#BLM & the Dog Community
“The more familiar faces you see, the more you will want to join and be part of animal rescue.” 🖤
While COVID-19 kept a lot of people at home while changing a lot of what is considered a “new normal,” a lot of the Black community rallied and formed more of a community to fight for equality and their voice. With the voice, our allies used their platforms to speak up as well and that’s what brought Foster Dogs to create their “Amplifying Black Voices” program to highlight BIPOC individuals in the dog community and allow them to share their story.
On August 28, 2020, I got to share my story.
🐕 “I grew up with a rescue dog and over the years, I’ve worked with a few rescues. I started out just walking foster dogs for @mrbonesandco and used to do a few adoption events for @badassbrooklyn. My favorite part about animal advocacy is that even if you can only give a little, people are so appreciative.”
My career was not traditional from the beginning. I dabbled in a lot of design and web development as a teenager and shared a lot of my passions with my artistic and creative side, especially where most of my hobbies connected.
One thing that stuck out was my love for dogs and how I worked alongside them. While not meaning to, I started a dog walking company from the ground up. In 2020, we (my team and I) had about 60 clients and a full-time roster for all of us.
Alongside that, I was a textile designer and dog-accessories-creator, making sure to allow my creative side to shine fully and it was an absolute hit. My Instagram grew 1000% in about a week, with 4800% growth in sales from adding matching human masks into my shop, because why wouldn’t you want to match your dogs?! I shared a lot of similarities with the demographic I wanted to reach, and I did it right. Hitting the right kind of influencers in the dog community was also a super big deal.
😷 “I’m primarily a full-time dog walker and I run my own company. Since COVID started, I used a lot of my free time to make masks. It literally clicked one day: I already make dog collars; why am I not making matching masks?! I reopened my store on @etsy and it blew up overnight.”
Now, into where #BLM fits into this. I’m not a white-passing individual at all, I’m an Afro-Latina, and a dark-skinned one at that. I’ve had a lot of people not understanding or respecting my success (you know, with the stereotypical ‘oh are you a drug dealer’ comments), and I had to just keep my head high from the beginning and I appreciated my clients who would want to work with me.
🏠 “I’ll admit that I’ve experienced my fair share of racism as a dog walker. I was going to walk a dog for one client who had moved to a new building. I’d never been there before and was trying to find the door. A woman in the hall asked me, ‘What are you doing here?’ She said, ‘You don’t really look like you belong here.’ I’ve heard that kind of stuff in my own apartment building too. Thankfully, I have had very supportive clients over the years. Plenty of them have reached out to me and that has meant a lot.”
With a lot of this in the interview, came a lot of “where do you want to see the dog community,” and “what can help?” And honestly, my only word to answer that was Representation. I mentioned that a lot of cultures are very uncomfortable with larger dogs, and having members of the community involved in the rescue community can bring a turnout in new members that are BIPOC individuals.
🤗 “Representation is important because if people don’t see other people similar to them, they’re not going to think that it’s an environment that they can belong to. Even something as simple as small meet-and-greets in different communities would help. The more familiar faces you see, the more you will want to join and be part of animal rescue. One thing I’ve loved is how everyone is highlighting Black businesses for dogs: from dog treats and pet stores to trainers and walkers, everyone is getting recognized. It’s being more inclusive, which is amazing.”
“It feels like a family — a community — where everyone knows each other.”
Rescue is for *every* person. @fosterdogs is working to amplify Black voices, to further our mission of inclusivity & positivity.
