In this inspiring episode of The Whisker Report, hosts Mary Tan and Alexandre Ricard welcome globetrotting animal rescuer Adelle Goodman, the compassionate force behind the Instagram account Travel Animal Rescue. From rescuing kittens in Cambodia to launching large-scale TNR (trap-neuter-return) programs in Greece, Adele shares her journey of turning a one-time rescue into a full-time mission. You'll hear how she navigates international animal welfare challenges, works with grassroots organizations, and even landed a full-time job as a professional trapper. Packed with humor & heart, this episode also dives into the power of PR, building awareness, and the daily realities of saving lives on the street—one cat at a time.
EPISODE NOTES: Catch, Care, Release: The Global Adventures of a Full-Time Trapper
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/whisker-report-pet-pr-publicity-pet-life-radio-original--6669416/support.
EPISODE NOTES: Catch, Care, Release: The Global Adventures of a Full-Time Trapper
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/whisker-report-pet-pr-publicity-pet-life-radio-original--6669416/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to the Whisker Report.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
We're a new podcast dedicated to helping anyone in the
pet industry.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Whether you're an animal welfare or a for profit.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Pet company, we want to help you get some pr
and buzz for your nonprofit or business. Hello everyone, I'm
Mary Tied, one of the hosts of the show, along
with my buddy alexand Ricard, a French gal who now
lives in Vancouver, lives all over the world, speaks multiple
languages and is in always admiration of anyone who's spas
(00:47):
and neuters, stray cats, boner, Alexandron.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
I'm excited for this show. You guys will see we
have a really, really incredible guest. But right now we're
here with our producer, Mark Winter pet Life Radio, who
is the man who gets us to you each and
every week.
Speaker 5 (01:06):
Hey Mark, Hi, how's everyone doing.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
We go good.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
I'm excited for Christmas. I made something called like salt
dough to make ornaments.
Speaker 5 (01:18):
Never heard of the salt No, I have you have on?
Speaker 6 (01:22):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (01:23):
I used to do that in like elementary school.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yes, we did it in elementary school.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Yeah, so we make salt and flour and a bit
of water and then it's like a cookie dough and
then we're doing that. Yeah, you make shape and you
cook them for hours and then now they're hard, so
we paint them. So I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Oh, you need to make a pet Life Radio one.
Speaker 7 (01:43):
Ooh, I can do that.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
You should. And speaking of holidays, our show from last week,
our holiday episode is now posted and available for everyone
to listen to.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Kay and don't forget. We also have twenty four days
of giveaways on our social media. Yes and March sings.
He has a beautiful voice and he has a Christmas
album out, just a single. Oh Mark. I made my
roommate listen to it and she loved it. She said
it was really good, so good, thank you.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Mark is a man of many, many talents, and of
course lots of.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Great shows coming out.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
And we're so honored to be part of the pet
Life Radio Network because you know what you could do
pr for yourself and Alex Mark and I are going
to help you each and every week.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
So today's show is with one of my favorite person
in the whole world, a person who inspires me to
do better every day and who I admire Adele Goodman,
the superwoman behind the Instagram account Travel Animal Rescue, is
originally from the US, but she's been traveling in rescuing
animals all over the world. I did meet her in
(02:50):
Greece last year, and that is where she's currently based, trapping,
neittering and returning cats every single day. Hi, Adel, I'm
so grateful you're on our show today.
Speaker 7 (03:01):
Although it's really sweet, and also I'm your biggest fan
as well, I didn't realize you're my biggest battle, so
so cute we're sharing us on.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Can you tell us a bit about your story and
how did you start traveling and rescuing animals?
Speaker 7 (03:16):
Sure, well, I lived in the US for I don't know,
twenty four some years. Maybe like you, Alex and many
other people, I got kind of fed up of not
being able to do anything like meaningful and felt like,
I don't know, I just kind of had to get
out and see what I could do in other places.
(03:38):
So I just kind of picked a spot on the map,
but happened to be Cambodia, and like many people, about
a week or two after being abroad, I found two
kittens in the street, brought them home, and that's basically
the rest of the story from there. When you start
noticing animals, you just kind of constantly start noticing animals
(03:58):
their conditions. It's really easy to feel compelled to want
to do something but not really know what to do.
A lot of people your instinct is to get into rescue,
and that brought me to Vietnam shortly after, where I
for the first time worked in rescue. I had some
experience working in farm sanctuaries in the US before, but
(04:21):
I had never been fully enshrined in rescue. So in
the countryside in Vietnam, working in rescue, it's pretty wild,
unlike anything I've ever experienced. And very quickly after working
in this facility with all these animals, trying to help
my community animals, I realized a lot of it can
be pretty futile if there's no system in place for
(04:43):
actually preventing all these animals being in need of rescue.
There's just so much need around you all the time,
and there's just so little resources, even veterinary resources, to
rely on, so you get really frustrated, and pretty soon
I realized the only big impact I'm going to be
able to have on animal conditions around me is if
(05:04):
I'm involved in prevention rather than rescue. So from there,
it was around COVID time when I was in Vietnam
and I decided to leave after a while. From there,
I kind of just pounced around different places and tried
to kidnap cats off the street, get them murdered, give
them parasite treatment, treat there any wounds or effections they had,
(05:27):
put them back better, and one by one turned into
a pretty large scale, full time thing. And now we're
here uring as puny cats as possible.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
That's so impressive. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Can I ask you a question I've always wanted to
ask people that just get up and go, So, how
do you prepare for that? Like financially, how are you
funding all the surgeries? How are you funding you know?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
How you live? Like it does cost money to do
what you do?
Speaker 7 (06:00):
Right? So I didn't have a plan in the beginning,
to be honest. I thought I'll just set out and
teach English. As a very global morph privileged minded person
would say, I'll just go teach kids English in another country.
And I realized I'm not good at that. So I
somehow managed to And I can't give you any advice
(06:23):
on how to do this, because I don't know if
it existed as a job before. I somehow managed to
get work with lots of small, local, grassroots animal rescue
and protection organizations as kind of like an operations manager.
So every organization needs help with administration, communications, fundraising, marketing, recruitment,
(06:45):
facilities management, veterinary management, all of these things. However, a
lot of rescues are just a person who set out
to help and are doing all of it on their own,
and it's incredibly overwhelming. So these people who have a
ton of work to do, which is essential in order
to do the work, have this burden on their shoulders
(07:06):
and very little money to employ other people to do.
Somehow I found organizations who realized, after many years of
doing all of this on their own, they needed to
hire somebody to help them. So that's what I've been
doing the past few years in order to survive, is
working for small, like multiple small organizations that are engaged
in rescue or do during what have you. And that
(07:29):
has kind of made rescue my full time, all time thing,
which are as positives and negatives, but that's how I've
been able to survive. I don't know how to replicate doubts.
Please don't ask me because how many job's doing it?
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Yeah, and today you also have got a full time
job as an actual trapper, right, So.
Speaker 7 (07:48):
Once again no idea how that happens. But after kind
of practicing on my own in all these different countries,
reading all these different organizations like Alex's organization and some
of our mutual friends, Yeah, just neutering on my own,
trapping on my own. A local organization I had been
a volunteer for received the ability to do a large
(08:10):
scale project, noting like one thousand to fifteen hundred cats
a year, which meant they needed full time people on staff.
So that's what I've done for the past year, has
been kind of one of the main people in the
field doing trapping basically every single day, right out a
free day.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
So yeah, it's an actual job now to be a
full time trapper, which is like what we need. We
need more of them, because you know, there are full
times of being you know, a shelter manager or an
adoption shelter manager or whatever, but no trapper. So this
is a new job and I'm all for it.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
That is so cool. A del I have a quick question.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
I feel like like when I was overseas, most of
the trappers and the rescuers were either they were either
from Western European countries or the US or Canada, like
a lot from the UK and the US.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Is is that what you find too?
Speaker 7 (09:01):
It depends on where you are. I would say in
Southeast Asia, yes, but here in Greece. I think every community,
every neighborhood that I've lived in in Greece, there are
local people who have been trying to do during on
their own for many years. A lot of them are older,
a lot of them are women. You know, rescue is
dominated by non men, and they've been out here doing
(09:24):
it like one by one. And that means depending on
like the neighborhood you live in. Not every neighborhood, of course,
but a lot of places I've been able to move
in and someone is already locally uring some of the cats,
and then that gives me an opportunity to step in
and be like, maybe I can help you. Maybe I
can connect to you to vets who are going to
(09:45):
offer lower cost silizations and also are a bit better quality,
and we can help trioge some things to get better
care for the cats, like better pain relief or maybe
provide equipm meant to people that couldn't access it before.
