There are so many factors that contribute to the overpopulation and mistreatment of companion animals. I believe the key to future change is education, but there is so much I have yet to learn myself. My quest to educate is also a quest to learn.

I am looking for input, insight and ideas to help me along the path of building a new organization, Animals Who Educate. I hope you'll join the conversation by signing up to receive email updates.

org chart on chalk boardIn the three weeks since I declared 2013 to be a good year for sharing and gathering information, I’ve learned a lot about what I don’t know. (It seems that I’m always learning more and more about what I don’t know.) Corresponding to what I don’t know though, are a few new things that I DO know:

  • I know that starting my humane education organization, Animals Who Educate (A.W.E.), is NOT going to be a quick and easy project, especially since I can’t currently dedicate enormous amounts of time to it due to my "real" job and my ongoing volunteer work with NYCSR.
  • I know I need to read A LOT during the next couple years, so I will have a better idea of what I’m doing, what’s already out there, what works, what doesn’t work, and how I can make the biggest difference without duplicating effort.
  • I know that I need to put together a group of people to help get started, instead of trying to do it alone – a brain trust – to advise me as I make decisions and choose board members, among other things.
  • I have the beginnings of a list of necessary directors, but this probably isn’t complete:
    • an educator,
    • a lawyer,
    • a public relations guru,
    • a grant writer/fund raiser, and
    • an administrator (filled – that’s me)!

There is a lot that I need to learn and sort out. That’s going to take awhile. I hope everyone who is interested will stick around, ask questions, and help provide information.

Question of the week: Should I aim for this to be an organization that can pay salaries for several people to work full time? It could accomplish a lot more that way, as opposed to being a 100% volunteer effort forever. However, it would require a whole set of skills – fund raising and grant writing – that I don’t have and that it wouldn’t be able to PAY for until after it already had it. Thoughts?

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Misfits: Tales of a Dog Rescuer
A Handbook for Dog Rescuers

by Deborah M. Guske

Rating: ★★☆☆☆Misfits, a dog rescue handbook

Several people have suggested that I should write a book about rescue – a dog rescue handbook or manual on how to start a non-profit rescue organization. I decided to look for an existing book that fits the bill. I purchased the Kindle Edition of Misfits as the first possibility for review.

The first 40% of Misfits didn’t interest me at all, as it was simply a compilation of personal stories about some of the author’s various foster dogs. The stories do contain some good medical info (sourced from other books and websites) however, which could be very useful to some readers.

The next 20% of the book has excellent information for volunteers new to rescue. Although the author’s writing style is disorganized and the book was apparently not proofread before being e-published, the information contained in the center chapters is valuable enough to justify purchasing and reading the book. It gives an overview of, and sound advice regarding, owner surrenders, transports, fostering, adoption applications, home visits, insurance and inevitable euthanasia.

The last portion of the book contains a toxic plant list, a list of internal parasites, and the reference list (mostly for the medical info quoted in the first portion). This could be a handy reference for someone new to rescue and fostering to have on hand.

Misfits can’t be used as a guide for starting a rescue organization, but it IS a very good introduction to the rescue world and a decent quick-reference for health issues. Reading this book could help prepare new rescue volunteers and also help them understand some of what is involved in the “business” of rescue.

Misfits is available from Amazon as a Kindle ebook.

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The Fears and Benefits of Pet Fostering

by Lauren Colman on February 19, 2013 · 19 comments

in guest posts,rescue

Lauren ColmanMany dogs and cats across the country are living in animal shelters and humane societies, desperately waiting for someone to adopt them and take them to a new home. Unfortunately, waiting for an adoption can take a long time for homeless pets. Many shelters and humane societies have begun the process of looking for volunteer foster families willing to take the pets into their homes for a limited amount of time.

Fears That Discourage Fostering

People that may be potential foster families often fear that they will become too attached to the foster pet and will have difficulty returning it to the shelter or humane society. While it is true that foster families often do become attached to the pet during the time spent together, they can take pride and satisfaction in knowing that they have provided a loving and stable environment for the animal.

Other potential foster families worry about the behavior of the foster pet with their family members or with pets already in the home. There could indeed be clashes of personality between the foster pet and existing family members or pets, but most animal shelters and humane societies try to place pets in homes that will be the best match of personalities. Despite these and any other fears, inviting a foster pet in the home can produce many benefits for both the pet and the family.

