G-8GW6WNVDCH 2301875706914928 Christie Keith on Early Spay-Neuter, Overpopulation & Smarter Rescue Communication - Animal Posse

Episode 62

Happiness, Humor, and Harm Reduction in Rescue with Christie Keith

Published on: 3rd April, 2026

In this episode of Animal Posse, host Dixie sits down with longtime animal welfare leader Christie Keith for a deep, nuanced conversation about early spay‑neuter through a harm‑reduction lens. With more than 30 years of experience—including work with major organizations like Maddie’s Fund—Christie breaks down why medical guidelines must differ between high‑volume shelter environments and private homes.

Together, they explore the “different math” of shelter medicine, new research on neonatal vaccinations, and why early sterilization remains a critical tool in preventing pet overpopulation and accidental “teen pregnancies” in cats.

The conversation also goes beyond medical protocols. Christie shares powerful insights on how rescues can sharpen their messaging to reach donors and adopters outside their usual circles—shifting from constant heartbreak to more joyful, humorous, and hope‑driven storytelling that resonates with the general public. Dixie and Christie also dig into the realities of modern rescue management, from using AI to streamline communication to handling trolls, negative reviews, and social‑media chaos with professionalism and strategy.

This episode is a must‑listen for anyone working in rescue, shelter medicine, or animal advocacy who wants to communicate smarter, save more lives, and build a healthier relationship with the public.

About Animal Posse 🐈

Welcome to Animal Posse! We share heartwarming stories and crucial insights to make a real difference for animals in need. As a project of the Unwanted Feline Organization, we are a community of animal lovers dedicated to rescue, advocacy, and education. This podcast does not provide medical, veterinary, or professional advice.

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📌 Disclaimer

This show is for entertainment and general discussion only. The experiences, opinions, and information shared by our guests are their own and are not intended as veterinary advice. This content should not be used as a substitute for professional diagnosis, treatment, or guidance. Always consult a licensed veterinarian regarding your pet’s health or any medical concerns.

#AnimalRescue #AnimalWelfare #SpayNeuter #CatRescue #AnimalAdvocacy #AdoptDontShop #TrapNeuterReturn #KittenSeason #RescueStories #PetOverpopulation #ShelterPets #RescueCommunity #Pets #AnimalLovers

Transcript
Dixie:

Welcome to Animal Posse, the podcast dedicated to the

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people and rescues making a

difference in the lives of animals.

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Today's guest is Christy Keith.

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With over 30 years of experience, Christie

helps animal welfare organizations sharpen

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their message and reach more donors.

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She's worked with industry leaders, and

she's here to help us navigate some of the

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toughest conversations in rescue today.

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Christy, welcome to the show.

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Christie: Hi, Dixie.

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Dixie: You are quite a powerhouse

in the animal welfare industry.

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I've been looking at your bio and you have

worked with some incredible organizations

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from Maddie's Fund to University of

Florida Shelter Medicine program.

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You do a lot.

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Christie: I do.

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I've been really lucky to work

with some great organizations

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and people in my career.

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Very lucky.

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Dixie: I am looking forward to our

conversation today because I wanted to

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talk about a topic you suggested, which

was handling the growing controversies

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surrounding early spay neuter

through the lens of harm reduction.

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And I would also like to get

into some social media tragedies

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that you use to ensure that those

saved lives actually find homes.

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Christie: I would love that.

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That sounds great.

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Dixie: When we hear about the growing

debate about the long-term health impacts

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of early spay neuter, how do we frame

the harm reduction model for a public

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that only sees things in black and white?

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Christie: I think that it's really

important to think about who you're

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talking to, and I've noticed that

there's a lot of argument going on

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within the animal welfare world.

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About this because you have a lot of

volunteers, fosters and rescuers who

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have a different perspective because they

have one foot in the pet owner world and

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one foot in the animal welfare world.

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And then you have shelters and shelter

medicine experts who come from a

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more institutional perspective and.

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Both of them have a set of data that it

seems to be somewhat contradictory, and

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I've seen a lot of very hostile arguments.

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This has been about spay neuter and

early spay neuter, and I've also

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seen it over early vaccination.

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There was a really interesting study

that just came out of uc Davis last

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year talking about vaccinating,

literally newborn kittens and puppies.

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Which horrified a lot of people who just

felt that this was dangerous and risky.