That's something that alex is really familiar with, kind of
(10:06):
helping bridge those those gaps, because there's a lot of
people that want to do it, they just really struggle
to get the resources to do it because it can
be really expensive and it's not a social system the
way that it should be.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
I feel like though, in Greece it's getting better, am
I right? I mean compared to other countries. Now I
don't live there, but I had this conversation with when
I was leaving Greece, I had a conversation with the
ticketing guy at the airport with I forget which airline, Oh,
I think it was like with KLM, And the guy
(10:38):
was telling me he's Greek.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
He saw all these kiddies.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
On Instagram and he's like, I want to get a
kiddie like that and put him on Instagram. And so
he took a cat into his house and he lives
in it's a multi general orational situation. So his grandparents
were horrified that he took this outdoor cat and made
him his pet.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
But now this pet sleeps with him. And he said
with his friends. He finds that that's coming. But I
suppose you're out on the street.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
So it's just like, you know, everybody could take ten
cats into their house.
Speaker 7 (11:10):
Sure, I think some things are getting better. It is
a slow progression. You're always going to have people who
disagree with certain interventions, but luckily they're not typically the
ones who are taking care of the animals at all,
So you can always what I like to do. If
someone disagrees with what I'm doing or is not particularly helpful,
(11:33):
if they come over and start questioning me, I just
ask them if they want to donate, and they run
away so fast might get to look to solve the problem.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (11:42):
I think there are tons of like substantial higher volumes
bynutered projects that are popping up, just perhaps in Greece.
It can seem like it's such an uphill battle because
there are so many animals on the street already, and
if you remember, you probably experience it. It was a bit
(12:04):
different for cats and dogs. Dogs they have dealt with
a bit differently, Alex Kurt me if I'm wrong in
any part, But weren't really put through any kind of
neutering program. They were sort of like rounded up and
put in shelter, so you won't see community dogs in
the same way here. However, with cats who can very
(12:24):
easily hide in the many many abandoned buildings, behind fences
and so on, perhaps that sort of saved them from
the sort of like math entrapment or culling dial and
has enabled more people to get involved in neutering, which,
as we all know, is a much more effective way
(12:45):
of controlling free roaming animals populations. So I do think
things are getting better in some ways, but there are
still I mean, where Alex was there was no neutering
going on, right, you guys started a whole projects there.
So some places are up touched, some places there's concentration
of work.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Yeah, Because we have to say that Adele is based
in Athens, the capital of Greece as well, so it's
a bit different from my experience, which was in the countryside,
small Greek town. Well cool, Well, coming up, we're going.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
To talk with Adele about social media and pr and
how she does it. And she's gonna ask us questions
too on how she can get more publicity for her rescue, So.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 5 (13:33):
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(13:56):
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give them ten dot org.
Speaker 6 (14:09):
Let's talk pets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
And we're back with Adele and Travel Animal Rescue.
Speaker 7 (14:26):
So, Adele, I checked your.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Instagram account yesterday and I'm right you have around twenty
five thousand followers. Sounds about right, Yeah, So one of
the question is, you know so many people have smaller
rescues and they always say how hard it is to
you know, get high engagement or even get followers. And
we also know that getting more followers might means more
(14:48):
donations sometimes because you have access to a bigger audience
than if you only have like a thousand people following you.
So I just wanted to ask you how did you
grow your audience and how important is social media for well?
Speaker 7 (15:01):
I wish I could give you some kind of like
magic method of how it worked. But I got to
tell you it was a complete accident, and I wanted
to ask you as well, because we all hear so
much talk about different kinds of like tactics and pleasing
the algorithm and things that we can do. You know,
the music for this reel has been used a lot.
(15:23):
Maybe somebody will click on my real because they use
the song or something. I don't know, But honestly, I
had a very small account until I posted one video
of me using a dropper to catch a cat. Was
a few seconds long. It was a small text over
it that said we're doing T and R it's good
for this reason, and it got millions of views and
(15:44):
all of these followers that honestly, they're probably mostly bots.
I hate to break it to us, but like they're
probably mostly spam accounts, because if you ask a lot
of people who have really large followings, the people who
actually engage with the content is so much lower than
the people that follow them. I hear a lot of
people in fundraising talk about if every person who followed
(16:07):
me donated a dollar or fifty cents, we would be okay.
Why doesn't that happen because I think so many people
are not actually engaging with our account. I have a
friend with a sanctuary hearing look about that she has
I don't know, forty five thousand followers, and she has
about one thousand people that work her stories every day,
A thousand out of forty five thousand people, and that's
(16:28):
actually pretty good. So what I would say is I
find a lot more value in connecting with people genuinely
who are directly related to the work that I do,
or there's some overlaber or we have some interests in common,
whether it's animal rights work of different different types of
(16:48):
projects or different types of animals, or prevention work, or
a wide variety of things. People who work in veterinary
people who work in different countries. I find that to
be a lot more growthful. Those people engage a lot
more than you know the perhaps like twenty five thousand
random people that chose to follow me at one point
(17:10):
and then never really engaged with it again. I don't
know if you have a bit of a different experience
or could lend some insight into that. So for me,
it was kind of the same story as you write.
We had a couple of followers and then one day, created.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
A video about Faith, a paralyzed kitty that started walking again,
and you know when completely viral, had like fifty million
views and you know, the Dodo Coldest and the newspaper coldest,
and it was absolutely insane, and we got like fifty
thousand followers overnight. And I think for us now, what
(17:45):
we see a year later is that the people that
followed us, some of them was for a good reason,
they wanted to see your work. Some of them was
just to see Faith. And so once Faith was adopted,
our engagement dropped because well Faith was not with us
anymore or so, you know, so what we need to do,
especially when we do TNR and you know tn R
(18:05):
is not you know, joyful, happy story. You know, it's
not a cute kity cat getting adopted. It's just a
cute kitty cat getting spade and then returning to its colony.
So we have to try to grab the attention with
one specific cat. That's why I feel like works. I've
been following a couple of TNR accounts and what they
do is really create a relationship with a specific straight
(18:28):
cat and then show that relationship and show, you know,
give up date of that straight cat. So I feel
like people just really need an attachment. And that's how,
like you know, pet influencer works so well because if
you see, you know, like surfer cat Mavi, people are
attached to Mavi, his story, what he's doing himself. They
don't really care about his parents. They just won't Madviie
(18:49):
the cat, or like Bowie the Siberian cat. You know,
it's like they just get attached to one cat, one animals.
So that's kind of what you need to do is
try to like find a special story, which is hard
for us when we you know, we only have straight cats,
or we have one cat that we're trying to put
for adoption but only last a few months and then
you know, the cat is gone. So it's a hard balance.
Speaker 7 (19:11):
Right. Maybe this also ties into your second question, which
is what I use my account for is kind of
just to convey like why I am actually tangibly experiencing
and maybe talk about some topics that are real but
a bit difficult to broach and maybe less talked about
(19:31):
topics or maybe controversial topics, things that people are hesitant
to discuss to instigate conversation. But the reason why I
can do that is because I don't use my account
for fundraising whatsoever. I didn't start it for fundraising. I
don't ask family or friends for money, and I am
in super position in order to do that, because I
(19:53):
decided to register my organization as a charity simply in
order to apply for larger grants and funds so that
I didn't have to beg people for money and prove
the value of what I was doing every day, because
at the end of the day, like fundraising and marketing
and rescue is us trying to demonstrate that we're providing value.
(20:14):
We're doing work that is really important, and it can
be really frustrating to try to do a good job
with that and not.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
Receive the support that you need. Yeah, so I have the.
Speaker 7 (20:25):
Ability to not rely on my social media for fundraising
purposes and talk about other types of things. And you
do what I said before, which is like meaningfully engaged
with people in conversation that are directly related to what
I do, rather than trying to get new followers and
bring in money that way.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
That's one thing Mary, I wanted to ask you about.
So Adele, I know you're quite a big activist on
social media. You will talk about you know, controversial subject
when they're not you know, like personal being vegan or
like politics and stuff like that. And you're saying because
you're not fundraising money, but example Mary, for us as
Saving Lives, we're trying to you know, fond raise money,
(21:04):
so we don't share as much about being vegan because
we're trying to fund raise money to T and R
and so you know, it's two different topics. Is it
controversial to like how as a charity who trying to fundraise,
how political or how controversial can you actually be on
social media?
Speaker 3 (21:23):
So that's a great question, Alex I would say talking
about vegan is actually fine. I mean, people don't get
bent out of shape over what you eat.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
And I've never.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Seen any vegans, any vegan websites. I haven't seen people
turn away from that because it's a choice.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
And especially if.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
You're trying to hit Americans, I think being a vegan
shows your compassion. Now, the people who are not going
to like that is the beef industry, the big factory farms. Yeah,
they're not gonna like that, but you know what, they're
not your target audience. They are never ever going to
support animal welfare where I do.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Draw the line.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
And because I come from government and I have worked
at animal rescues and shelters that have taken political stances,
I would stay away from politics. I would stay I
mean I have seen some animal welfare groups, you know,
post one way or the other, and then you're alienating
the other party, right, And this is individual, but if
(22:25):
you're trying to get the most money out of people,
I would stay neutral. And here's the thing, especially in
the US, all all political parties love animals, they just
maybe support it a different way because I have seen
research that says Republicans donate more to animal rescue than
do Democrats. But on the other hand, and you know
(22:46):
it depends. I mean, if you don't want any of
your money to come from one side or the other,
I would say, post what you want. It's up to
you as the leader of the group. But just in
terms of animals are as we say bipodisan, I mean,
animals do bring people together. And so regardless of I
(23:08):
personally prefer more neutral stance because I'm just looking to
raise as much money as possible. But I do feel
when it comes to veganism, it's a compassion issue and
I feel like that's.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
A little bit different.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
I mean, I have never heard of anybody, and I
may be wrong, but I have not heard anybody say
I don't like you because you're a vegan.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
Oh I've heard it.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
I've never heard that, now.
