Boonie Tails

By Grace Keilbach and James Belleque

Happy Father’s Day

What would you do if your daughters started shipping random Boonie dogs to your door with no end in sight of when they might stop showing up? Lucky for us, our dad just bought more dog food. Dad, for every Boonie you’ve had to chase down the street or drive to the airport at an inconvenient hour, thank you for always being our biggest supporter. For always encouraging us to follow our dreams, even if that led us half a world away. And for raising us to know that we can. To all the pet and human dads alike, Happy Father’s Day!

Although the men in our lives have no choice but to be involved in saving the Boonies (ask our Grandpa about all the Boonie Babies post cards he’s mailed), the animal rescue and welfare scene overall is dominated by women. Women are significantly more likely to be care takers, activists, donors, and veterinarians. Of course we love seeing all this amazing girl power but it brings up the question, why aren’t men more involved with animal welfare issues?

The Statistics

• 69% of veterinarians are women

• 74% of non-farm animal caretakers are women

• 64% of animal welfare donors are women

• 75% of animal activists are women

• Men outnumber women four to one with animal abuse charges

• 85% of our following is women

The Anecdotes

Much like childcare, animal welfare has a certain anti-masculine stigma around it. Although dog love is allowed, being seen as cutesy or caring with animals isn’t macho and opens one up to many “feminine” accusations. Additionally, the basics of animal care generally fall into similar vein as childcare or housework: washing dogs, feeding dogs, picking up after dogs, vacuuming hair, etc. This gets even worse when the animals aren’t dogs, which can be masculine coded, to cats or other smaller animals.

One of the most interesting phenomenons we have witnessed in rescue, especially with machismo focused individuals, is resistance to neutering due to a perception the dog will be less aggressive and therefore less masculine. Logic dictates that from there, a less masculine dog means a less masculine man. A big strong man should be able to handle a big strong dog, right? Big strong men bear children. Taking away the dogs ability to reproduce and lower their aggressiveness takes away from the owner’s perceived ability do the same and be in control. The fallacy in this logic is false equivalence, and ignores the health of the dog and the potential danger an un-neutered male dog can represent.

This, of course does not represent the whole of the human male population. In fact, it’s probably a small vocal plurality which projects their opinion more widely, and dampens other mens enthusiasm to help and care for animals. From the current dog dads out there to anyone thinking of becoming one, remember, caring for animals doesn’t make you soft or effeminate. In fact, just the opposite! CARING FOR ANIMALS IS HOT, remember? Just like doing the dishes or vacuuming is a positive for any relationship, picking up dog poop or getting up first to feed the dogs can be as well. It shows you can care about something that’s not yourself day in and day out, a huge green flag. Cutesy pictures and baby voice come with the territory too sometimes, but that’s okay. You and your self image will survive. We love working with all women (literally) but its time we shift the narrative and encourage more men to enter the scene. Donate, get involved, speak out, and become a dog dad today!

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Boonie of the Week: Meet Kai

Story By Aria Keilbach

Last Friday we received a report of two puppies at a very popular dumping site, anabandoned mall, on-island. We arrived at the mall quickly and started walking around calling for the puppies. When crying puppy sounds narrowed down their location, we rushed over to where the crying was coming from. As I hurriedly rounded a corner I practically ran into the puppy and another dog running to us! Recovering quickly from surprising each other, the puppy and dog happily approached tails wagging with another puppy running up not far behind. I had assumed immediately seeing the adult dog that it must be the puppies’ mother and was shocked to realize it was actually a male. I assumed the male was a dog dumped there previously and had happened to cross paths with the puppies. But when it came time to load the pups into our car (after searching the mall for others just in case), he surprised us again. When we picked up the puppies he began frantically jumping up onto us and following us closely as we walked, revealing just how attached he actually was to these puppies. This was very strange to us considering how rarely we see male dogs showing protectiveness like this over puppies like mama dogs normally do. So, the male continued following and jumping up on us to check on his puppies the entire way back to the car. We were so amazed at his dedication but did not believe he would allow us to load him into the car with them. However, as soon as the puppies were placed in the car crate, his concern remained and he frantically assessed how to join them. We invited him up and encouraged him for a few minutes. Soon he gained the confidence to hop into the car without assistance to join his babies! 

Although happy that he was brave enough to trust us and come with, I was unsure if his interest in the puppies would remain after rescue. It’s been almost a week now, the puppies and the male dog, who we have named Kai, are absolutely thriving. The three of them are still completely enamored with each other. The puppies spend most the their time playing on top of Kai and smothering him with kisses, as he rests looking like there is nowhere else he would rather be. 

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