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.