Speaker 6 (23:35):
What?
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
I get a lot of backlash sometimes. And what I
used to get when we did T and R and
even from my own family was I don't get it.
You're vegan, but you feed cats sardines to catch them, Like,
what is wrong with you? And I was like, well,
you know, I've got to do it, Like it's it's
really hard. Like even I have a cat and I'm
feeding my cat meat, right, my cat is not vegan.
(23:58):
So it's a very hard conscious choice. But people will
find that to not be within your values, so they
will try to attack you on that. That's what I've
personally seen. So that's why we've always been We talk
a bit about veganism, but we talk more about the
food rather than being like actual activist on our social media,
which we would love to be more. But it's also
(24:20):
like a case of like if we do that, are
we gonna lose followers? And are we going to lose
you know, people who donate just money for the cats.
So it's a bit difficult in that way.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
So I remember when I was working with Sterling Davis,
he posted something political and he lost I can't remember
what he told me, but he lost like twenty thousand
followers overnight. And so, you know what I want to say,
I wonder if that's more what I'm saying is more
geared towards Americans, because this is my philosophy. Americans hate
(24:50):
being told what to do, and so in America it's
all about choices. But I remember when I talked to
this French guy in Los Angeles and I told him
I needed a sandwich to get for you at cat Con,
and I'm like, it's.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Got to be vegan. He looked at me, like.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
This is a girl from France and she's a vegan.
So he was shocked because he said, French people don't
care for veganisms, is what I'm told. You know what, though,
in the end, it's up to you as the executive
director and founder to do what's in your heart and mission.
And you know, I'm a big proponent of getting as
(25:30):
much money as you can from everybody. But if you're
really really strong about one area, then yeah, absolutely post
about it. Because the other side of this coin adele
is that if you don't stand for something, then like
you're gonna get lost in the fray. Right when you're
putting out a message, when you're putting out your story, it's.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Got to be unique to you.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
So I'm kind of talking from both ends of my mouth,
but you need to make a statement.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
But at the same.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Time, I would say in the US, and what I've
noticed in the United States is people go down. I'm
sure it happens in other countries, but since I'm in
the US, I feel like people go down rabbit holes.
Like you post something political, then you're spending all the
time talking about this politics and stuff that has nothing
to do with cats, and then all of a sudden,
(26:23):
you're spending your time dealing with this. And so that's
why you know you just got it. You just got
to be prepared for what you do. And also never
shut off your comments. That's another big I had a crisis.
I have a situation right now where one of the
owners shut off the comments on her page because something
terrible happened, and I completely disagree, because that also gives
(26:44):
you a chance for your supporters.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
To defend you, to defend themselves.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Now, if you are a vegan nonprofit and you are
championing veganism, then absolutely go all out too, you know.
I mean, it depends what your mission is. And I
would say most and welfare and animal welfare advocates. Almost
everybody's vegan, and that's that's very well known.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
No, I'm done.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
I'm like chatting up a stormy here. Mary talks a lot. Yes,
I have a big mouth. I apologize.
Speaker 7 (27:14):
The first grant I ever received was from an animal
rights a vegan focused organization for t and R. When
I registered my charity in the UK. In my charity objects,
I presented it as a t and R focused animal
rights project because I don't I have an animal rights background.
I've worked with all the species of animals. I work
for everyone equally. The reason I do tn R for
(27:36):
cats is not because I have an affinity for cats,
but because they're in front of me and I can
like that's the need that I can fill with my skills,
and so for me, this is an animal rights issue
because we do spec for anybody who is unfamiliar, we
do spay and neuter for their well being, and people
who are unfamiliar or people who come from a very
strict abolitionist animal rights perspective may not understand that because
(27:58):
some people can think, well, why is it necessary or
why are you violating their consent of like removing organs
from their body? It can seem like quite a non
animal rights focused thing. And I actually did a whole
presentation about this this summer in an animal liberation conference
in Copenhagen to specifically talk to animal liberation folk about
(28:21):
why I feel this is an animal rights issue, specifically
to the point of we do this for them. Sometimes
when we rescue, we do it for ourselves. It makes
us feel good. Yes, of course we often do it
for them, but there is a part that makes us
feel good as well. Right, we get that animal up
the street into a warm bed of shelter, home, whatever.
But when we do an intervention like sterilization, we oftentimes
(28:44):
don't benefit from it other than seeing them well after,
and we sacrifice a lot in order to do it.
It's not a nice thing for them to go through.
It's not a great thing for us to go through either.
It's very expensive, stressful. There's a lot of factors that
come into I view it as the crux between life
and death for that animal, because we're enhancing their life,
(29:05):
their medical conditions, their health status in so many ways,
and if we don't, the alternative is grave. So because
it is for their well being and we're doing it
because we want to help them, That's why I view
it as an animal rights issue, and so I wanted
to broach that topic to that community. That's why I
also talk about it to larger community on social media
(29:28):
or whatever. When I say talking about politics, I don't
mean electoral politics. That's why I left the US. I'll
say it's far possible. One of the worst things from
out America. Okay, I talk about life being political, especially
in local communities in Greece, for example, this is a
very specific issue. People harm animals intentionally. They don't want
animals or people harm animals intentionally everywhere and all species,
(29:52):
but specifically, there is a prevalence of in my local
community right now, people harming animals intentionally. And when we
try to prevent this very objectional thing from happening, everyone,
most people in society would agree like this is not
something that should happen, Like animals should be looked after,
no one should be intentionally harmed. That's why we have
(30:13):
animal welfare laws in place. So when you simply try
to uphold the laws that exist, and you see police
interventions and court interventions that don't actually punish the perpetrators,
and you go there and you see with your eyes
these people being let back out into society, you will
(30:34):
see how political this is. You will see how connected
these two things are. And so I don't talk about
my views on different political topics. I share the reality
of what happens in animal rescue and how it connects
to communities, societies. At the end of the day, like
when we intervene in free roaming animals lives, we're sort
(30:58):
of disrupting a system that has come together over many
years of animals that were domesticated and then discarded. Right like,
these animals were allowed, at the minimum to be brought
into this world and sometimes purposely brought into this world
and then discarded. I see that as a violent thing
(31:19):
because they need violence on the streets. They suffer greatly,
and that's why we do TNR. And so when we intervene,
when we try to help them, it may seem as
simple as like, oh, we're just trying to help animals
or we're just trying to make cat's lives better. But
I see us as disrupting the system that can be
very violent and is upheld by so many different parts
of society. So that's why I feel a lot of
(31:43):
these kinds of things can end up seeming quite political.
But again, I don't rely on the average person to
donate to me, so I am in a bit of
a different situation than others who do. And there are
a lot of people who don't have the privilege to
speak out against certain things because it will cost them support,
which which is a shame.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
Right, we have to take a quick break and then
when we come back, we're going to talk more about
telling the story of Tena.
Speaker 8 (32:13):
Begging to hear more of your favorite show. Full episodes
of all our shows are available on demand. Go to
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Speaker 9 (32:35):
Let's Talk Past Let's Pets on pet Life Radio, Headline Radio,
pet live radio dot com.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
And we're back with Adele and Adele, a couple of
days ago you contacted me and we chatted about a
huge pot you are working on, and I'd like to
hear more about that. We only have a couple more
minutes on the podcast, but please tell us more, and
I think you have some pr questions.
Speaker 7 (33:11):
Yeah, I mean, like anybody else, I would love to
soak up whatever knowledge you have about getting lots and
lots of money to view this work that so few
people seem to see as important as rescuing kittens. I
know a lot of people who use kit and rescue
to fundraise and then divert that money to spay and
(33:31):
neuter because it's just less attractive. Maybe it's larger society.
So yeah, I mean, there's nothing like concrete yet. But
I have a few people in my life who are
really passionate about prevention, specifically spay and neuter, and have
been working in rescue for many years in a part
(33:53):
of Greece and really want to see spay and work
be effective to help the cats in the community, but
also to sort of experiment and see if we do
enough population management for cat does it have a markable
effect on the local rescues. We talk about that a
(34:15):
lot here in the us where if we're doing Spain
newter we are alleviating a lot of the burden from
the local rescues. You have to constantly take in kitten
in Greece. Yes, of course you have to take in
kittens and sick animals here and there, but there's always
too many and so they are always over overburdened. So
I'd love to see a project that is at the
(34:35):
intersection of community focused spay and neuter, but also analyzing
some kind of benefit on the local rescues and seeing
if that spike neuter work is also alleviating the burden
on the maybe one or two rescues that exist on
an entire island. How to market something like that, How
to make something like that consumable to people in order
(34:58):
to get support and for them to understand the need
for it.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
So, you know how you were talking about how you
approach your social media and you're looking for stories that is,
it's exact same thing with public relations and media relations.