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But when you're looking at the

animals who come into shelters.

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A lot of the pregnant animals

who come into shelters don't

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have immunity to these diseases.

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When they do titer tests on them, they

find that a huge percentage of them,

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I don't remember the exact numbers,

but , I believe it was around one

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third, didn't have immunity to common

diseases like distemper parvo and.

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When you're making decisions about how to

best protect these incredibly vulnerable

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kittens and puppies, it's a different

decision making process than when you're

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looking at owned pets in a home or

eight week old, or 12 week old puppies.

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And.

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It's same with spay neuter, that the

math is different when you're talking

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about a shelter population than when

you're talking about, my own pet at home.

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I don't wanna get them spayed

or neutered at a few weeks old.

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At two pounds.

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I'll wait.

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But in a shelter environment, you're crazy

to wait because your math is different.

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And I feel like.

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I've seen way too many hostile

fights between people and animal

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welfare who don't seem to be able to

look from the other person's point

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of view and understand that we all

want what's best for the animals,

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but we all have different realities

that we're making our decisions in.

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So I guess I just wanted an opportunity

to talk about that a little bit and say.

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We can't have the same set of medical

guidelines for shelter animals that

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we do for owned pets and homes because

the circumstances aren't the same.

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Puppies and kittens and shelters are

incredibly vulnerable to disease and

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are incredibly prone to going out of

the shelter without being spayed and

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neutered If we're not doing early spay

neuter on puppies and kittens and.

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Possibly becoming another

statistic in overpopulation.

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So we need to try and have a more holistic

view of this issue and understand that

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sometimes the decisions that we make for

shelter animals in their own best interest

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are different than the ones we would

make for our own pets in our own homes.

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Dixie: When you say shelter environment,

are you talking strictly about,

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say, like a municipal shelter or

are you talking about, say rescues

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that house a lot of animals as well?

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Christie: I think it

depends on the environment.

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So when I say shelters, I'm talking

about a sort of institutional setting

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where you have crowding and stress.

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It doesn't have to be municipal,

it can be a private shelter,

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can even be foster homes.

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I think that you and I probably

both know that some rescue groups

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overstock their foster homes

because they're desperate, right?

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If they have more animals than

they have homes for, than they have

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foster homes for, they're trying

to save as many lives as they can.

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And they may be doing things like

bringing in young kittens when there's

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already kittens in the environment.

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They may be having pregnant cats and dogs

who are giving birth in foster homes when

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there's other animals still coming in.

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It really just depends on the

environment, but I am primarily

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talking about brick and mortar shelters

rather than rescue and foster homes.

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Dixie: Yeah, I would definitely

like to dive more into that.

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Now, I know from my personal

perspective, the vets that we

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have in my area are very good.

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They will do a kitten as

long as it's two pounds.

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Yes.

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And I know different vets

have different rules.

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If a vet feels comfortable

doing it at two pounds, great.

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Other vets have other rules, where they

might want 'em three pounds or even

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more than three pounds, and I understand

that, but a lot of the vets that I

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work with will do 'em at two pounds.

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Personally, I find I like to get

'em done at two pounds because I

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find that they really don't know

anything has been done to 'em.

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But if you wait till they're a little

bit older, they have a little bit more

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difficulty with the recovery from it.

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You could tell that it's bothering 'em.

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It doesn't heal up as fast.

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But I would definitely like to dive

more into the studies that you've

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gone over and the advantages and maybe

disadvantages of doing them so young.

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Christie: In the vaccine study that

I was just looking at from last

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year, from uc, Davis, it was really

interesting to me because they used

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language, something along the lines of.

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The risks are largely theoretical

and the dangers are imminent.

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That might not be a direct quote, but

that was essentially what they said

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when they're talking again about shelter

animals, that the risk of being adopted

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out without being altered first or

the risk of this was a vaccine study.

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So they were talking about the risk of

not vaccinating young enough because

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you can't count on the mother's immunity

to protect the puppies or kittens.

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Outweighs the potential risk of, in

the case of vaccines, they say if you

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vaccinate them too often or too young, it

might damage their kidneys in adulthood.

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And they say that when you do

early spay neuter, it is associated

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with the increased risk of certain

health problems, which when you

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increase the risk of something.

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It doesn't mean that they

will definitely get it.