Potential Benefits of Fostering

1. Anytime and anywhere at very little cost – After passing a fairly simple background check, individuals and families can foster a pet just about anywhere. Most shelters and humane societies will select an appropriate foster pet for the home environment and resources available. Foster pets can live in apartments or houses and can be trusted to individuals or families. Available for long-term or short-term placements, shelters provide the animals with vaccinations, medicines, and other veterinary services, so the foster family is really only responsible for food and space for the foster pet.

2. A family pet try-out – Fostering a dog or cat for a brief period of time allows a family to learn a lot about owning a permanent pet in the future. For example, sharing a home with a cat for a few months helps a family to decide whether a cat is a naturally good fit as a pet for all the home’s inhabitants. Family members will discover what it is like to own and care for a pet for a brief period of time without committing to forever providing for the pet. Similarly, a family may be interested in adopting a dog, and the fostering process will allow that family to try different breeds of dogs to discover which is the most compatible with the personalities of the family members.

3. Family entertainment and enjoyment – Although dogs are especially renowned for their cuddling and playing routines, cats can be equally entertaining in their actions. Playing fetch with a dog or spending time watching a cat chase a feather are enjoyable for both the pets and the families. These pets are also an excellent excuse to take extra walks, to explore new territory, and teach the pets new tricks. Families can bond over the common care and enjoyment that the foster pet brings to the home.

4. A new community – Pet foster families often seek encouragement and support from other foster families. Housing a foster cat or dog brings unrelated people together and helps form new friendships and bonds that otherwise might not exist. Additionally, caring for foster pets brings together pet owners of all types, whether they are owners or temporary guardians. Dog parks, for example, provide a space for all pets and give an opportunity for all pet owners and guardians to meet and build new relationships.

5. Saving a life – Kennels at humane societies and shelters become overcrowded and cramped, and families can help provide homeless pets a respite from those conditions. Medium-sized and larger dogs are frequently overlooked at shelters because they may seem too big or too unruly, and these are the dogs that are more frequently euthanized and not adopted. Families who foster these dogs can effectively save these dogs’ lives while they are in the foster home.

Fostering a pet can be one of the most rewarding opportunities that a person or family can experience. Both the foster family and the pet can benefit from a unique and nurturing situation when a dog or cat is invited temporarily into the home. Through the time spent together and the bonds that are formed, foster families have the ability to change and save the life of a dog or cat.

Lauren Colman serves as the digital marketer for the dog boarding and dog sitting community at Rover.com and is a true dog lover at heart. Lauren spends her days at the office with her dogs Squish and Brando by her side. You can follow Rover.com on Twitter @roverdotcom or on their blog, Dog Boarding News.

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I posted several years ago about the various identification methods for pets and how important it is to keep ID on your dog. Of course, ideally, he or she will never be lost! Being able to track your dog when they are missing could certainly help make that a reality.

After the last time little Zuki-san jumped the fence and went for an unauthorized walkabout, the Tagg Pet Trackers became more than just a "would be nice to have" item for me. Apparently, that was obvious to my family, because I was surprised and excited to receive three brand new Tagg trackers this recent holiday season. :)

The Actual Tagg Device

Zuki wearing her Tagg Pet  Tracker unitShibas aren’t big dogs; Snickers, Secret and Zuki are 24, 17 and 16 pounds respectively. I was concerned that the Tagg unit would be bulky and unwieldy on their collars, especially since they were all used to wearing a very thin mountain rope collar as their 24/7 ID collar. All three seem to not be bothered by the additional weight though. I liked the natural look better than the thick collars and GPS tech, BUT I like the peace of mind with them wearing trackers even better!

I bought small Cozy Collars from Spindrift. They are fleece-lined, the Taggs fit on them well and they don’t seem to be messing up the dogs’ fur so far.

GPS Tracking and Notifications

The obvious benefit of the GPS Tagg trackers is being able to find the occasional wayward Shiba. When first activating the trackers, you set a "home zone." The home zone is limited in that it is restricted to a circular shape and has a minimum radius of 75 yards and a maximum radius of 1000 yards. Hopefully some day it will be more flexible. Whenever one of your dogs leaves the home zone, you receive an alert by text message and/or email. In my experience, the alerts are not 100% reliable, but they do happen more often than not. There’s a trip button on the unit, to tell it not to send the notification when the dog leaves the home zone. I prefer not to use it though, so I have periodic verification that the notifications are working. Contrary to how the text on Tagg’s website makes it sound, you do NOT continue to receive updates for your dog’s location after they’ve left the home zone. (Thank goodness, because that would be incredibly annoying for a dog like Snickers who goes to work with me every day!)