And so one thing I would do is you need
to reach out to the local media in whatever country
you're in. Well, one thing that is standard with all
(35:25):
countries is everybody has local community media. There has to
be a place that people are getting their information from,
you know, and that could be like getting on the BBC,
which is seen in worldwide, or getting on CNN or
Sky News or any of these these outlets.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
And you need to be telling your story.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
And here's the thing, Like, in my view, you're right,
actually trapping cats and getting them spay and neutered and
releasing them back into the colonies is actually not not
all that exciting to most people. But what is exciting,
and I hate to say this, but in the US,
and I think the Western European media too, fear and
(36:06):
loathing and terrible things gets more eyeballs. And so what
I would suggest is you talk about what happens to
all of these kittens and animals that are born as
strays and ferals, what happens to them, what is their
life like? Show these impoverished animals, Show exactly what is
(36:30):
going on to these animals when you see injured. I mean, Alex,
you do this really well, bringing in injured animals and
telling their stories. And you know what, I don't think
it has to be an adoptable animal for them to
tell the story. I mean, if it's an animal that
you're rehabilitating that was kicked on the streets in Athens.
(36:50):
That's a very compelling story. And you know, I'm sure
millions of other cats are going through the same thing
in Greece.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
Ye, maybe you could find some numbers of like I
don't know if that's possible, right, because it's hard to
find numbers, but on that Greek island, maybe see how
many cats get run over or how many kittens are
born each here, or you know, just like some stories
from the locals, Like I'm sure they've seen horrifying stories
about a cat that died because of a dog or something.
You know, like just like some really compelling stories. And
(37:21):
I think because a lot of people love Greece and
they love the cats in Greece, right, it's a well
known fact, like Greek cats, cats in Greece, you can
definitely get like into national coverage to be like, everybody
loves to come to Greece on holiday, everybody loves to
come to Centorini and see those healthy cats. But if
you go to another island, what is happening. This is
what's happening, and this is how we're planning on solving it.
(37:44):
This is the problem, this is our solution exactly, and
you know what, you should hit up the wealthier countries.
I happen to know two people here in Minnesota that
were vacationing in Greece and just took two kittens home
with them. It's actually pretty easy, but people have big hearts.
I would, you know, focus on the wealthier European countries
(38:05):
and that sort of thing, and it is possible. There's
a lot, I'm going to say, especially in the US
and the UK, there's a lot of money in animal
welfare and there's people out there that would love to
see what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
But you need to get in front of these people,
and that's the hardest part, if that makes any sense.
Speaker 7 (38:24):
I mean, that was one of my questions having been
throughout parts of the Global South. I know tons of
rescues and everyone is asking for the same thing, and
I don't know if anyone knows quite how to reach
the global morph, how to reach an international audience. In Greece,
for example, local media can talk about animal welfare, but
there is just so much need here about the local support.
(38:46):
I mean, there's a reason why most cats go for
adoption abroad. Yeah, people are just overwhelmed with it. Here.
So what would you say to organizations in the global
South who want to take advantage of wealthier communities who
do care about a welfare and want to engage them
in this storytelling and stand out from all of the
(39:09):
just endless stories of needs that we hear around the world.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
You know, one thing that the most successful rescues that
I have worked with, doesn't matter what country you're in,
is making initial contact with them in terms of getting
to know them. So you know, here in the US
they have like, for example, the Lions Group or the
American Legions here in the United States, they all are
(39:36):
these community groups, and like I've given presentations about the
rescue that I'm working with or the shelter, and then
I find that they're donating, I'll leave the meeting with
twenty five hundred dollars. Is there a way for you
to get in front of get into the community groups
of the local Greek communities that you know are maybe
(40:00):
in a wealthier area. Or another thing is perhaps you
contact the American Embassy in Athens and ask them, hey,
could I come give a presentation about what I'm doing?
Because those are all Americans who are living overseas, right
and they're based in Greece or even going to the
(40:21):
US military bases there.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
They love.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
They all have community groups because they all you know,
they're all Americans living together. That's that's just one way.
But every community has like a community group of some sort.
And if you can get in front of these groups
and talk about what you're doing and explain what you're doing,
and explain and you know, show have a PowerPoint with
(40:45):
visuals of some of the animals you help and why
they need to get involved.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
I think that's a way.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
Now there is a situation and I don't know, you
might be an introverted as well. A lot of people
are introverted, and so they're a little bit scared, you know,
they don't like public speaking. But maybe if there's somebody,
if you're talking to a Greek community group, you can
find them. Maybe have somebody who's a volunteer with you
(41:13):
that is Greek that could deliver the presentation. It's you know,
it's getting out and also meeting with the mayors of
the town because in the end, from what I understand,
like in Greece, I mean and in third world countries,
government is very important to most of the people. I
think you know, in the US they don't like their government,
(41:34):
but I feel like in other countries they like their
government a little better because, you know, you get health
insurance and everything through through their government, So people are
a little bit more dependent on their government than they
are in the US. So these are just some ideas, Adele,
I'm throwing a lot at you, but getting out there,
you've got to have a unique story. And you know,
(41:56):
so many animal rescues tell me we don't have anything,
We're just doing whatever everybody else is doing.
Speaker 8 (42:01):
No, you're not.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
You're an individual, You're a separate person.
Speaker 3 (42:04):
You are what makes your group unique, and you have
such an amazing story at all, Like you've lived in
so many countries doing animal rescue.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
I can tell you there's people that.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
I know and people in the US that would just
be so fascinated on that you know, and even to
people overseas, and I can see being featured on the
Dodo and the Huffington Post and all of these groups.
And so you've got to get your story out there
and just remember that you're a true individual and your
story is unique.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
Your story.
Speaker 3 (42:40):
Even though you and Alex have kind of done similar things,
you're both very different, right, you both have a different
approach to things. So there that's my that's my coaching
segment for you.
Speaker 7 (42:52):
Thank you. I mean to your point, as a person
who's biggest fear is public speaking in a world where
there are so many more important things to be afraid of,
to be honest, that's something that I have been fortunate
to not have to do and have really tried not to.
Is like be focused in my media. I do also
do that for a purpose. I don't see myself as
(43:13):
the work, right, and I want to be careful, especially
as a global North person with privilege coming to the
global South and centering myself. So I try to center
the communities and the collaborative work. But also there are
many people who have success by being the face of
an organization, being the face of the work. We've even
heard social media algorithms like to see a human face.
(43:36):
So yeah, I definitely don't do that very much. I
prefer the more self approach where you don't see me
very often. Maybe you see my back cloaking with my hat, hiding, yeah,
hitting my dates. But yeah, I mean to your point,
before I've seen the reals that do really well being
the ones that do tell stories. So I've done a
(43:57):
few about the importance of of pregnant space in spe
and Neuter, for example, where I've just had endless shots
of sick kittens on the street showing the conditions that
they live in because this is the reality. It's not
painting it in any sort of light. This is what
we see every day, and those tend to do really well.
But it is a balance of trying not to overwhelm
(44:21):
people with making them think it's just a futile, horrible
situation and there's no point donating because you know it's
not a change anything. Like to your point before showing
the impact, the direct impact of Spey and Uter and
all these other types of interventions is we prevent this
thing that you're seeing right now from happening. Wouldn't that
(44:44):
be great? And it's actually not so expensive. That's the
nice thing about Spey and Uter. You could save a
cat's lives and all of their potential offspring for less
than fifty euros. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (44:56):
All right, Well, we have had an action pack segment,
but I want to give you one parting advice.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
Adel When you are.
Speaker 4 (45:05):
Out there public speaking and promoting yourself. You are not
like you are not necessarily the story. Don't equate getting
out there and talking about your rescue as just doing
publicity for yourself. What you're doing is you're really helping
your organization. I hope that makes sense. You know, when
I do public speaking, think of public speaking as you
(45:30):
are helping the cats that you're serving, because without you
being the mouthpiece, your cats don't have a say, right,
So don't always think about that I'm public speaking, so
I'm bragging about myself. Also, the other thing I want
to tell people, if you don't say nice things about yourself,
nobody else is going to. And the cats need you, Adele,
(45:52):
to speak out and talk on their behalf. You need
to get out there and rescue and raise a lot
of money to get your kiddies fixed they stop having babies.
So there that's my parting thought. And of course that's
a wrap for this show. We're so excited.
Speaker 3 (46:08):
We want to thank Adele for coming on and we
love doing this kind of work.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
We want to make life better for animals.
