One of the things that we do at Animal Farm Foundation is to provide the resources to pay for attorney's fees for individuals who are suing their municipality over breed-specific legislation. Right now, in Sioux City, Iowa, there is a lawsuit alleging that the city's breed-specific ban violates their rights to due process and equal protection and that no rational basis exists for the ordinance's enactment or existence. In this episode of the Individual Animal, we talk with attorney Gene Summerli...
Jul 02, 2019•25 min
We've expanded our grant focus to include more community-based programs that help keeps dogs out of shelters and with their people. We address things like housing/insurance, human shelters that allow dogs of all shapes and sizes, programs fighting discrimination against people with service dogs, innovative foster programs that pair people and dogs in need, etc... In this episode, we interview Melanie Lindmark, our Director of Finance and Grants Administrator, about our new grants and why we made...
Jun 18, 2019•25 min
Trish McMillian joins Nikki, Regina, and Bernice to discuss the controversial, sometimes divisive, and always emotional topic of behavioral euthanasia. Because this is such a heavy topic, we'll forgo a lengthy description here and let the podcast speak for itself. "Trish McMillian is a certified professional dog trainer (through CCPDT), certified dog behavior consultant and associate certified cat behavior consultant (through IAABC) who holds a Master’s degree in Animal Behavior from the Univers...
Jun 04, 2019•1 hr 10 min
We know lots of people have opinions on transporting dogs from southern states up north, well, Nikki has a lot of opinions too and she shares them on this episode of the Individual Animal. Chris Bender, the former Adoption and Shelter Manager from the Dutchess County SPCA, chimes in with his experiences, as does AFF's Executive Director, Stacey Coleman. There are some organizations that will not transport dogs labeled "pit bull." As you can imagine, this does not sit well with us. Arbitrarily la...
May 14, 2019•56 min
We've written on our blog about the mandatory spay/neuter legislation that was proposed in South Carolina. The legislation never came to be, but we felt it was important that we open up a larger conversation about mandatory spay/neuter and how it really isn't an answer to the issues facing communities. We decided to visit various communities in South Carolina to look at the individual issues they face. Here's what we found....
May 01, 2019•50 min
We give you a behind the scenes look at a day in the life of a detection dog and what it takes to bring communities together. Officer Dave Contreras talks about his partner K9 Coco and the work they do. We grant funds to Sector K9, a dog training facility in Texas. Wes Keeling and his team train former shelter dogs as drug and gun detection dogs. Some dogs are work in their general community, but others, like K9 Coco, work in schools to address the issue of kids using illegal drugs. Follow K9 Co...
Apr 09, 2019•53 min
Rehoming a pet is a complicated situation and one rarely ever taken lightly. In this episode of the Individual Animal, AFF's Director of Behavior and Training, Bernice Clifford, discusses her personal connection with this issue. One of her dogs, Mowgli has picked several fights with her much smaller, elderly dog. She considered rehoming. We talk about the many reasons people consider rehoming, resources that can help them with the process (like getyourpet.com ), and what resources exist to help ...
Mar 19, 2019•53 min
A few months ago, Scientific American published an article titled, "Your Dog May Not Be A Genius After All." The article went viral on Twitter, with thousands of people having an intense emotional reaction to the headline. Most everyone had a humorous reaction, but the feeling behind it was almost one of betrayal. For this episode of the Individual Animal podcast, Arin Greenwood joins us to discuss why people had this reaction, what our own dogs mean to us and whether or not we think they are in...
Feb 28, 2019•43 min
Veterinary geneticist Jessica Hekman joins us for this episode of the Individual Animal to talk about breed traits and how they affect a dog’s personality. She answers the question of whether or not they dictate personality (spoiler: they don’t). We cover a lot of things in the episode. We talk about the role things like a dog’s early environment play in who the dog becomes, the role of responsible breeders, how individual circumstances can change how a dog sees the world, and of course, we disc...
Feb 06, 2019•48 min
We know this is a sensitive and emotional subject for a lot of people, in fact, it was a difficult topic for one of our podcast hosts to deal with, but it’s an important one to talk about. What’s the problem with saying “pit bull” when we refer to our dogs? For starters, they don't actually exist - at least not in the way the majority of modern society thinks they do. Janis Bradley , Director of Communications and Publishing for the National Canine Research Council, discusses the damage the inac...
Jan 22, 2019•54 min
We need to get honest about what happens when we demonize free adoptions and holiday shelter promotions due to our desire to protect animals from potential cruelty. We also need to get honest about whether or not these emotional responses to potential cruelty are really based in reality. Author and animal advocate Arin Greenwood joins us as we talk through what's really behind the negativity surrounding free adoptions. Maddie's Fund has a roundup of studies on the subject. Read our full blog on ...
Jan 10, 2019•42 min
In Sioux City, Iowa, officials can take your dog regardless of how well behaved your dog is. In Sioux City, someone can decide your dog is a "pit bull" and take it from you and kill it. And you have no recourse. We not only call that unscientific bullshit, we also call it unconstitutional. We've taken this case to court. This isn't the only time we've worked to end breed-discriminatory laws or policies. But we don't talk about that part of our work much, so you probably don't know all of the cas...
Dec 12, 2018•39 min
It’s that time of year again! TIme for Jingle Paw Rock! Never heard of Jingle Paw Rock? We haven’t either. Literally just made it up. We make up a lot of wacko ideas for adoption promotions in this podcast. We even got some inspiration from 1960s/1970s key parties - Yes, we’re talking about swingers. Confused and possibly disturbed? Listen to the episode to find out what we mean! We also chat about our some of our favorite things we’ve seen this year, like the viral Grown Ass Adult Dog campaign ...
Nov 27, 2018•45 min
Dogs are individuals and so are their people. The new book by Ken Foster, City of Dogs, explores the unique relationship between dozens of New York City dog owners and their best friends. The stories have heart, but also give us a glimpse of the realities of life in the big city. There's poverty, privilege, loss - but most importantly there is love. We talk with Ken about what it means to build a relationship with a dog and how those relationships affect how people connect with one another in a ...
Nov 13, 2018•43 min
Welcome to episode 3 of the Individual Animal, a podcast about animal welfare and discrimination. Today, we talk with Donald Cleary about how social constructs affect how we relate to dogs and in turn, how that affects how we relate to each other. Some of you might be surprised by a few things, including that moral panics about dogs extend beyond dogs labeled "pit bull." Don has an impressive bio, which we get into in the episode. What we don't touch on is that he's a co-author of the U.S. Depar...
Oct 30, 2018•1 hr 26 min
Special awareness days for dogs typically targeted by breed-discriminatory policies send the unintended message that there’s something different about those dogs. According to canine biology and behavior science, there’s nothing different about them. Awareness events served their purpose a long time ago. Nikki and Regina talk about what happens when dog advocacy doesn’t evolve with society. FACT CHECK: We mention awareness campaigns starting in the early 90's but the correct date is closer to th...
Oct 23, 2018•34 min•Ep. 2
The Individual Animal is a podcast about animal welfare and discrimination co-hosted by Nicole Juchem and Regina Lizik. In this podcast, we’ll talk about the socio-political implications of how we treat dogs and what that says about how we treat each other. Racism, classism, ableism and all other forms of human injustice are at the root of canine discrimination. We can’t change things for animals until we get honest about our own issues. Grab a beer, coffee, wine, or just stay hydrated and drink...
Oct 11, 2018•26 min
