I’m back from my second BlogPaws conference, exhausted but happy at the prospect of yet another fantastic success. I think everyone had a wonderful time (Kate’s attempt to sneak a bottle of wine into the Saturday event and subsequently getting busted by a beverage services manager who takes his job EXTREMELY seriously notwithstanding.)
To do the conference justice in one post would be impossible. To do it in three or four would still be paltry. However, if for no reason other than I promised myself while hysterically weeping in front of the entire conference that some good would come out of my public breakdown, I have to at least address the keynote speech.
To back up just a stitch for those new to the blog, BlogPaws is a pet blogging conference that took place over the weekend in Denver, Colorado. The inaugural BlogPaws event took place just this past April in Columbus, and was such an overwhelmingly positive experience that the organizers decided to do it all over again a mere 5 months later. Insanity, I tell you.
I was so excited to hear that Mike Arms would be giving the opening keynote address. Mike is the president of the Helen Woodward Animal Center in San Diego. As a local, I can tell you this is one of the most amazing animal care facilities I have ever seen, from top to bottom a place that has successfully managed to intercalate itself into the community in a positive way.
I was really looking forward to hearing about how this person had managed to accomplish what so many think is impossible, a game changing way of reforming animal welfare. I was SO enthusiastic, in fact, that I bucked my normal tradition and sat right in the very front. In my jet lagged state it didn’t occur to me to be concerned that nobody else was up there, obliviously staring off into space while those who have seen Mike speak before retreated to the far corners of the room, out of his line of sight.
His story, if you haven’t heard it before, is very compelling. His description of the moment that changed his life, promising to devote his life to saving animals if he would just survive the vicious attack he endured after trying to save a dog, already had us primed for tears. And then he pointed at me.
I can only assume that while he is telling the story of his life, he scans the audience looking for a sucker who is appropriately dew-eyed already. That would be me. I think you all know I’m a sap. I turn the channel during all those Sarah McLachlan ASPCA commercials, I couldn’t do the terminal procedures in vet school, that sort of thing. He knows what he’s doing.
I was really excited to go up there for this mystery scenario. Would I put on a silly hat like they do at Cirque du Soleil? Maybe he’d ask me about my experiences with shelters? Get an autographed Helen Woodward Center mug?
“Nice to meet you,” he said. “You’re about to really hate me.”
Aroo?
The he hands me a three page letter and asks me to read it to the crowd. I look down. “I gas dogs and cats for a living,” I begin. Oh, !#!@$.
Perhaps you have read this letter before. It’s here should you want to experience it for yourself, though I would probably rate it up there with live video of seal clubbing on the emotional distress scale. It’s bad.
So now here I am, hi everyone, welcome to BlogPaws, I’m going to talk about gassing dogs now. I got through maybe a quarter of it before I started sniffling, then I told Mike that he was correct, I did hate him. I made it to the halfway point, where the writer tells how he goes to the drive-thru every Thursday after work and buys $50 worth of cheeseburgers for the doomed dogs, when I realized the letters on the page were too blurry to read.
I paused to wipe my eyes, the dull silence punctuated only by the gasping sobs of everyone else in the audience. We are all puddles of mortification at this point. I don’t think the Toastmasters have an FAQ on handling this situation: “What to do when your speech is the audio equivalent of the Jonestown Kool-Aid.” Horrifying.
Finally, Mike took pity on me and told me to stop before we got to the graphic description of actually gassing the dogs. Until I wrote this post I never actually went back to look at what was in the rest of the letter. There is absolutely no way I could have finished it.
I slunk back to my seat, appalled at what I had read as well as my own inability to overcome the horror of it. His message at its core was pretty straightforward: THIS is what we’re fighting against. It’s not enough to just be sad. We need to be so clear about the depth of this challenge and the importance of what we are aiming for that we will push those emotions aside and cast in their place a real determination, a commitment to put aside fear and doubt and ego and apply some real world intellectual business solutions to change the way we view saving animals. Brilliant.