Speaker 3 (46:15):
And so also, if you have a question you want
us to answer, reach out to us on our Instagram
or Facebook page.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
Under the Whisker Report or Whisker Media.
Speaker 3 (46:24):
And we're going to try to answer it in a
future podcast episode.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
So, as we.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
Always say, for our clave and per smart see everybody
Speaker 6 (46:34):
Let's Talk Bets every week on demand only on petlife
Radios dot com
This is pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to the Whisker Report.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
We're a new podcast dedicated to helping anyone in the
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Speaker 2 (00:20):
Whether you're an animal welfare or a for profit.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Pet company, we want to help you get some pr
and buzz for your nonprofit or business. Hello everyone, I'm
Mary Tied, one of the hosts of the show, along
with my buddy alexand Ricard, a French gal who now
lives in Vancouver, lives all over the world, speaks multiple
languages and is in always admiration of anyone who's spas
(00:47):
and neuters, stray cats, boner, Alexandron.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
I'm excited for this show. You guys will see we
have a really, really incredible guest. But right now we're
here with our producer, Mark Winter pet Life Radio, who
is the man who gets us to you each and
every week.
Speaker 5 (01:06):
Hey Mark, Hi, how's everyone doing.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
We go good.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
I'm excited for Christmas. I made something called like salt
dough to make ornaments.
Speaker 5 (01:18):
Never heard of the salt No, I have you have on?
Speaker 6 (01:22):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (01:23):
I used to do that in like elementary school.
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Yes, we did it in elementary school.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Yeah, so we make salt and flour and a bit
of water and then it's like a cookie dough and
then we're doing that. Yeah, you make shape and you
cook them for hours and then now they're hard, so
we paint them. So I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Oh, you need to make a pet Life Radio one.
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Ooh, I can do that.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
You should. And speaking of holidays, our show from last week,
our holiday episode is now posted and available for everyone
to listen to.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Kay and don't forget. We also have twenty four days
of giveaways on our social media. Yes and March sings.
He has a beautiful voice and he has a Christmas
album out, just a single. Oh Mark. I made my
roommate listen to it and she loved it. She said
it was really good, so good, thank you.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Mark is a man of many, many talents, and of
course lots of.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Great shows coming out.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
And we're so honored to be part of the pet
Life Radio Network because you know what you could do
pr for yourself and Alex Mark and I are going
to help you each and every week.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
So today's show is with one of my favorite person
in the whole world, a person who inspires me to
do better every day and who I admire Adele Goodman,
the superwoman behind the Instagram account Travel Animal Rescue, is
originally from the US, but she's been traveling in rescuing
animals all over the world. I did meet her in
(02:50):
Greece last year, and that is where she's currently based, trapping,
neittering and returning cats every single day. Hi, Adel, I'm
so grateful you're on our show today.
Speaker 7 (03:01):
Although it's really sweet, and also I'm your biggest fan
as well, I didn't realize you're my biggest battle, so
so cute we're sharing us on.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Can you tell us a bit about your story and
how did you start traveling and rescuing animals?
Speaker 7 (03:16):
Sure, well, I lived in the US for I don't know,
twenty four some years. Maybe like you, Alex and many
other people, I got kind of fed up of not
being able to do anything like meaningful and felt like,
I don't know, I just kind of had to get
out and see what I could do in other places.
(03:38):
So I just kind of picked a spot on the map,
but happened to be Cambodia, and like many people, about
a week or two after being abroad, I found two
kittens in the street, brought them home, and that's basically
the rest of the story from there. When you start
noticing animals, you just kind of constantly start noticing animals
(03:58):
their conditions. It's really easy to feel compelled to want
to do something but not really know what to do.
A lot of people your instinct is to get into rescue,
and that brought me to Vietnam shortly after, where I
for the first time worked in rescue. I had some
experience working in farm sanctuaries in the US before, but
(04:21):
I had never been fully enshrined in rescue. So in
the countryside in Vietnam, working in rescue, it's pretty wild,
unlike anything I've ever experienced. And very quickly after working
in this facility with all these animals, trying to help
my community animals, I realized a lot of it can
be pretty futile if there's no system in place for
(04:43):
actually preventing all these animals being in need of rescue.
There's just so much need around you all the time,
and there's just so little resources, even veterinary resources, to
rely on, so you get really frustrated, and pretty soon
I realized the only big impact I'm going to be
able to have on animal conditions around me is if
(05:04):
I'm involved in prevention rather than rescue. So from there,
it was around COVID time when I was in Vietnam
and I decided to leave after a while. From there,
I kind of just pounced around different places and tried
to kidnap cats off the street, get them murdered, give
them parasite treatment, treat there any wounds or effections they had,
(05:27):
put them back better, and one by one turned into
a pretty large scale, full time thing. And now we're
here uring as puny cats as possible.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
That's so impressive. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Can I ask you a question I've always wanted to
ask people that just get up and go, So, how
do you prepare for that? Like financially, how are you
funding all the surgeries? How are you funding you know?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
How you live? Like it does cost money to do
what you do?
Speaker 7 (06:00):
Right? So I didn't have a plan in the beginning,
to be honest. I thought I'll just set out and
teach English. As a very global morph privileged minded person
would say, I'll just go teach kids English in another country.
And I realized I'm not good at that. So I
somehow managed to And I can't give you any advice
(06:23):
on how to do this, because I don't know if
it existed as a job before. I somehow managed to
get work with lots of small, local, grassroots animal rescue
and protection organizations as kind of like an operations manager.
So every organization needs help with administration, communications, fundraising, marketing, recruitment,
(06:45):
facilities management, veterinary management, all of these things. However, a
lot of rescues are just a person who set out
to help and are doing all of it on their own,
and it's incredibly overwhelming. So these people who have a
ton of work to do, which is essential in order
to do the work, have this burden on their shoulders
(07:06):
and very little money to employ other people to do.
Somehow I found organizations who realized, after many years of
doing all of this on their own, they needed to
hire somebody to help them. So that's what I've been
doing the past few years in order to survive, is
working for small, like multiple small organizations that are engaged
in rescue or do during what have you. And that
(07:29):
has kind of made rescue my full time, all time thing,
which are as positives and negatives, but that's how I've
been able to survive. I don't know how to replicate doubts.
Please don't ask me because how many job's doing it?
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Yeah, and today you also have got a full time
job as an actual trapper, right, So.
Speaker 7 (07:48):
Once again no idea how that happens. But after kind
of practicing on my own in all these different countries,
reading all these different organizations like Alex's organization and some
of our mutual friends, Yeah, just neutering on my own,
trapping on my own. A local organization I had been
a volunteer for received the ability to do a large
(08:10):
scale project, noting like one thousand to fifteen hundred cats
a year, which meant they needed full time people on staff.
So that's what I've done for the past year, has
been kind of one of the main people in the
field doing trapping basically every single day, right out a
free day.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
So yeah, it's an actual job now to be a
full time trapper, which is like what we need. We
need more of them, because you know, there are full
times of being you know, a shelter manager or an
adoption shelter manager or whatever, but no trapper. So this
is a new job and I'm all for it.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
That is so cool. A del I have a quick question.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
I feel like like when I was overseas, most of
the trappers and the rescuers were either they were either
from Western European countries or the US or Canada, like
a lot from the UK and the US.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Is is that what you find too?
Speaker 7 (09:01):
It depends on where you are. I would say in
Southeast Asia, yes, but here in Greece. I think every community,
every neighborhood that I've lived in in Greece, there are
local people who have been trying to do during on
their own for many years. A lot of them are older,
a lot of them are women. You know, rescue is
dominated by non men, and they've been out here doing
(09:24):
it like one by one. And that means depending on
like the neighborhood you live in. Not every neighborhood, of course,
but a lot of places I've been able to move
in and someone is already locally uring some of the cats,
and then that gives me an opportunity to step in
and be like, maybe I can help you. Maybe I
can connect to you to vets who are going to
(09:45):
offer lower cost silizations and also are a bit better quality,
and we can help trioge some things to get better
care for the cats, like better pain relief or maybe
provide equipm meant to people that couldn't access it before.
That's something that alex is really familiar with, kind of
(10:06):
helping bridge those those gaps, because there's a lot of
people that want to do it, they just really struggle
to get the resources to do it because it can
be really expensive and it's not a social system the
way that it should be.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
I feel like though, in Greece it's getting better, am
I right? I mean compared to other countries. Now I
don't live there, but I had this conversation with when
I was leaving Greece, I had a conversation with the
ticketing guy at the airport with I forget which airline, Oh,
I think it was like with KLM, And the guy
(10:38):
was telling me he's Greek.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
He saw all these kiddies.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
On Instagram and he's like, I want to get a
kiddie like that and put him on Instagram. And so
he took a cat into his house and he lives
in it's a multi general orational situation. So his grandparents
were horrified that he took this outdoor cat and made
him his pet.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
But now this pet sleeps with him. And he said
with his friends. He finds that that's coming. But I
suppose you're out on the street.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
So it's just like, you know, everybody could take ten
cats into their house.
