I'll talk about one that's.
Close to my heart.
And that is about our black labin a wheelchair named Titan.
He was found when he was about 10weeks old, dragging himself down the
side of the road out in Lafourche.
They didn't know if he was, trulyparalyzed or if there was just
(28:40):
inflammation that was causing like atemporary paralysis in his back legs.
We ended up taking him, not knowingwhat his future was gonna look like,
but we just knew that we had to try.
So we took him, put him through,physical therapy around the clock here.
He needed multiple surgeries.
And now he's doing great.
He is thriving, zooming aroundin his wheelchair goes to a
(29:03):
dog park multiple times a weekis out and about all the time.
And why it's close to my heart isbecause I'm the one that adopted
him after I fostered him for a year.
Yeah.
So I wasn't looking for anotherdog, but he was just, the right one.
So I have.
Two kind of specialneeds dogs at my house.
My other one is also an ARNO alum.
(29:27):
And her name is Brynn.
She's nine now.
I adopted her eight years ago.
She was found, dumped in a plastic cratewith her mom in the middle of the night.
And she was about 11 months old.
She had really bad neuropathy, which islike a nerve disorder and semi feral.
So it was actually when I firststarted at ARNO and she just
(29:50):
hugged up my heartstrings andI started working with her.
And once I built up, her trust,I took her home to foster
her and I just fell in love.
So those are my two foster fails.
Dixie (30:02):
I think everybody in rescue has some of those, and I
always say I have the reject cats.
Jessica (30:08):
Oh yeah.
Dixie (30:08):
I mean they're not really it's like the ones that nobody else wants.
Like I have one, she doesn'thave any eyes, so she was born
completely blind, no eyes.
And then of course we have a tripod.
And he doesn't know that he'smissing an arm and she doesn't
know she's missing eyes.
Jessica (30:23):
It's amazing how they adjust so quickly, like they're
animals are just so resilient.
It's just truly amazes me,
Dixie (30:31):
It does.
And it's a shame that the special needones are overlooked because I think the
special need ones, they're absolutelyamazing when you spend time with them.
Jessica (30:41):
I agree.
Yeah I agree wholeheartedly and I thinkthey just make your life so much richer.
I know, my two over here I couldn'timagine my life without Now.
If you'd asked me, five years agoif I thought I would have a dog in
a wheelchair, I'd probably be like.
What, so it's funny, with doing this workdoes make us I think, more amenable too
(31:03):
to giving these special guys a chance,
Dixie (31:06):
Yeah.
They're amazing.
Absolutely amazing.
The things that they can do.
I think everybody should see
it.
It
really is amazing.
Jessica (31:15):
Yes,
I agree.
My one's staring at me right now.
Yes, we're talking about you.
Dixie (31:21):
So how does Arno engage with the local community to raise awareness about
animal welfare and promote adoptions?
Jessica (31:29):
So it is a lot of, social media these days.
We post a lot on our Instagram,our TikTok, and our Facebook.
We try to post the kind of workwe're doing, the kind of things we're
seeing, the things we need help with.
What I enjoy about the way that wedo this is that, we don't do a lot of
(31:49):
angry or shaming posts, I think we doa pretty good job about, staying like
upbeat and honest and letting peopleknow and like the ways that we need help.
And we also do, a lot of events aswell where we're out in the community,
showcasing ARNO and the animals andtalking about the work that we do.
We also have, our needs out on likevolunteer match with kind of the
(32:13):
help that we need to for, this.
And yeah, I think that probably,encapsulates it of what we
do the majority of for that.
Dixie (32:26):
What message would you like to share with our listeners
about the importance of animalrescue and animal welfare?
Jessica (32:34):
Ooh, so
rescue ultimately is about second chances.
And not always, just for the animals.
Adopting and fostering andvolunteering I think can be
transformative for the people as well.
Doing something that matters, caring forthose who can't care for themselves is.
(32:58):
Really special and important.
And I think it, changes something withinus making the world a better place.
So yeah, I think it's, really specialall around for us and for the animals,
Dixie (33:10):
For those who wanna support Arno, what are the most
impactful ways they can contribute?
Jessica (33:16):
Yeah.
Volunteering.
Volunteering giving your time isalways the best way to help ARNO.
There are so many ways you can helpby coming, helping with animal care
events, volunteering or fostering.
We have other volunteer positionslike administration ones as well.
(33:37):
And then of course, if you're able todonate, especially monthly support really
helps us plan out and respond quickly.
Every little bit helps us truly.
And then, helping to promote us.
If you see one of our posts, onsocial media, please share it.
Please like it, please interact with it.
That helps us, if you have a friendor family member looking to adopt
(34:01):
or volunteer send of our way.
So those are probably some ofthe most impactful ways that
people can help support us.
Dixie (34:08):
And what is your website too?
Jessica (34:11):
It is www.animalrescueneworleans.org.
Dixie (34:17):
Thank you.
And before we end the call, is thereanything else you would like to add?
Jessica (34:24):
Oh, for anybody in the immediate area, we would love to see
you come out for our grand opening.
That is going to be on Saturday, June 28thfrom 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM we will have a lot
going on, including we'll be giving tours.
And if you do come by,please come meet me.
Again, my name's Jessica and I'd behappy to give anybody who comes a
(34:45):
tour of the new facility and talkto you about Arno more in depth.
Dixie (34:50):
That sounds like fun and congratulations on the grand opening too.
It's very exciting tohave that in the area.
Jessica (34:56):
Yeah.
Thank you so much.
Dixie (34:58):
All right.
Thank you for taking thetime to speak with me today.
I appreciate it.
Jessica (35:02):
Yeah, thank you for having me.
It was a pleasure.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.