Overlapping Subcultures?

I was just browsing a tattoo blog and I discovered a post about an organization called Rescue Ink. I immediately noticed this post because there were pictures of heavily tattooed bikers holding puppies and kittens, which is not something one would generally expect to see. I learned that Rescue Ink is a New York non-profit animal welfare organization comprised of bikers and volunteers that include police officers, military personnel, private investigators, and lawyers. Their mission is to save animals from abusive situations; they rescue fighting dogs, confront animal abusers, find homes for unwanted pets, and investigate missing or stolen animals.

I found this group to be particularly interesting because animal lovers are considered one subculture while bikers and "street guys" are typically considered to be another, yet here the two are one and the same. I think this group definitely helps to contradict the stereotype of animal lovers as being vegan extremists while simultaneously discounting the idea that bikers are violent and malicious. This also made me think of the photo I found of a motorcycle group holding a car wash with the local SPCA. Perhaps this sort of overlap is not as uncommon as one might think.

Here is a link to their website if you are interested in learning more.

Ethnopoetics

          abused, neglected, treated cruelly -
          euthanize

          we behave arrogantly,
          callous and ignorant

          grief...

          from people.
          from us -
          human actions

          it breaks my heart -
          it fills me with anger -

          they deserve so much more

I used Lorna's words from my second formal interview in order to create this poem. I think deconstructing and reorganizing her thoughts really helped me to get to the heart of her relationship with her work as a humane educator.

Though I enjoy writing poetry, I found it difficult to create an ethnopoem. I think the reason I struggled so much with creating this piece is that I am usually inspired to write because of specific words or images I have that I want to convey. It was difficult for me to write something using another's words without inserting my own ideas.

Formal Interview #2

For my second interview I spoke with Lorna Steele, the Director of Humane Education at the RISPCA. Her main responsibility is to organize and lead humane education programs for a variety of audiences including children, senior citizens, and scout groups. I remember Dr. Finocchio mentioned on a number of occasions that there is a link between animal abuse and domestic violence, so I found it especially interesting to hear about the various programs and material that the RISPCA uses to educate the public on humane and ethical treatment of all living things.

Though Lorna's focus is on humane education, she mentioned that she also gets involved in a lot of other RISPCA operations. For example, she helps to manage the volunteers, assists with fundraising events, and is currently working on redesigning the RISPCA's website. From my observations and interactions with other people at the shelter, I've found that the workers there have a great sense of teamwork and are not at all reluctant to go above and beyond their job descriptions.

Formal interviews were an interesting experience and I'm glad to have had the opportunity to speak to some official members of the organization, but I think I should try to gather some additional insight from non-paid volunteers in the future.

Formal Interview #1

I conducted my first formal interview with Dr. Finocchio, the director and president of the RISPCA. Dr. Finocchio has been involved with the RISPCA since 1973 and has been the president since 2002. Because I've been researching adoption, surrender, euthanasia, and animal care in general in relation to the economic climate, I was interested in learning more about the Marvin Fund, which was founded in order to help people provide medical care for their animals. I was pleasantly surprised that Dr. Finocchio brought up the Marvin Fund without any prompting or particularly leading questions. Dr. Finocchio explained to me that the fund was developed because he understood how profound the bond between human and animal can be, especially to the indigent, elderly, and disabled people that the fund is intended to benefit, and that he thought these people should be helped. I also learned a little more about Marvin himself. From my independent research and observations, I knew that Marvin was a dog that Dr. Finocchio had adopted. I learned from this interview that Marvin was also disabled, and that he visited nursing homes, Hasbro Children's Hospital, and was the National Therapy Dog of the Year. Marvin also earned $350,000 through his paintings and the book that Dr. Finocchio wrote about him entitled Marvelous Marvin. Though I knew a little bit about Marvin from the RISPCA website and various news articles I found, it was very interesting to hear about him directly from Dr. Finocchio.

I asked a lot of open questions and I was pleased to see that Dr. Finocchio greatly expanded on my original points. This interview provided me with a lot of good insight into the operation and environment of my fieldsite. I am excited to talk to some other people in order to get their views on the RISPCA.