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It doesn't even mean that

it becomes a huge risk.

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It means that the risk

itself is increased.

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I've seen a lot of people say, oh,

there was a 50% increase in something.

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That's a meaningless statistic unless you

know what the baseline risk was, because

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it may have increased by a hundred percent

and still not be that much because the

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risk itself was incredibly low already.

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So you have to really understand.

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What are you talking about

when you say the risk of.

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Bone cancer or kidney disease

is increased because of early

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vaccination or early spay neuter.

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Now again.

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I believe in both sets of data.

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I think that there are

drawbacks to early spay neuter,

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especially for giant breed dogs.

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I don't think that's made up.

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But I think that you have to weigh

the benefits versus the risks, and

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those things change depending on the

background that you're talking about.

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Again, puppies and kittens being

adopted out of a shelter, it's much

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safer for them to be sterilized

and vaccinated than to wait.

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It's just a fact and maybe that any harm

that might come to them down the road,

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which again is not something that will

definitely happen, it might be worth

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the risk because you saved their life.

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If they're not gonna survive,

what difference does it make?

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What their risk is later

in a life they don't have.

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Dixie: When you're saying risk too,

you're just talking about the risk of

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it increasing, not necessarily the Yes.

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Potential.

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Yes.

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Okay.

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Okay.

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That's what I just wanted to make

sure I was understanding that.

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You said that there's this new

study about vaccinating newborns.

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Yes.

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Yes.

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Okay.

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I do wanna ask you about that

since you've read the study, I do.

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The bottle kittens.

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So I'm dealing with the tiniest, little

babies that you could possibly deal with.

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I've done newborns.

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I do 'em a couple of weeks old.

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So when we're dealing with the babies

that size, if they get sick, the amount

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of meds that the vet may tell us to give

those babies is like such a minute amount.

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It is literally like a drop.

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So I know when you do the

vaccines come as one mil.

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So would you give that whole amount to the

baby or do you like have to dose it down?

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Christie: I'm not a veterinarian,

but my understanding is that a

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vaccine is different from a drug.

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A vaccine is a biologic and it

represents an immunizing dose.

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So when you put a puppy or kitten

in the environment, the dose of

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exposure to a virus or a bacteria

that they encounter is gonna be the

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same, whether they're the size of it.

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Peanut or a great Dane, right?

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So you need to protect them

with an immunizing dose.

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You need the dose that will cause their

immune system to react appropriately.

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So it's not really the same as

a drug which has got a direct

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physiologic impact on body systems.

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Now, again, I'm not a veterinarian

and I may be understanding that

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incorrectly, but that's how it's

always been presented to me.

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Dixie: Okay.

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I understand.

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I was just wondering if the studies

made any kind of mention of that,

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the ones that you have read, this

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Christie: particular study does not.

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This study is called you can

find it, neonatal Vaccination

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recommendations on the uc, Davis Caret

Shelter Medicine program website.

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And if you just Google caret

and neonatal vaccination

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recommendations, it'll pop right up.

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Dixie: Now let's talk about the advantages

since you've covered the disadvantages.

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Let's go over some of the advantages

of the very early spay neuter and then

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as well as the early vaccinations.

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And getting back to the spay

neuter since I did mention that

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they do 'em around two pounds.

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Is there any talk about

doing 'em even like smaller?

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Christie: I think that right

now everybody's pretty much

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hovering at two pounds.

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I think that smaller than that,

they can become hard to sterilize.

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It's harder to do the surgery and they

want them to be at about two pounds,

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but I think that there was a time when

they wanted them to be three pounds.

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They found that two pounds

was actually easier.

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The surgeons were finding it

easier, and as you noted, they

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recovered faster and more easily.

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And I think that some of this is just

going to be a matter of learning as you

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go, and, but I know right now, as far

as I'm aware, the two pound limit is

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pretty much universal at this point.

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The number one advantage in my mind is.

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They're sterilized.

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They can't reproduce.

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And people want to adopt kittens,

when they're cute and little.

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They don't wanna wait.

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They don't wanna sit there and

wait until they're 12 weeks old.

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They want them at eight weeks.

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They want them young.

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And some rescues won't adopt them out

that young, but shelters certainly

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do because they're better off in

a home than they are in a shelter.

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I don't think people really understand

how young a cat can get pregnant.