The Tagg units don’t send constant updated location information to the server 24/7 (as that would run the batteries down pretty quickly), but you can log into pettracker.com or use the iPhone or Android app to request an updated location any time. I’ve tested this several times. It’s not exactly accurate, but it’s off by about the same angle and distance every time (which will definitely be good to know if/when I’m tracking one of my dogs someday). The inaccuracy may be caused by the fact that I live in nowheresville, but I’m not sure about that. The location address and a map are sent by email as well as being displayed on the website and apps. If you initiate a tracking session then you will receive updates every 3 minutes for a 30 minute duration. Personally, I don’t think this is often enough for tracking a Shiba, so I would use the Android app and keep clicking Locate for an updated location.

Activity Tracking

Activity Ring Graph and Tagg Points

Ring Graph & Tagg Points

One super-nifty feature that I wasn’t aware of until I actually activated the trackers is activity tracking. In addition to the GPS transmitter, each tracker also contains an accelerometer. The accelerometer records the dog’s movement and the data is synced to Tagg’s server at least once a day. You can log into pettracker.com to see illustrative charts. Tagg also assigns and displays "Tagg Points" (sort of like Nike Fuel Points) based on the quantity and and quality of activity.

It’s interesting to see the ebb and flow of the dogs’ activity during the day. There are clear spikes that correlate with morning wake up, meal times, lunch time (for Snickers, at work with me), when T gets home from school (for Zuki and Secret), when Snick and I get home at night, etc. It’s obvious also, that Zuki is naturally a lot more active and Secret is the least active. Since we don’t live in a neighborhood where we can go for walks, I don’t feel like any of them are getting enough exercise. The Tagg Points will give me an easy way to set goals for them and make sure we meet those goals!

Tagg Website & App

The website and Android app (and maybe the iPhone app, but I haven’t used it), need some work to be user-friendly. I’m hoping the disjointedness of it all is because Activity Tracking is new and they haven’t integrated it yet.

  • When you log into the website, the initial view is a map showing your dogs’ locations. This is good.
  • Each dog’s individual profile is listed to the side of the map. The size and placement of the profile links make it appear as if clicking through to the profile would be useful, but it really isn’t. All you can do on the profile page is, um, edit the profile. There are no links to the dog’s location or their activity tracking data. The profile page is tabbed, so you can easily switch between dogs.
  • The menu across the top of the page has a "Home" link and a "Map" link which both take you to the map. The next link is "activity tracking" which takes you to all the nifty activity charts. This page is tabbed as well, so you can easily switch between dogs. The remaining links are "Notifications," "My Account" and "Shop."
  • The Android app lists each dog with a photo; last update date, time and location; and the battery meter. Clicking through takes you to a location map. No activity data is available in the app.

In my opinion, the website would be more useful if the "Home" link displayed an overview of each dog similar to the Android app, but with more detail. Clicking through should show you the dog’s profile info, location and activity data, all in one place, with a link to edit the profile if needed. Keeping this as a tabbed page for easily switching between dogs would be fantastic. Adding a snapshot of each dog’s activity tracking to the Android app would be nice as well.

Thumbs Up!

I love my Tagg Pet Trackers even more than I expected to and I hope they’ll only get better over time with software, website, and app updates.

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BZTAT sketch - boy and dog
BZTAT sketch - girl and cat

I worked as a clinical counselor for children and families affected by trauma for over 20 years. One of the first questions I asked my young clients was, “Do you have any pets?” Most of them did.

The question seems simple enough, but it actually was very powerful on many fronts. First of all, it allowed me an opportunity to open up conversation with them in a friendly and non-threatening manner. Children are naturally curious about animals, and even if they do not have a pet of their own, they usually have developed a relationship with an animal at some point in their life, and they have some interest in talking with others about their pets.

Asking about pets also allowed me to explore other clinical information without being too intrusive. How were pets treated in their home? Had the child experienced losses of pets? Had someone in the home been cruel to pets? Had the child ever had a frightening incident with an animal?