Speaker 7 (11:10):
Sure, I think some things are getting better. It is
a slow progression. You're always going to have people who
disagree with certain interventions, but luckily they're not typically the
ones who are taking care of the animals at all,
So you can always what I like to do. If
someone disagrees with what I'm doing or is not particularly helpful,
(11:33):
if they come over and start questioning me, I just
ask them if they want to donate, and they run
away so fast might get to look to solve the problem.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (11:42):
I think there are tons of like substantial higher volumes
bynutered projects that are popping up, just perhaps in Greece.
It can seem like it's such an uphill battle because
there are so many animals on the street already, and
if you remember, you probably experience it. It was a bit
(12:04):
different for cats and dogs. Dogs they have dealt with
a bit differently, Alex Kurt me if I'm wrong in
any part, But weren't really put through any kind of
neutering program. They were sort of like rounded up and
put in shelter, so you won't see community dogs in
the same way here. However, with cats who can very
(12:24):
easily hide in the many many abandoned buildings, behind fences
and so on, perhaps that sort of saved them from
the sort of like math entrapment or culling dial and
has enabled more people to get involved in neutering, which,
as we all know, is a much more effective way
(12:45):
of controlling free roaming animals populations. So I do think
things are getting better in some ways, but there are
still I mean, where Alex was there was no neutering
going on, right, you guys started a whole projects there.
So some places are up touched, some places there's concentration
of work.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Yeah, Because we have to say that Adele is based
in Athens, the capital of Greece as well, so it's
a bit different from my experience, which was in the countryside,
small Greek town. Well cool, Well, coming up, we're going.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
To talk with Adele about social media and pr and
how she does it. And she's gonna ask us questions
too on how she can get more publicity for her rescue, So.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 5 (13:33):
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Movement is on a mission to help give cats an
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(13:56):
about the benefits of spee and neuter and meet school
the newter cat at Give them ten dot org. That's
give them ten dot org.
Speaker 6 (14:09):
Let's talk pets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
And we're back with Adele and Travel Animal Rescue.
Speaker 7 (14:26):
So, Adele, I checked your.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Instagram account yesterday and I'm right you have around twenty
five thousand followers. Sounds about right, Yeah, So one of
the question is, you know so many people have smaller
rescues and they always say how hard it is to
you know, get high engagement or even get followers. And
we also know that getting more followers might means more
(14:48):
donations sometimes because you have access to a bigger audience
than if you only have like a thousand people following you.
So I just wanted to ask you how did you
grow your audience and how important is social media for well?
Speaker 7 (15:01):
I wish I could give you some kind of like
magic method of how it worked. But I got to
tell you it was a complete accident, and I wanted
to ask you as well, because we all hear so
much talk about different kinds of like tactics and pleasing
the algorithm and things that we can do. You know,
the music for this reel has been used a lot.
(15:23):
Maybe somebody will click on my real because they use
the song or something. I don't know, But honestly, I
had a very small account until I posted one video
of me using a dropper to catch a cat. Was
a few seconds long. It was a small text over
it that said we're doing T and R it's good
for this reason, and it got millions of views and
(15:44):
all of these followers that honestly, they're probably mostly bots.
I hate to break it to us, but like they're
probably mostly spam accounts, because if you ask a lot
of people who have really large followings, the people who
actually engage with the content is so much lower than
the people that follow them. I hear a lot of
people in fundraising talk about if every person who followed
(16:07):
me donated a dollar or fifty cents, we would be okay.
Why doesn't that happen because I think so many people
are not actually engaging with our account. I have a
friend with a sanctuary hearing look about that she has
I don't know, forty five thousand followers, and she has
about one thousand people that work her stories every day,
A thousand out of forty five thousand people, and that's
(16:28):
actually pretty good. So what I would say is I
find a lot more value in connecting with people genuinely
who are directly related to the work that I do,
or there's some overlaber or we have some interests in common,
whether it's animal rights work of different different types of
(16:48):
projects or different types of animals, or prevention work, or
a wide variety of things. People who work in veterinary
people who work in different countries. I find that to
be a lot more growthful. Those people engage a lot
more than you know the perhaps like twenty five thousand
random people that chose to follow me at one point
(17:10):
and then never really engaged with it again. I don't
know if you have a bit of a different experience
or could lend some insight into that. So for me,
it was kind of the same story as you write.
We had a couple of followers and then one day, created.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
A video about Faith, a paralyzed kitty that started walking again,
and you know when completely viral, had like fifty million
views and you know, the Dodo Coldest and the newspaper coldest,
and it was absolutely insane, and we got like fifty
thousand followers overnight. And I think for us now, what
(17:45):
we see a year later is that the people that
followed us, some of them was for a good reason,
they wanted to see your work. Some of them was
just to see Faith. And so once Faith was adopted,
our engagement dropped because well Faith was not with us
anymore or so, you know, so what we need to do,
especially when we do TNR and you know tn R
(18:05):
is not you know, joyful, happy story. You know, it's
not a cute kity cat getting adopted. It's just a
cute kitty cat getting spade and then returning to its colony.
So we have to try to grab the attention with
one specific cat. That's why I feel like works. I've
been following a couple of TNR accounts and what they
do is really create a relationship with a specific straight
(18:28):
cat and then show that relationship and show, you know,
give up date of that straight cat. So I feel
like people just really need an attachment. And that's how,
like you know, pet influencer works so well because if
you see, you know, like surfer cat Mavi, people are
attached to Mavi, his story, what he's doing himself. They
don't really care about his parents. They just won't Madviie
(18:49):
the cat, or like Bowie the Siberian cat. You know,
it's like they just get attached to one cat, one animals.
So that's kind of what you need to do is
try to like find a special story, which is hard
for us when we you know, we only have straight cats,
or we have one cat that we're trying to put
for adoption but only last a few months and then
you know, the cat is gone. So it's a hard balance.
Speaker 7 (19:11):
Right. Maybe this also ties into your second question, which
is what I use my account for is kind of
just to convey like why I am actually tangibly experiencing
and maybe talk about some topics that are real but
a bit difficult to broach and maybe less talked about
(19:31):
topics or maybe controversial topics, things that people are hesitant
to discuss to instigate conversation. But the reason why I
can do that is because I don't use my account
for fundraising whatsoever. I didn't start it for fundraising. I
don't ask family or friends for money, and I am
in super position in order to do that, because I
(19:53):
decided to register my organization as a charity simply in
order to apply for larger grants and funds so that
I didn't have to beg people for money and prove
the value of what I was doing every day, because
at the end of the day, like fundraising and marketing
and rescue is us trying to demonstrate that we're providing value.
(20:14):
We're doing work that is really important, and it can
be really frustrating to try to do a good job
with that and not.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
Receive the support that you need. Yeah, so I have the.
Speaker 7 (20:25):
Ability to not rely on my social media for fundraising
purposes and talk about other types of things. And you
do what I said before, which is like meaningfully engaged
with people in conversation that are directly related to what
I do, rather than trying to get new followers and
bring in money that way.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
That's one thing Mary, I wanted to ask you about.
So Adele, I know you're quite a big activist on
social media. You will talk about you know, controversial subject
when they're not you know, like personal being vegan or
like politics and stuff like that. And you're saying because
you're not fundraising money, but example Mary, for us as
Saving Lives, we're trying to you know, fond raise money,
(21:04):
so we don't share as much about being vegan because
we're trying to fund raise money to T and R
and so you know, it's two different topics. Is it
controversial to like how as a charity who trying to fundraise,
how political or how controversial can you actually be on
social media?
Speaker 3 (21:23):
So that's a great question, Alex I would say talking
about vegan is actually fine. I mean, people don't get
bent out of shape over what you eat.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
And I've never.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Seen any vegans, any vegan websites. I haven't seen people
turn away from that because it's a choice.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
And especially if.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
You're trying to hit Americans, I think being a vegan
shows your compassion. Now, the people who are not going
to like that is the beef industry, the big factory farms. Yeah,
they're not gonna like that, but you know what, they're
not your target audience. They are never ever going to
support animal welfare where I do.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Draw the line.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
And because I come from government and I have worked
at animal rescues and shelters that have taken political stances,
I would stay away from politics. I would stay I
mean I have seen some animal welfare groups, you know,
post one way or the other, and then you're alienating
the other party, right, And this is individual, but if
(22:25):
you're trying to get the most money out of people,
I would stay neutral. And here's the thing, especially in
the US, all all political parties love animals, they just
maybe support it a different way because I have seen
research that says Republicans donate more to animal rescue than
do Democrats. But on the other hand, and you know
(22:46):
it depends. I mean, if you don't want any of
your money to come from one side or the other,
I would say, post what you want. It's up to
you as the leader of the group. But just in
terms of animals are as we say bipodisan, I mean,
animals do bring people together. And so regardless of I
(23:08):
personally prefer more neutral stance because I'm just looking to
raise as much money as possible. But I do feel
when it comes to veganism, it's a compassion issue and
I feel like that's.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
A little bit different.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
I mean, I have never heard of anybody, and I
may be wrong, but I have not heard anybody say
I don't like you because you're a vegan.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
Oh I've heard it.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
I've never heard that, now.