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I have found a lot of people think they

can't get pregnant until they're six

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months old and, they can practically

be grandmothers at six months old.

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I don't mean that literally,

of course, but you really.

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Have to try and wrap your brain

around how much risk a cat is at of

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teen pregnancy to understand why it's

so important to spay them young and

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spay them before they're adopted.

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And so pet overpopulation preventing

unwanted litters is, without

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question the single biggest benefit

of early spay neuter, however.

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Surgeons comment that the surgery

is easier and many people involved

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with helping them recover say

recovery is also easier on the,

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these very young kittens and puppies.

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And for this reason, and I'm talking a

lot about kittens because they're smaller.

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Of course there are toy dogs, but most

dogs that are in shelters are bigger dogs.

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And so of course they're larger When

they're the same age as the kitten,

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they're much bigger than the kitten, so

people don't react to it as negatively.

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But in fact, many of the risks are greater

with dogs, especially the larger dogs.

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Of, orthopedic problems

associated with early spay neuter.

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So there is a lot of argument going on

about whether or not the risks outweigh

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the benefits, but you only have to

understand that medium to large size

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dogs represent most of the dogs in

shelters, and these dogs are young.

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Intact and huge percentage of them do

not have immunity to common diseases.

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So this is a very at risk population

that could have been prevented.

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A lot of their challenges could

have been prevented with early spay

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neuter, either because they wouldn't

have been born in the first place or

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because that individual dog would have.

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Fewer behavior issues.

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A lot of times, I don't wanna say

that intact status directly causes

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behavior problems because that

really hasn't been my experience

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with at least dogs that I've known.

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But what I will say is that

there's an association.

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Dogs entering shelters with dogs not

being intact with dogs who are intact.

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So intact dogs are more likely

to come into shelters, and intact

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dogs are more likely not to

be immune to common diseases.

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So it's a perfect storm of

vulnerability and problems.

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So early spay neuter, again,

steps in and prevents a lot of

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these problems from happening.

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Dixie: And I think even a lot of times,

especially like you said with the

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cats and the kittens getting pregnant

at four months, even people with the

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best intentions, I don't think they

always understand, they may be 100%

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pro spay neuter, but when they get a

kitten and it's three months old and

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they say, okay, we're gonna keep it

inside we're not gonna let it outside.

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We want an indoor only cat.

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I don't think that they realize a lot of

the times when they come into maturity

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that they're trying to get outside and

they will find a way to sneak outside.

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And when they are tiny, they're easier to

sneak outside than when it is a big cat.

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Even though the big cats can

do it too, and so That's right.

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I find that's definitely an issue.

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I've seen that happen many a times when

people are like we had the spay neuter

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appointment set up and she got outside.

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Christie: Yeah, you hear that

a lot when you have these very

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young cats having kittens.

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You have people who say, not only

did they not know they could get

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pregnant that young, but I can't

tell you how many, litters of kittens

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I've seen where the people swore that

they were indoor only cats who were

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too young to get pregnant and they

couldn't believe that it had happened.

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Dixie: When you're working with

all of these groups , do you

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Help to educate them about these

new findings, or are they the

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ones approaching you with it?

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Christie: They're the ones who educate me.

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I've been so lucky to work with so

many great shelter medicine vets.

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I was the communications manager for

the Million Cat Challenge, which was a

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joint project of the uc Davis Shelter

Medicine program in the University

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of Florida Shelter medicine program.

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It's was a Maddie's fund project,

and so much of what I learned about

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cat spay neuter, and just cat.

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Population management in general was from

the seven years that I worked on that

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project, it was an incredible opportunity

to learn from people who are truly in the

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trenches and really know what's going on.

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And just Dr.

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Kate Hurley and Dr.

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Julie Levy are two of my

heroes, and working with them

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was the honor of a lifetime.

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Dixie: I would like to switch gears

a little bit and talk a little

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bit now about the social media.

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Yes.

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Okay.

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'cause it's one thing.

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So first you, of course you wanna

use social media to get homes.

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Yes.

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You also wanna use social media to

spread awareness of spay neuter.

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Christie: Yes.

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Dixie: But I find that,

like for me personally.

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It's like all of my social media friends

and all the people that follow my social

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media page are pretty much all people that

are already all on board with this, and

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they are at their capacity of animals.