The keynote is here should anyone wish to see it. Feel free to forward over my part. I’m not exactly endorsing you watching what is clearly not my finest moment here, but I’ll put that vanity aside here because the message is so worth hearing. So worth it.
After the session I lost count of the people who came up to me and offered a hug or a pat on the back. They inevitably said two things, in this order:
“I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”
And:
“I’m so GLAD it wasn’t me.”
I’m glad too. Isn’t that weird? I appreciate being confronted with that reality in such a stark way. Thank you, Mike. But now you owe me a drink.
That wasn’t how I planned to spend the first half hour of my day, but I’m sure glad I did. Mike is an amazing guy. Having sobbed through the letter with you, I sure was glad to see the link to your Pettie acceptance speech on the same page. (You are going to post the picture they took of you with the trophy, right?) Congratulations on the best pet blog award!
You were THERE and I didn’t get to meet you? I would have loved that! 🙁
No, I wasn’t there, I watched the videos. Much easier that way – no need to find a housesitter. But now that I’ve seen you, I feel like I’ve met you. (You’re much younger than I expected.)
Ha! Objects on your computer screen are older than they appear. 🙂
Oh Dr V! Ouch. I just tried to read the letter. Really. Got as far as the hamburgers. No way can I go further than the “wagging tails” line. Mike’s story alone put me over the edge even though it’s so heartening to hear of his kept promise. I’m reallly glad that you share yourself through pawcurious and that you are are one of many dedicated veterinarians who help as many animals as you possibly can as a part of your life’s work. Most of us can’t claim a life’s work that is as noble. Congrats on your “Pettie!”…
Mike is a very compelling speaker (I knew to sit in the back for that one). He is also very talented – he knew just who to pick, and you of course did an amazing job even reading it at all. I can’t even finish what you didn’t read at that link you posted of the entire letter. More people will now hear this important message by Mike to really Be The Change for animals. Do just one thing to help one animal. It’s a start.
Oh, Dr. V., As much as I HATE that you had to go through that (I was sobbing with you and for you the whole time!) he picked the perfect person to understand the message and take it and pass it on. Thank you for taking one for the team. 🙂 xoxo!
I was terribly glad he didn’t point to me! Yikes. You did great though. I tried to get around and introduce myself, but never happened. We had a great time overall at the conference too … what a great group of people!
I cannot even imagine what you were going through. I was in tears just listening to you read it. When I got home from BlogPaws last night and was playing with Toby, all I could imagine was those animals in the letter, and what if Toby was one of them (as I tear up again just thinking about it). Thank you for posting the link to the letter, because I wanted blog about it but wasn’t sure where to find the letter.
Oh wow. No way I could have read that letter.
I wasn’t at BlogPaws (wish I had been) but I watched, actually tried to watch, Mike Arms’ presentation on the live feed page. I couldn’t watch, listen. The times he spoke about here in NYC are all too real to me. That was the time in my life when I joined the activists, the time when we demonstrated in front of the ASPCA which was at the time under contract to NYC as the “pound” and required to take every stray or surrendered animal, no limits, and, adoptions were few and far between. I just couldn’t re-live those days. I applaud Mike Arms for keeping the flame going, and, I applaud all of you for listening and learning. Things here have changed only a little. The ASPCA hasn’t been under contract to NYC for years now, but, the new pound (Animal Care & Control) isn’t much better (except there aren’t the mass killings by suffocation). Nothing gets better when there isn’t enough done to prevent pet abuse and abandonment and while sales of animals continues at the current level. But, for us in NYC, the immediate issue is the lack of funding and the poorly contructed, under-staffed ACC shelters in our boroughs. We need shelter reform NOW that doesn’t get lost in kill Vs. no kill issues. We need a truly humane shelter system, before moving on with eliminating the killing for space. And I fear we won’t get one while there’s the battle between the kill and no-kill shelters. The animals in the “kill” shelters are equally deserving of medical care, training, grooming, affection, clean environments, and a chance at adoption. But, they just don’t get it.