Update

I visited my fieldsite again on Friday October 25, at around 2:30. I didn't think there would be very many people around at this time but there was surprisingly a lot going on! One thing I noticed in particular was a woman with a small poodle accompanied by a man who appeared to be her son. From my observations I gathered that they were at the RISPCA to see the veterinarian. When the woman was checking out with the receptionist, she commented that she didn't want anymore dogs after their current ones had passed, and the receptionist expressed a similar sentiment. I was surprised to hear this from people associated with the subculture at the RISPCA, as one would assume that they are animal lovers who have lots of pets like previous volunteers I've spoken too. This interaction made me think about some other possibilities. Maybe some people choose to work or volunteer at the RISPCA because they like animals but don't want the responsibility for caring for their own or can't have one at the moment for whatever reason. I noticed that the woman expressed this idea when she was checking out and presumably paying for the cost of the dog's visit and medication. This made me start to think about what sort of effect the economic climate has on animal adoption. Is the adoption rate dropping? Do more people adopt from shelters or buy from breeders? What is the adoption rate as compared to 10, 20, 30 years ago? Are more expensive animals like dogs less likely to be adopted than low maintenance animals like cats and rodents? I feel like the answers to these questions could generate an interesting discussion and help me uncover some tensions within this particular subculture. At this point in my study, I am beginning to schedule some formal interviews. Perhaps these interviews can help shed some light on my questions.

On an unrelated note, I managed to spend a decent amount of time in the dog room on my last visit. There were a lot more people at my fieldsite this time, and having other people in the room with me put me a little more at ease. There was an elderly couple looking at dogs while I was taking my notes and I was surprised to notice that they seemed completely unfazed by the barking. Maybe I'm just overly skittish? I was also at my best friend's house today and I took a picture of her two german shepherds. I figured I'd post it here seeing as I mentioned them in a previous post.

Daisy and Luther

I feel like I'm starting to get more comfortable with fieldwork. Hopefully my formal interviews go well!

The Digital Landscape of the RISPCA

The first online resource I explored was the RISPCA's website. While being a rather obvious choice, it is an informative and reliable source because all of the information comes from the organization directly. This website provides general information about the RISPCA, including things like the location, hours of operation, a historical background of the organization, and contact information. It also displays animals available for adoption, programs and services available, events, and resources for pet owners. The RISPCA has its own Twitter, Facebook page, and YouTube channel, and links to these secondary sites can be found on the organization's home website. I also found the RISPCA's Petfinder page if you're interested in seeing some of the animals they have up for adoption right now. While all of these resources are incredibly helpful, relying on websites run by the organization itself probably won't lend itself well to uncovering rich and varied 3rd person sources. I also found several news articles regarding the RISPCA, which are helpful in getting an idea of what this organization does and how it is recognized by local media.

I searched the RISPCA tag on Tumblr, but there were only four posts, none of which revealed anything interesting or unusual. Searching the SPCA yielded many more results, including links to the blogs of different chapters of the SPCA such as the Richmond SPCA and the San Francisco SPCA, though the latter hasn't updated in a year. It was interesting to peruse these blogs and their posts. Besides finding the links to these blogs, the SPCA tag was not very helpful. One thing I did find, however, was an Instagram photo from a car/bike wash sponsored by a local SPCA group and a motorcycle club, and I thought those two organizations seemed to be an unusual partnership. One would not normally expect a group of motorcycle enthusiasts to be overtly interested in animal welfare, but this photo provides an interesting development in the exploration of stereotypes surrounding SPCA subcultures.

Though they are separate organizations, the Humane Society's website seems to have a lot of information that could be helpful in my research of the RISPCA. The tab labelled "Our Work" explains a lot about animal rescue and advocacy, and it seems like the RISPCA does a lot of similar work. I also found an article called "How Animal Detectives Work," with one page devoted specifically to discussing animal welfare organizations and how they operate. This page discusses laws in place to protect animals, such as the Animal Welfare Act, and the different animal welfare organizations that work to enforce these laws. In regard to the authority given to animal detectives, the article states: "To enforce animal anti-cruelty laws, many animal officers/detectives carry badges, wear uniforms and are granted similar authority as police officers. While specific authority differs by state, most animal detectives have the power to make arrests, serve search warrants, use reasonable force against perpetrators and may be authorized to carry firearms (with weapons training)." This article also discusses the difference between abuse (intentional acts) and neglect (failure to act). I found the information regarding the enforcement of anti-cruelty laws to be interesting and very helpful, though I will have to research what sort of authority Rhode Island grants its animal detectives.

There is a lot of information about animal rescue organizations in general as well as resources specifically about the RISPCA, and this search has definitely helped me locate some sources that could supplement my study.

Pictures and Videos from October 10

That last post kinda ended on a sad note so I figured I'd post some pictures and videos I took at the RISPCA last week.

First Experience at the Fieldsite

My first trip to the RISPCA as a fieldworker was last Thursday, October 10. I stopped by at around 1 in the afternoon, and I ended up staying longer than the thirty minutes it took to take my preliminary fieldnotes. The experience was a little overwhelming at first because there was so much to see.