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So how can you leverage social media to

get that message across to new people?

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To find more homes for animals, to

spread more awareness of spay neuter.

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Christie: That's such a

great question, Dixie.

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I love that you asked it.

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I think there's two answers to it.

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One of them has to do with what

you're saying and the other has to do

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with the channels that you're using.

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Not you personally, but just

all of us in animal welfare.

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I think that sometimes we are just

preaching to the choir, both in terms of.

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What we're saying and in terms

of who we're talking to, and by

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being able to spread out and try

and get our message in front of.

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An audience who's not sick and

tired of hearing about it is tricky.

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And I've noticed a lot of benefit to

posting to local groups like Nextdoor and

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groups that are set up to like community

groups, like for a particular town.

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We have a lot of them in the

area where I live on Facebook,

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for example, where you'll have.

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Facebook group for this town or

that town and that there's a lot

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of people who like to spread animal

welfare messages, but those audiences

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respond to different things than

animal welfare audiences respond to.

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And this is something that

I've been talking about now for

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probably 15 years, is that we talk.

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In ways that appeal to us and activate

us and motivate us, but we have to

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start talking in ways that motivate

not us, that motivate regular people.

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One of my colleagues is Sharon Fletcher at

Maddie's Fund, and she used to always say.

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She would talk to her neighbors and she

would run messaging by her neighbors.

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And we started calling it the

Sharon's Neighbors Test, and

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I still use it to this day.

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And I say, okay, what would

Sharon's neighbors say about this?

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Or how would they hear this information?

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And I was on a really

interesting call the other day.

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I'm the Michigan State

representative for the.

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United Spay Alliance and I went to a

United Spay Alliance meeting and we were

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talking about messaging around spay neuter

and someone made the comment that spay

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neuter isn't sexy and it's really hard to

message spay neuter to the general public.

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And I was thinking about it a lot and

talking it over with another colleague

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and we were saying, spay neuter is.

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Sexy . There's a lot of really

powerful stories around spay neuter.

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The pet overpopulation story is powerful,

but there's the health benefits story

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and there's, because, we talk about

the health risks of early spay neuter,

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but spay neuter itself in general

does have a cumulative positive.

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:

Impact on health and and

longevity, especially in dogs.

346

:

And you can reach people with messages

that touch on preventing homelessness and

347

:

suffering, preventing health problems.

348

:

You can really get to people and

make them think, whereas so often.

349

:

When we message spay neuter, we

do it in this really lecturing

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:

way that is not very sexy.

351

:

It's not very interesting and appealing.

352

:

It doesn't touch people's hearts.

353

:

It doesn't tell people

what's in it for them.

354

:

It.

355

:

It misses all the opportunities

that we've learned about in public

356

:

speaking and persuasion to really grab

people by their hearts and make them

357

:

understand something in a different way.

358

:

So does the same with adoption.

359

:

We tend to tell these heartbreaking

stories about our animals.

360

:

Because those are very motivational

for a rescue audience, and a lot of

361

:

times that's who we're talking to.

362

:

The average people want happy,

healthy pets who are gonna sleep

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:

at the foot of their kids' beds.

364

:

They don't want a project, they

don't want a pet who's suffering

365

:

from post-traumatic stress disorder.

366

:

They want.

367

:

A moment of happiness and joy.

368

:

That's what they want.

369

:

I'm not saying that people can't be

reached by heartbreaking stories.

370

:

We all know that they can.

371

:

I'm saying that the more you tell

those stories, you run the risk of

372

:

poisoning the well for adoption.

373

:

For people who aren't looking

for that, who outnumber.

374

:

People who are looking for that project

PET or that heartbreaking story to

375

:

feel like they've rescued an animal.

376

:

PetSmart Charities did some interesting

research on this, and again, I don't

377

:

have the research in front of me.

378

:

I can't quote from it directly,

but they were talking about what

379

:

it was that people were looking for

in a pet and all the things that

380

:

motivated them to want that pet.

381

:

The story, the pet's background

story was the least important

382

:

and humorously enough, the number

one thing that they liked about a

383

:

dog was that the dog jumped on them.

384

:

So we spend all this time training

dogs not to jump on people, but in

385

:

fact the doctors seemed to like it.

386

:

But yeah, so I think

that we really need to.