Of course, one of the first questions I asked parents and caregivers was, “Has the child ever hurt animals?” I also asked if anyone else had harmed animals in the home.

I asked several other questions in clinical assessment interviews, but I always found questions about pets to be particularly illuminating. Understanding how children relate to animals is very important to understanding their inner and outer worlds. A child who treats animals in a loving manner has strength of compassion, and likely has supportive, loving people in his or her life. A child who harms animals often has deep psychological stress and limited familial support.

Children who harm animals often have been victims of violence themselves and they are re-enacting their trauma through their behavior towards vulnerable creatures. They often lack supportive adults in their lives, and they often have overly stressed adults for caregivers. If their angst is not redirected, they are likely to move on to harming human victims in their attempts to overcome their inner sense of powerlessness.

Few children who harm animals grow up to be serial killers, but many do grow up to abuse their intimate partners and their children. Serial killers are rare aberrations of humanity. Domestic violence, however, is an all too common problem in all human societies.

Stopping abuse towards animals is a worthy activity in and of itself. But if we teach children early to be compassionate towards animals, we can also help to reduce domestic violence and child abuse in the human community. We can help children learn that abuse to animals is not normal, and we can help troubled youth find the supports that they need.

Programs to Help Are On the Rise

There is a movement growing to address the human animal bond and its implications for human to human interaction in society. I have seen it manifested in 4 different but important directions:

  1. Humane Education – Teaching children in schools and special programs about compassion and respect towards animals. Humane education often teaches children about responsible pet ownership as a way to generalize concepts of responsible citizenship and action towards social justice.
  2. Pet Respite coordinated with domestic violence outreach and shelter services – Many domestic violence survivors are reluctant to seek safety for themselves when they have no options for providing safety to their pets. When survivors are offered temporary respite care for their pets, they are more likely to leave an unsafe relationship with an abusive partner and go to a shelter or other safe place. Domestic violence shelters are partnering with animal rescue groups in several cities around the country to offer this needed service that helps both animals and people.
  3. Psychological Trauma Treatment – Mental health professionals are becoming more specialized in treating survivors of emotional trauma. Professional treatment for individuals who have experienced abuse and neglect can often redirect wayward impulses that can lead to the abuse of both animals and people.
  4. Criminal Justice – More and more, severe incidents of malicious treatment towards animals are being addressed seriously by the courts with judges ordering strong penalties for perpetrators. The justice system certainly has a long ways to go, but the tide is turning as society takes a stand against animal abuse.

Relatively few people are aware of the movement, however, and few understand its necessity for improving both human and animal life in our communities. Few know about the connections between animal abuse and abuse to human victims. Few understand that animal abuse is a serious problem because of its implication that humans are likely being abused as well.

Some say that domestic violence and child abuse are more important concerns to address than the needs of animals. Here is the truth. When animals are suffering in society, children are too. When there is violence to animals, there is likely violence to children and others who may be defenseless.

Raising Awareness with Okey’s Promise Art for a Cause

I created the Okey’s Promise Art for a Cause program to stimulate awareness and promote action in communities on the issue. Through public art projects, people become more aware and new dialogues promote action. So far I have created 2 projects in Canton, OH. Both projects were funded by numerous “Okey’s Promise Keepers” from around the world who wanted to be a part of the movement.

The resulting dialogue in my community has led to a partnership between a local animal rescue group and the Domestic Violence Project that offers respite to pets of individuals and families seeking temporary shelter services.

You can become an “Okey’s Promise Keeper” too by contributing to my third project, which will be a mural on a building in Barberton, OH. My hope is that this project will stimulate interest in the Summit County, OH area to more proactively address the links between animal abuse, domestic violence and child abuse.

We can all spread the word and insist that our communities take action for our animals, our children and their families. What can you do in your community to spread the word? (Share your thoughts in the comments section below.)

BZTAT MuralVicki Boatright, aka Artist BZTAT, is a full time artist who worked for 20 years as a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor. She specializes in animal themed artworks, and she is known worldwide for her colorful custom pet portraits and public art murals. She created the Okey’s Promise Art for a Cause program to create widespread awareness of the links between animal abuse, domestic violence, and child abuse through public art projects. You can see her artwork on her BZTAT Studios website.

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