Speaker 6 (23:35):
What?
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
I get a lot of backlash sometimes. And what I
used to get when we did T and R and
even from my own family was I don't get it.
You're vegan, but you feed cats sardines to catch them, Like,
what is wrong with you? And I was like, well,
you know, I've got to do it, Like it's it's
really hard. Like even I have a cat and I'm
feeding my cat meat, right, my cat is not vegan.
(23:58):
So it's a very hard conscious choice. But people will
find that to not be within your values, so they
will try to attack you on that. That's what I've
personally seen. So that's why we've always been We talk
a bit about veganism, but we talk more about the
food rather than being like actual activist on our social media,
which we would love to be more. But it's also
(24:20):
like a case of like if we do that, are
we gonna lose followers? And are we going to lose
you know, people who donate just money for the cats.
So it's a bit difficult in that way.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
So I remember when I was working with Sterling Davis,
he posted something political and he lost I can't remember
what he told me, but he lost like twenty thousand
followers overnight. And so, you know what I want to say,
I wonder if that's more what I'm saying is more
geared towards Americans, because this is my philosophy. Americans hate
(24:50):
being told what to do, and so in America it's
all about choices. But I remember when I talked to
this French guy in Los Angeles and I told him
I needed a sandwich to get for you at cat Con,
and I'm like, it's.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Got to be vegan. He looked at me, like.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
This is a girl from France and she's a vegan.
So he was shocked because he said, French people don't
care for veganisms, is what I'm told. You know what, though,
in the end, it's up to you as the executive
director and founder to do what's in your heart and mission.
And you know, I'm a big proponent of getting as
(25:30):
much money as you can from everybody. But if you're
really really strong about one area, then yeah, absolutely post
about it. Because the other side of this coin adele
is that if you don't stand for something, then like
you're gonna get lost in the fray. Right when you're
putting out a message, when you're putting out your story, it's.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Got to be unique to you.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
So I'm kind of talking from both ends of my mouth,
but you need to make a statement.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
But at the same.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Time, I would say in the US, and what I've
noticed in the United States is people go down. I'm
sure it happens in other countries, but since I'm in
the US, I feel like people go down rabbit holes.
Like you post something political, then you're spending all the
time talking about this politics and stuff that has nothing
to do with cats, and then all of a sudden,
(26:23):
you're spending your time dealing with this. And so that's
why you know you just got it. You just got
to be prepared for what you do. And also never
shut off your comments. That's another big I had a crisis.
I have a situation right now where one of the
owners shut off the comments on her page because something
terrible happened, and I completely disagree, because that also gives
(26:44):
you a chance for your supporters.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
To defend you, to defend themselves.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Now, if you are a vegan nonprofit and you are
championing veganism, then absolutely go all out too, you know.
I mean, it depends what your mission is. And I
would say most and welfare and animal welfare advocates. Almost
everybody's vegan, and that's that's very well known.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
No, I'm done.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
I'm like chatting up a stormy here. Mary talks a lot. Yes,
I have a big mouth. I apologize.
Speaker 7 (27:14):
The first grant I ever received was from an animal
rights a vegan focused organization for t and R. When
I registered my charity in the UK. In my charity objects,
I presented it as a t and R focused animal
rights project because I don't I have an animal rights background.
I've worked with all the species of animals. I work
for everyone equally. The reason I do tn R for
(27:36):
cats is not because I have an affinity for cats,
but because they're in front of me and I can
like that's the need that I can fill with my skills,
and so for me, this is an animal rights issue
because we do spec for anybody who is unfamiliar, we
do spay and neuter for their well being, and people
who are unfamiliar or people who come from a very
strict abolitionist animal rights perspective may not understand that because
(27:58):
some people can think, well, why is it necessary or
why are you violating their consent of like removing organs
from their body? It can seem like quite a non
animal rights focused thing. And I actually did a whole
presentation about this this summer in an animal liberation conference
in Copenhagen to specifically talk to animal liberation folk about
(28:21):
why I feel this is an animal rights issue, specifically
to the point of we do this for them. Sometimes
when we rescue, we do it for ourselves. It makes
us feel good. Yes, of course we often do it
for them, but there is a part that makes us
feel good as well. Right, we get that animal up
the street into a warm bed of shelter, home, whatever.
But when we do an intervention like sterilization, we oftentimes
(28:44):
don't benefit from it other than seeing them well after,
and we sacrifice a lot in order to do it.
It's not a nice thing for them to go through.
It's not a great thing for us to go through either.
It's very expensive, stressful. There's a lot of factors that
come into I view it as the crux between life
and death for that animal, because we're enhancing their life,
(29:05):
their medical conditions, their health status in so many ways,
and if we don't, the alternative is grave. So because
it is for their well being and we're doing it
because we want to help them, That's why I view
it as an animal rights issue, and so I wanted
to broach that topic to that community. That's why I
also talk about it to larger community on social media
(29:28):
or whatever. When I say talking about politics, I don't
mean electoral politics. That's why I left the US. I'll
say it's far possible. One of the worst things from
out America. Okay, I talk about life being political, especially
in local communities in Greece, for example, this is a
very specific issue. People harm animals intentionally. They don't want
animals or people harm animals intentionally everywhere and all species,
(29:52):
but specifically, there is a prevalence of in my local
community right now, people harming animals intentionally. And when we
try to prevent this very objectional thing from happening, everyone,
most people in society would agree like this is not
something that should happen, Like animals should be looked after,
no one should be intentionally harmed. That's why we have
(30:13):
animal welfare laws in place. So when you simply try
to uphold the laws that exist, and you see police
interventions and court interventions that don't actually punish the perpetrators,
and you go there and you see with your eyes
these people being let back out into society, you will
(30:34):
see how political this is. You will see how connected
these two things are. And so I don't talk about
my views on different political topics. I share the reality
of what happens in animal rescue and how it connects
to communities, societies. At the end of the day, like
when we intervene in free roaming animals lives, we're sort
(30:58):
of disrupting a system that has come together over many
years of animals that were domesticated and then discarded. Right like,
these animals were allowed, at the minimum to be brought
into this world and sometimes purposely brought into this world
and then discarded. I see that as a violent thing
(31:19):
because they need violence on the streets. They suffer greatly,
and that's why we do TNR. And so when we intervene,
when we try to help them, it may seem as
simple as like, oh, we're just trying to help animals
or we're just trying to make cat's lives better. But
I see us as disrupting the system that can be
very violent and is upheld by so many different parts
of society. So that's why I feel a lot of
(31:43):
these kinds of things can end up seeming quite political.
But again, I don't rely on the average person to
donate to me, so I am in a bit of
a different situation than others who do. And there are
a lot of people who don't have the privilege to
speak out against certain things because it will cost them support,
which which is a shame.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
Right, we have to take a quick break and then
when we come back, we're going to talk more about
telling the story of Tena.
Speaker 8 (32:13):
Begging to hear more of your favorite show. Full episodes
of all our shows are available on demand. Go to
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Speaker 9 (32:35):
Let's Talk Past Let's Pets on pet Life Radio, Headline Radio,
pet live radio dot com.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
And we're back with Adele and Adele, a couple of
days ago you contacted me and we chatted about a
huge pot you are working on, and I'd like to
hear more about that. We only have a couple more
minutes on the podcast, but please tell us more, and
I think you have some pr questions.
Speaker 7 (33:11):
Yeah, I mean, like anybody else, I would love to
soak up whatever knowledge you have about getting lots and
lots of money to view this work that so few
people seem to see as important as rescuing kittens. I
know a lot of people who use kit and rescue
to fundraise and then divert that money to spay and
(33:31):
neuter because it's just less attractive. Maybe it's larger society.
So yeah, I mean, there's nothing like concrete yet. But
I have a few people in my life who are
really passionate about prevention, specifically spay and neuter, and have
been working in rescue for many years in a part
(33:53):
of Greece and really want to see spay and work
be effective to help the cats in the community, but
also to sort of experiment and see if we do
enough population management for cat does it have a markable
effect on the local rescues. We talk about that a
(34:15):
lot here in the us where if we're doing Spain
newter we are alleviating a lot of the burden from
the local rescues. You have to constantly take in kitten
in Greece. Yes, of course you have to take in
kittens and sick animals here and there, but there's always
too many and so they are always over overburdened. So
I'd love to see a project that is at the
(34:35):
intersection of community focused spay and neuter, but also analyzing
some kind of benefit on the local rescues and seeing
if that spike neuter work is also alleviating the burden
on the maybe one or two rescues that exist on
an entire island. How to market something like that, How
to make something like that consumable to people in order
(34:58):
to get support and for them to understand the need
for it.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
So, you know how you were talking about how you
approach your social media and you're looking for stories that is,
it's exact same thing with public relations and media relations.