387

:

Be very conscious of the audience

when we're trying to get our message

388

:

out beyond our core following, to

look for these opportunities to put

389

:

the message in a different place.

390

:

A place that's not already saturated

with our messaging, but to talk

391

:

about it in ways that appeal.

392

:

To the general public who are looking

for these joyful experiences and humor.

393

:

One of my clients for 14 years

was the Shelter Pet Project,

394

:

which was the ad council's public

service advertising campaign.

395

:

And all our ads were funny or

heartwarming, and we never did any

396

:

sad or, the first set of ads that

we did were all very humorous.

397

:

And we got a lot of attention for that

because this was back in, I'm just trying

398

:

to think what year it must have been.

399

:

Must have been maybe the early

two thousands I'm thinking.

400

:

We were.

401

:

Mid two thousands and it was

really uncommon at that point for

402

:

people to do ads for pet adoption

that weren't heartbreaking.

403

:

Arms of the angels and all that.

404

:

Which to be fair are mostly fundraising

ads, not adoption ads, but in rescue.

405

:

I'm sure you've seen just the

avalanche of stories of, this tragic.

406

:

Background that the pet has and how we're

gonna save them from this terrible trauma.

407

:

And and we've really become overly reliant

on that is the only note that we have.

408

:

And to remember that humor and

touching people's hearts in a

409

:

positive way is more popular.

410

:

Dixie: Yeah, I can agree with that.

411

:

I can actually see that now

that you mentioned that.

412

:

Because if you do have that

heartstring case that you tend to

413

:

attract somebody that has already

has a rescue pet, essentially.

414

:

Now, I'm gonna say like , in some

special needs cases that might

415

:

be who you wanna attract anyway.

416

:

So in that approach it might be good.

417

:

Absolutely.

418

:

But

419

:

Christie: Absolutely.

420

:

Dixie: Yeah.

421

:

But for the general.

422

:

Adoptions.

423

:

I can see that, if you say, oh I

rescued these puppies off the side

424

:

of the road and they need homes.

425

:

And I think people sometimes might think

why were they on the side of the road?

426

:

Was there something wrong with them?

427

:

So maybe that's not a good choice for us.

428

:

So , I can see what, if you frame it in a

more positive light, how it would attract.

429

:

Different people,

430

:

Christie: soccer moms.

431

:

Dixie: Yeah.

432

:

Yeah.

433

:

I , can see that what I always in my

434

:

Christie: head is.

435

:

Yeah, exactly.

436

:

Exactly.

437

:

And there's more of them.

438

:

They outnumber us.

439

:

Dixie: Yeah.

440

:

Yeah.

441

:

And in your audience, and I will say

too that I've noticed on the, my latest

442

:

adoptions, I have a good sense of humor.

443

:

So I tend to do a more

comical twist on things.

444

:

Good.

445

:

So I do see that since I've started doing,

and letting my kind of humor come out that

446

:

I do see my adoption rates are going up

and then I'm also getting adopted faster.

447

:

Another thing that I would like to ask

you too is I see on your LinkedIn that

448

:

you're a Reagan AI certified communicator.

449

:

Christie: Yes,

450

:

Dixie: I

451

:

Christie: am.

452

:

Dixie: Okay, so what is that?

453

:

Christie: So I took a course, a

certification course in working with ai.

454

:

I was very interested in it when it first

appeared on the scene and, some of the

455

:

negative things that, that we've learned

about AI since then have maybe given

456

:

me a little bit of pause, but I still

think that it's a really powerful tools.

457

:

For tool for animal welfare, especially

when we, nonprofits in general, but

458

:

animal welfare specifically because

we run so lean in terms of only

459

:

the biggest shelters have an entire

communications team or marketing team.

460

:

And rescue groups often don't have

anyone with marketing or communications

461

:

experience, and they still have

marketing and communications needs.

462

:

So I wanted to be able

to really understand how.

463

:

I could advise people to use AI to write

adoption listings, pet bios, social

464

:

media posts newsletters fundraising,

appeals, grant applications, all the

465

:

things that AI can help you with.

466

:

I wanted to be sure that I knew

how to advise them to use those

467

:

things or avoid them, and.

468

:

What, how to avoid making mistakes

with them and how to get the most out

469

:

of an interaction with an artificial

intelligence because what you put

470

:

into it determines what you get out

of it, but it is still a huge time

471

:

and money saver for nonprofits.