I really really want to get a better understanding of the problems and challenges involved. It seems like there is so much politics involved (what else is new?)
Dr. V, you were the right person to read that letter. I think Mike would have found you in the back row, because Mike has that kind of sensitivity. I’ve heard this particular speech of his at least 4 times and it continues to have the power to move me. I was crying right along with you. We all cried with you. And it was a cathartic experience we’ll never forget. Thank you for your eloquence both in the reading and in this blog post.
(And seriously, I didn’t tell him to pick you.)
I really just couldn’t do it……..all of you who work with animals are angels! My heart would break so much I wouldn’t be able to do my job. Anyway……what a hard thing you had to do……but it is a hard subject……and yes, I would say he owes you drink!
I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only one that has to turn the channel on those Sarah McLachlan abused animal commercials.
I change the channel too! I have a meeting in 10 with a reporter so I’ll have to put off watching until this evening. I’ll get the tissues ready though. I do feel compelled to hear to message, even if I can already imagine it. Something about reality (the real reality, not the reality tv reality) that should be heard — and acted upon the best each of us can, at this time.
Oops, typos, sorry…..
wow. that was so rough to watch! you did a great job though.
Oh my gosh; I haven’t heard of this “I gas dogs for a living” letter before but I know I can’t handle going to read it on my own. I am a sap of the highest order when it comes to dogs. I’m so sorry you had to go through that and I’m so happy that organizations like BlogPaws and people like you and Mike Arms are out there educating the public on how to help animals.
I didn’t watch the video, and I hate myself for reading that letter at work. =*( I used to breed corgis, but after getting a taste of what people are like around animals (Not everyone loves and cares for them), I ended up having all my females fixed. I swore when I did that I would adopt dogs from now on. And I will. I will, I swear to God and everyone else that reads this, I will rescue the lost and brokenhearted, and abused and neglected. My very first dog was a rescue, and for the rest of my life, the rest of my dogs will be too.
Happier note…there was a pack of 13 rescued greyhounds up at our local mall looking for homes. They were so sweet, but a few of them were so scared that they just glued themselves to their handlers and gazed around with the saddest eyes. They were also stationed down from a gourmet dog treats stand.
I bought them a whole bag, and left some leftovers with their people to feed the ones too scared to eat. 🙂
mike arms tells a hell of a story. i heard it first hand and cried my eyes out. then i came to learn that he kills dogs. that’s right, what most people don’t know is that helen woodward kills dogs. they send the “problem” dogs for a behavior assessment and they never return. rusty and tassle are 2 such dogs who died in 2002. i should have saved them. i regret it to this day. they were both sweet, good dogs.
helen woodward, under mike arms direction, will not accept an dog over 5 years of age. nor dogs with medical or behavioral issues. mike personally told me that it “defeats the purpose”. the purpose? numbers. quantity of adoptions.
it’s time people know the truth.
sue in san diego
Hello Dr. V! For the record, Mike Arms read your response, smiled, and told me to tell you…
“Come on over, I will buy you that drink.”
~Marcie 🙂
now you all know why, a decade ago, we on the board of directors of the helen woodward animal center in rancho santa fe, san dsiego, persuaded mike arms to move from new york to lead us and our growing shelter. we had no idea we would become an internatlonally-recognized facility and program. we just wanted to get better! and have we! our shelter staff training progam and our ‘home 4 the holidays’ adoption program are just two wonderful adventures mike has lead us on. we are so proud of mike arms . . . and you all . . . for what you are doing!
I was sobbing right there along with you, Dr. V! You did a great job, better than I could have done. I think I cried my way through that whole weekend!
Great meeting you (if only briefly) and congrats again on the Pettie.