And so one thing I would do is you need
to reach out to the local media in whatever country
you're in. Well, one thing that is standard with all
(35:25):
countries is everybody has local community media. There has to
be a place that people are getting their information from,
you know, and that could be like getting on the BBC,
which is seen in worldwide, or getting on CNN or
Sky News or any of these these outlets.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
And you need to be telling your story.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
And here's the thing, Like, in my view, you're right,
actually trapping cats and getting them spay and neutered and
releasing them back into the colonies is actually not not
all that exciting to most people. But what is exciting,
and I hate to say this, but in the US,
and I think the Western European media too, fear and
(36:06):
loathing and terrible things gets more eyeballs. And so what
I would suggest is you talk about what happens to
all of these kittens and animals that are born as
strays and ferals, what happens to them, what is their
life like? Show these impoverished animals, Show exactly what is
(36:30):
going on to these animals when you see injured. I mean, Alex,
you do this really well, bringing in injured animals and
telling their stories. And you know what, I don't think
it has to be an adoptable animal for them to
tell the story. I mean, if it's an animal that
you're rehabilitating that was kicked on the streets in Athens.
(36:50):
That's a very compelling story. And you know, I'm sure
millions of other cats are going through the same thing
in Greece.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
Ye, maybe you could find some numbers of like I
don't know if that's possible, right, because it's hard to
find numbers, but on that Greek island, maybe see how
many cats get run over or how many kittens are
born each here, or you know, just like some stories
from the locals, Like I'm sure they've seen horrifying stories
about a cat that died because of a dog or something.
You know, like just like some really compelling stories. And
(37:21):
I think because a lot of people love Greece and
they love the cats in Greece, right, it's a well
known fact, like Greek cats, cats in Greece, you can
definitely get like into national coverage to be like, everybody
loves to come to Greece on holiday, everybody loves to
come to Centorini and see those healthy cats. But if
you go to another island, what is happening. This is
what's happening, and this is how we're planning on solving it.
(37:44):
This is the problem, this is our solution exactly, and
you know what, you should hit up the wealthier countries.
I happen to know two people here in Minnesota that
were vacationing in Greece and just took two kittens home
with them. It's actually pretty easy, but people have big hearts.
I would, you know, focus on the wealthier European countries
(38:05):
and that sort of thing, and it is possible. There's
a lot, I'm going to say, especially in the US
and the UK, there's a lot of money in animal
welfare and there's people out there that would love to
see what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
But you need to get in front of these people,
and that's the hardest part, if that makes any sense.
Speaker 7 (38:24):
I mean, that was one of my questions having been
throughout parts of the Global South. I know tons of
rescues and everyone is asking for the same thing, and
I don't know if anyone knows quite how to reach
the global morph, how to reach an international audience. In Greece,
for example, local media can talk about animal welfare, but
there is just so much need here about the local support.
(38:46):
I mean, there's a reason why most cats go for
adoption abroad. Yeah, people are just overwhelmed with it. Here.
So what would you say to organizations in the global
South who want to take advantage of wealthier communities who
do care about a welfare and want to engage them
in this storytelling and stand out from all of the
(39:09):
just endless stories of needs that we hear around the world.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
You know, one thing that the most successful rescues that
I have worked with, doesn't matter what country you're in,
is making initial contact with them in terms of getting
to know them. So you know, here in the US
they have like, for example, the Lions Group or the
American Legions here in the United States, they all are
(39:36):
these community groups, and like I've given presentations about the
rescue that I'm working with or the shelter, and then
I find that they're donating, I'll leave the meeting with
twenty five hundred dollars. Is there a way for you
to get in front of get into the community groups
of the local Greek communities that you know are maybe
(40:00):
in a wealthier area. Or another thing is perhaps you
contact the American Embassy in Athens and ask them, hey,
could I come give a presentation about what I'm doing?
Because those are all Americans who are living overseas, right
and they're based in Greece or even going to the
(40:21):
US military bases there.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
They love.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
They all have community groups because they all you know,
they're all Americans living together. That's that's just one way.
But every community has like a community group of some sort.
And if you can get in front of these groups
and talk about what you're doing and explain what you're doing,
and explain and you know, show have a PowerPoint with
(40:45):
visuals of some of the animals you help and why
they need to get involved.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
I think that's a way.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
Now there is a situation and I don't know, you
might be an introverted as well. A lot of people
are introverted, and so they're a little bit scared, you know,
they don't like public speaking. But maybe if there's somebody,
if you're talking to a Greek community group, you can
find them. Maybe have somebody who's a volunteer with you
(41:13):
that is Greek that could deliver the presentation. It's you know,
it's getting out and also meeting with the mayors of
the town because in the end, from what I understand,
like in Greece, I mean and in third world countries,
government is very important to most of the people. I
think you know, in the US they don't like their government,
(41:34):
but I feel like in other countries they like their
government a little better because, you know, you get health
insurance and everything through through their government, So people are
a little bit more dependent on their government than they
are in the US. So these are just some ideas, Adele,
I'm throwing a lot at you, but getting out there,
you've got to have a unique story. And you know,
(41:56):
so many animal rescues tell me we don't have anything,
We're just doing whatever everybody else is doing.
Speaker 8 (42:01):
No, you're not.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
You're an individual, You're a separate person.
Speaker 3 (42:04):
You are what makes your group unique, and you have
such an amazing story at all, Like you've lived in
so many countries doing animal rescue.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
I can tell you there's people that.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
I know and people in the US that would just
be so fascinated on that you know, and even to
people overseas, and I can see being featured on the
Dodo and the Huffington Post and all of these groups.
And so you've got to get your story out there
and just remember that you're a true individual and your
story is unique.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
Your story.
Speaker 3 (42:40):
Even though you and Alex have kind of done similar things,
you're both very different, right, you both have a different
approach to things. So there that's my that's my coaching
segment for you.
Speaker 7 (42:52):
Thank you. I mean to your point, as a person
who's biggest fear is public speaking in a world where
there are so many more important things to be afraid of,
to be honest, that's something that I have been fortunate
to not have to do and have really tried not to.
Is like be focused in my media. I do also
do that for a purpose. I don't see myself as
(43:13):
the work, right, and I want to be careful, especially
as a global North person with privilege coming to the
global South and centering myself. So I try to center
the communities and the collaborative work. But also there are
many people who have success by being the face of
an organization, being the face of the work. We've even
heard social media algorithms like to see a human face.
(43:36):
So yeah, I definitely don't do that very much. I
prefer the more self approach where you don't see me
very often. Maybe you see my back cloaking with my hat, hiding, yeah,
hitting my dates. But yeah, I mean to your point,
before I've seen the reals that do really well being
the ones that do tell stories. So I've done a
(43:57):
few about the importance of of pregnant space in spe
and Neuter, for example, where I've just had endless shots
of sick kittens on the street showing the conditions that
they live in because this is the reality. It's not
painting it in any sort of light. This is what
we see every day, and those tend to do really well.
But it is a balance of trying not to overwhelm
(44:21):
people with making them think it's just a futile, horrible
situation and there's no point donating because you know it's
not a change anything. Like to your point before showing
the impact, the direct impact of Spey and Uter and
all these other types of interventions is we prevent this
thing that you're seeing right now from happening. Wouldn't that
(44:44):
be great? And it's actually not so expensive. That's the
nice thing about Spey and Uter. You could save a
cat's lives and all of their potential offspring for less
than fifty euros. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (44:56):
All right, Well, we have had an action pack segment,
but I want to give you one parting advice.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
Adel When you are.
Speaker 4 (45:05):
Out there public speaking and promoting yourself. You are not
like you are not necessarily the story. Don't equate getting
out there and talking about your rescue as just doing
publicity for yourself. What you're doing is you're really helping
your organization. I hope that makes sense. You know, when
I do public speaking, think of public speaking as you
(45:30):
are helping the cats that you're serving, because without you
being the mouthpiece, your cats don't have a say, right,
So don't always think about that I'm public speaking, so
I'm bragging about myself. Also, the other thing I want
to tell people, if you don't say nice things about yourself,
nobody else is going to. And the cats need you, Adele,
(45:52):
to speak out and talk on their behalf. You need
to get out there and rescue and raise a lot
of money to get your kiddies fixed they stop having babies.
So there that's my parting thought. And of course that's
a wrap for this show. We're so excited.
Speaker 3 (46:08):
We want to thank Adele for coming on and we
love doing this kind of work.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
We want to make life better for animals.
Speaker 3 (46:15):
And so also, if you have a question you want
us to answer, reach out to us on our Instagram
or Facebook page.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
Under the Whisker Report or Whisker Media.
Speaker 3 (46:24):
And we're going to try to answer it in a
future podcast episode.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
So, as we.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
Always say, for our clave and per smart see everybody
Speaker 6 (46:34):
Let's Talk Bets every week on demand only on petlife
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