472

:

So I really wanted to pursue that

so that I could bring that to the

473

:

table with my clients and make sure

that they got the benefits of working

474

:

with AI if it would help them.

475

:

Dixie: Has it been beneficial to

them in terms of writing adoption

476

:

bios and maybe social media posts?

477

:

Christie: I don't know.

478

:

I can tell when I'm on Petfinder

when bios have been written by ai.

479

:

They're just obvious.

480

:

I don't know if it matters.

481

:

Sometimes I think that.

482

:

We need to spend more time educating

people on how to write good AI prompts and

483

:

because they're just going in and they're

not giving the AI the right information

484

:

to really produce good results.

485

:

So I think there's still a lot of

work to be done, but I think that

486

:

other times it's like plastic surgery.

487

:

The ones and you notice are the bad

ones, but the good ones you don't know.

488

:

You because you can't tell.

489

:

I think that's probably true of AI too.

490

:

There's probably really good

work being done out there that is

491

:

invisible because it's so good.

492

:

And so I'm not a hundred percent sure,

but of my clients, I try to work with

493

:

them on how they do their prompts.

494

:

That's the number one

thing I work with them on.

495

:

Dixie: One more thing too before we

end the call that I would like to

496

:

touch on is negative comments Yes.

497

:

On social media.

498

:

How do you handle those?

499

:

What is the best way to handle that?

500

:

Whether it's, you're either promoting

spay neuter and somebody has that

501

:

negative comment to say, or somebody

gets mad because they wanna adopt from

502

:

you, and either that animal has already

been adopted or you might not think

503

:

they're a good fit for that animal.

504

:

Christie: I have become much

more hard-ass about this.

505

:

In my old age here, I used to be

much more soft about it, but I've

506

:

seen way too many derailments of.

507

:

People's social media platforms by

people who weren't being genuine,

508

:

who were just stirring up trouble.

509

:

So when you get a negative

comment, it might be the most

510

:

valuable thing that you're.

511

:

Organization will ever get, it's the

cheapest focus group you'll ever have.

512

:

Is someone pointing out a problem

saying to you, why did you do this?

513

:

What is happening?

514

:

I went on your website and I

saw this and I don't understand.

515

:

Why are you spaying neutering at.

516

:

Two pounds.

517

:

It's terrible.

518

:

Whatever the negative comment is, this

is really useful information for you

519

:

and you should be grateful for it.

520

:

And so I always say the first thing

you do when you get an a sincere,

521

:

negative comment, like something

that doesn't appear to be trolling,

522

:

is you say, thank you very much

for bringing this to my attention.

523

:

And then you say something like,

we would love, you know it.

524

:

It depends on what they said.

525

:

You can either say.

526

:

This is what we do because this is

the recommendation of, the Association

527

:

of Shelter veterinarians or something

appropriate and fairly short.

528

:

Sometimes it's appropriate to say, please

contact so and so at such and such email

529

:

address so we can, we can get to the

bottom of this with you that might be

530

:

more appropriate for a customer service

type complaint where they say, I left

531

:

a message and no one called me back.

532

:

Or I filled out an adoption

application and I never heard from

533

:

anyone, or something like that.

534

:

You might wanna get them off social media

and direct them to an email address so

535

:

that this isn't happening in public.

536

:

But for trolling comments.

537

:

Your response is not going to be

for them because they're not a

538

:

sincere player in the conversation.

539

:

They are just there to make trouble,

and what I do with them is I make

540

:

one answer that sounds sincere and

polite and even welcoming because

541

:

I'm not answering it for them.

542

:

I'm answering it for all the people

reading it, and then I delete everything

543

:

after that because we're done.

544

:

It's over and if it becomes a

really hotbed of flames and I

545

:

can't control it anymore, I just

delete the original comment.

546

:

I didn't use to be like that.

547

:

I used to feel like we shouldn't be

deleting all these comments, and now I'm

548

:

just like, if they're not sincere, if

they're just there to make trouble, they

549

:

don't need to do it on my real estate.

550

:

So I usually advise people to be

pretty tough with trolling comments.

551

:

Dixie: That makes a lot of sense.

552

:

What would you say about the ones that

say they fill out an adoption application?