The first place I went to take fieldnotes was in the dog room. I ended up only spending about a solid five minutes in this location, and I somewhat surprised myself with the reason why. I had an Akita as a child, which is a large dominant breed of dog, and my best friend has two German Shepherds and her sister has Doberman Pinscher. Though my current dog is small, quiet, and docile, I figured my previous experiences with large, loud dogs would make me prepared for the dogs in the shelter. This was not so. I found the barking disconcerting and a lot of the large dogs intimidated me. I've never considered myself as someone afraid of dogs, so I was surprised that I was so unnerved by these animals. I ended up spending a majority of my time in the cat room, which in itself is not surprising, but I thought I could maintain a balance between the two for research purposes. In the future I will have to work harder against my natural affinity for cats and apparent discomfort with loud dogs.

Something I noticed was that each cage has a sign on it that lists information about the animal it contains. The things listed were usually the animal's name, breed, temperament, the reason it was surrendered, and any other information the RISPCA may have on that particular animal. I found myself intrigued by the reasons for surrender more than anything else. Some of the reasons listed seemed valid, but I found that most of them seemed like excuses. Of course that is my subjectivities talking, but giving up an animal you've had for months because your apartment doesn't allow pets seems fishy to me. Did you just move into that apartment, or did you not talk to your landlord before adopting a pet? That's just irresponsible.

Though I was intrigued by the reasons for surrender, a lot of them also disturbed me. One cat was back at the shelter because of an "inappropriate litter situation" that caused the cat to ruin its owners carpets. I find it disturbing that a person would take responsibility for an animal only to give it up because it became inconvenient for them. Having a cat that doesn't use the litter box correctly is definitely a problem, but it's one that isn't that difficult to solve either. I just did a very quick Google search and found this helpful article that offers reasons for this behavior as well as solutions. Another cat was back at the shelter a few months after its adoption because its owner is now in a nursing home, which made me sad. There were several cats at the shelter that were rescued from a hoarding situation, which I found very disturbing. Most of the cats were sleeping when I arrived, and I noticed that most of the cats rescued from the hoarding situation were sleeping hidden under blankets or underneath cat beds rather than on them. I feel like there's a correlation there but I'm not quite sure what it is.

I talked with a worker in the cat room for a while and we ended up talking about the animals she's adopted. She asked me if I heard about a dog called Indi that was at the shelter last year. I told her I had not and she told me to look him up on the RISPCA website. She mentioned that he has just started to walk again, which made me curious as to what the situation was with this dog. I found a page about him online and I was greatly disturbed by what had happened to this poor creature. Here is the link to his page if you are interested in learning about his situation but be warned, there are graphic descriptions of animal abuse and neglect as well as images of Indi that may be disturbing.

I can tell that it is going to be hard to ignore my subjectivities during this project, but I am eager to get back to my fieldsite and see what else I can discover.

Positioning Myself

Part of being a good fieldworker is acknowledging your own subjectivities. I am a white 18 year old able-bodied cisgender female from a middle class family in Seekonk, MA. I was born in Newport and spent the first year of my life living in Narragansett and the next two in North Smithfield, though I consider Seekonk to be my hometown. I was raised Roman Catholic but if I had to label myself I would say I'm agnostic. I work as a waitress in East Providence and I currently attend Rhode Island College as a first year student. I live with my mother and father and my two sisters, ages 17 and 6. We've had a number of pets over the years; currently, we have a dog and two cats. All of these facts are relevant to my research in that they can affect the way I view and interpret data.

The people at my fieldsite vary in age, gender, and race. This subculture is a very diverse group, so I don't think anything like my age or gender will pose a problem. I'm a little nervous about overcoming my inherent shyness, but the people I've encountered so far have been very welcoming and easy to talk to.

I chose an animal shelter as my fieldsite because of my love of animals, and I know this love will definitely cloud my objectivity. I know I am biased when it comes to certain things, (one that comes to mind is the act of declawing cats - it's mutilation), but some biases are so ingrained in my psyche that I'm not consciously aware of them. Hopefully exploring my own privileges and beliefs will help me uncover these biases and remain more subjective in my field study.

An Introduction

Welcome to my blog, I'll be your guide.

Over the next couple of months I will be making weekly visits to the RISPCA, a nonprofit humane society, in order to observe, take notes, and collect data. These visits are a part of a fieldworking project I am doing for my First Year Writing class. The purpose of the project is to study and learn about a specific location and its subculture and traditions.

I chose to do my fieldworking on the RISPCA because that is where I adopted my cat, Calliope, or Callie for short.

I have always loved animals and I wanted to be a veterinarian for a large portion of my childhood, though I moved away from that when I realized that I would have to euthanize animals as well as deal with abused and neglected animals. My personal experience makes me curious about how the RISPCA workers and volunteers deal with that sort of thing on a daily basis.

All in all, I am excited to begin the research and start sharing my discoveries.