The People Aspect of Animal Rescue
These sections, 9, 10, and 11 of 13 (all are linked here), deal with one of the most challenging aspects of animal rescue: dealing with the public, managing stress, and thinking about the bigger picture.
Educating the public
To adopt out your pets, you will have to perform a lot of outreach. For example, say you are at an adoption fair. People are going to wander by and stick their fingers in the cages and coo at your pets. This is generally a good thing, but of course there are limits (such as stressing the animal out, or getting the little kid’s fingers nipped). This is when you talk to them, knowing full well they aren’t going to be the adopter, just to let them know the kind of situation that pet came from, what its needs are, what kind of home you’re looking for, and who you and your organization is. Getting out the word of mouth about proper animal care and your organization is your goal. There are a lot of semi-neglected pets out there for whom just the right shift in perception by their family, via a friendly visitor, could benefit (for example, two rabbits kept in separate cages: sterilizing one or both, and keeping them together = vast improvement in quality of life).
The next example of educating the public is having a thorough, well-referenced, easy-to-use website containing information that a pet adopter might want to know. You will get traffic from all over the world if your website contains information that is not easily found elsewhere. However, don’t reinvent the wheel and write everything you know! Take quotations from other useful websites and include links to that content so that people get familiar with the sources you use. For ease-of-use, a blog with a good classification of categories and an index — a “tag cloud” — is the easiest to create and maintain. Every new entry you write becomes front and centre. Share this content to a Facebook group or Page you create (or one that you join), to get it out to more people than just your friends.
The third prong of your public education campaign has to do with the fact that you will get more phone calls to surrender animals than to adopt them. Your goal is not to take these surrenders in, but take in those from the shelter whose days are numbered, or from situations where the animal isn’t even going to make it into the shelter, but something worse. Your objective here is to find out why the animal is being surrendered, and if it’s an untenable situation, direct them to a place that can accept their pet, or increase their chances of finding an adopter. However, in more cases than the people readily admit, the animal can be kept, and your goal is to educate and reassure them enough to keep the animal in their family with improved conditions. Moving to another country? “No problem. Here’s information on travelling with your pets, here are the Customs information of that country on the import of pets.” The animal is misbehaving: Has it been neutered or spayed? Have they read up on these resources? Do they have unrealistic expectations that can be educated? Have they gone to puppy training school? Can they provide environmental enrichment, or a friend for the pet to be happier? With the exception of neglect, a pet in a home with a friend but no human for 14 hours a day is better off than a pet in a shelter for 24 hours a day. Try to find out if the situation can be improved, and how.
Stress management, i.e. dealing with difficult people
The worst part about running a rescue is dealing with difficult people. And let me tell you, anything that has to do with the wellbeing or the control of animals can bring out the biggest asshats you ever saw or heard. It can even turn you into an asshat, because the pressure can be so intense.
Here is a graphic that I did not know at the time, but which may save your life. Everyone that you deal with believes they are right. Some of them also want to prove you wrong. Don’t rise to the bait. Try to talk to them about what is important to them using the guidelines below. At times where you feel like you just aren’t being heard, apply these principles to yourself as well.
People are difficult, more difficult than animals to manage, but consider them just a more “complicated” animal. Try to empathize and keep things as smooth as possible, and stick to your guns regarding the animals that are in your charge. Remember that you can’t take responsibility for more than what you are actually responsible for, and no one can make you do what you don’t want to do, or what might go against the your gut feeling about a situation. Stay centred. Stay kind. Be a superhero for your own rescues, and for all other animals when you can, but be philosophical about what is to be gained, and what losses you may face.
Oh, and take time off. Ask a volunteer to look after the animals while you get away for the weekend. You’ll be better off for it.
Thinking about the bigger picture: Philosophy and dogmas
This section requires a book of its own, because there is a lot of drama here. I don’t want to get into drama. You’re going to find it soon enough. Let me just say this: the only religion here is compassion and kindness. Ignore all other dogmas and political turf wars as to which organizations are good and evil, who is no-kill vs. pro-euthanasia, etc. Organizations are made up of humans with all of their biases, both individual and enforced; no one is evil, and everyone has constrained resources. Get over it. When it comes to what is a good practice, however, go to the science and the research. Become acquainted with professional websites such as the ASPCA and Faunalytics. Maybe there’s even a LinkedIn group you can join. You will find a lot of rescue myth-busting and new creative ideas for marketing and rescuing animals, if you go looking for them.
Go on to read more on Managing Growth, Working with Other Rescues, and Transitioning Out.