553

:

You call them up, but you tell

'em, Hey, this animal is not

554

:

a good fit for your family.

555

:

We're not approving your application.

556

:

Because I do see that a lot where a

lot of them will go onto rescue pages

557

:

and they'll try to get their friends

on there too, to say, go leave bad

558

:

reviews and do things like that.

559

:

So how would you handle those?

560

:

Christie: Yeah, that's so

difficult because there's so

561

:

many channels for them to lead.

562

:

Bad reviews too.

563

:

It's not just social media, it's also

Google reviews and Yelp reviews, and

564

:

it can become really time consuming

for a small nonprofit, especially

565

:

to track all these things down.

566

:

But usually I would say first of

all, I always try to frame turn

567

:

downs as positively as possible.

568

:

So let's say someone has tried to adopt

a specific cat and you don't think that

569

:

cat would be a good fit with this family.

570

:

I would just try to steer

them to another cat.

571

:

Unfortunately, sometimes you wouldn't

adopt to them at all, and they're, you

572

:

are just, you're just turning them down

and inevitably people are gonna be upset

573

:

about that because no one likes rejection.

574

:

So you are inevitably

going to face this problem.

575

:

And I would say I'm very sorry that

this didn't work out for you and us.

576

:

Please.

577

:

Contact us at this email address

and try and get it off social media.

578

:

And then I would also leave responses

to like one of the things that I

579

:

recommend that people do for reputation

management is to answer their reviews.

580

:

And I always would say, we're so

sorry that this didn't work out.

581

:

We hope that we wish you luck

in your search for a new pet

582

:

because again, it's not for them.

583

:

Nothing that you say

is gonna satisfy them.

584

:

They're not there to be satisfied.

585

:

They're upset, they're lashing out and

they blame you and they feel like they're

586

:

being told they're a bad pet owner and

irresponsible and all kinds of terrible

587

:

things, and there's not really nothing you

can do about that except be professional.

588

:

Try to keep it from taking over your

social media, which is hard because like

589

:

you said, they'll drag their friends

in on it and they'll also post lies.

590

:

And that's another thing that

I recommend doing is saying.

591

:

We've gone through our records and we

don't have any record of an adoption

592

:

application from anyone with your name.

593

:

Can you let us know what name your

adoption application was made under?

594

:

So we can get to the bottom of this?

595

:

Because what you're doing there is

signaling to the public who maybe

596

:

is reading these reviews that the

person is fake without coming right

597

:

out and saying the person is fake.

598

:

And usually they don't answer you.

599

:

So your response is just hanging there.

600

:

You responded, you were professional,

you signaled that they were fake.

601

:

You didn't say anything objectionable.

602

:

That's the best you can

do in that circumstance.

603

:

But that would be for a review

more so than a social media post.

604

:

Dixie: Yeah, it's very good advice.

605

:

Thank you so much for

speaking with me today.

606

:

Christie: Oh, Dixie, it was a lot of fun.

607

:

I really enjoyed speaking with you too

608

:

Dixie: that's it for today's

episode of Animal Posse.

609

:

If you love what we're doing,

please consider becoming a member.

610

:

Your support directly helps us continue

highlighting the people and stories

611

:

that save lives across the country.

612

:

Just a quick reminder, the views

and opinions expressed by our

613

:

guests are theirs alone and are

provided for entertainment purposes.

614

:

They don't necessarily.

615

:

reflect the official position of the show,

and this information should never replace

616

:

the advice of your own veterinarian.

617

:

Thanks for listening, and

we'll see you next time.

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About the Podcast

Animal Posse
A look inside the world of animal rescue
Dive deep into the world of animal rescue with heartwarming stories, expert interviews, and behind-the-scenes insights. From heartwarming adoptions to daring rescues, we'll explore the incredible bond between humans and animals.
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About your host

Profile picture for DIXIE LOUVIERE

DIXIE LOUVIERE

My love for animals has driven me to dedicate the last 20 years to rescue. In 2024, we established a 501c3 nonprofit Unwanted Feline Organization Inc. and are thrilled to be building a cat sanctuary in Washington Parish, Louisiana, where we can offer a haven for cats in need. I thought it would be great for the rescue to have a podcast so Animal Posse was started with the hope of bringing rescues together, getting them more exposure, and finding more animals
homes.