From TNR to PR: Raising Awareness for Pet Project Rescue
This week’s podcast takes a unique turn as hosts Alex and Mary welcome Maia Rumpho, executive director of Pet Project Rescue in Minneapolis, to discuss PR strategies for cat rescues. Pet Project Rescue focuses on TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) to combat cat overpopulation. Maia shares insights about her nonprofit, and the hosts recount their recent collaboration on a press conference to raise funds—a classic PR move designed to spotlight the rescue’s mission. They dive into the challenges of generating publicity and building buzz for such a vital cause.
Listen to Episode #13 Now:
BIO:
Pet Project Rescue (PPR) is a Minnesota-based, non-profit organization that specializes in spay/neuter programming from Minnesota to Mexico and foster-based hospice care for terminally ill MN dogs and cats rescued from local high-kill shelters.
PPR’s mission is to end animal homelessness and suffering by focusing on reducing the homeless animal population at its source through our free spay/neuter clinics for animals both in our local MN community and in Mexico. PPR believes that all animals deserve a loving and healthy life. To fully provide for animals in need we dedicate our time and energy to help animals locally and beyond by providing free vet care for low-income communities while also striving to make Minneapolis a no-kill city!
In addition to our main focus on spay and neuter services, we make an effort to provide a comfortable and dignified life for animals that are generally seen as unadoptable. PPR created a hospice program in 2010, which focuses on providing foster homes for terminally ill animals that are rescued from MN high-kill shelters. These dogs and cats are out of options, but because of our hospice program, they are able to have a loving family in their last days and pass with the respect and dignity every living being deserves.
Pet Project Rescue has been a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit since 2008.
Transcript:
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Announcer: Let's Talk Pets.
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Mary Tan: Welcome to the Whisker Report.
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Mary Tan: We're a new podcast dedicated to helping anyone in the pet industry.
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Mary Tan: Whether you're an animal welfare or a for-profit pet company, we wanna help you get some PR and buzz for your organization.
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Mary Tan: Hello, everyone, I'm Mary Tan, one of the hosts of the show, along with Alexane Ricard, a French gal who travels the world in hopes of spaying and neutering stray cats wherever she finds them.
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Mary Tan: But she is a world traveler as I previously mentioned.
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Mary Tan: So Alex, where are you now?
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Alexane Ricard: Hello, everyone, or I should say Calimera, because I'm in Greece today.
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Alexane Ricard: I'm just outside of Athens, back in Greece for my rescue, saving lives and see all the kitties.
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Alexane Ricard: And today is gonna be a great talk about TNR and cat rescuing.
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Alexane Ricard: But first, let me introduce you to our producer, Mark Winter of Pet Life Radio, who is the man who gets us to you each and every week.
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Mark Winter: I get you to us from all over the world.
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Alexane Ricard: That's true, Mark.
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Mark Winter: And we never know where you're going to be.
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Mary Tan: Yeah, and I just want to mention quick that Pet Life Radio has how many podcasts now?
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Mark Winter: Like 83 podcasts.
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Mary Tan: Wow, and it's on all different topics.
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Mary Tan: And so anything about the pet industry and pets and cats and dogs, and I don't know if you have anything on hamsters, but Pet Life Radio, check it out.
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Mark Winter: Horses, birds, fish, we got it all.
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Mary Tan: Yes, it's so amazing.
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Mary Tan: And you started this back in the 80s.
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Mary Tan: So podcasting, Mark is a professional long timer.
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Mark Winter: Yeah, 2007, Pet Life Radio started.
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Mary Tan: That's so cool.
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Mark Winter: In the 80s, I was in a band, Illusion on Epic Records, performing and recording.
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Mary Tan: Well, we're so honored to be part of Pet Life Radio.
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Mary Tan: And we also want to stress, you can do PR for yourself.
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Mary Tan: And Alex, Mark and I are going to help you each and every week.
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Alexane Ricard: Yeah, but this week, we're actually doing something a little bit different than usual.
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Alexane Ricard: So today, we invited one of our favorite cat rescue group from Minnesota.
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Alexane Ricard: And they're on the podcast to ask us questions on how to do their own PR.
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Alexane Ricard: So our guest today is Maia Rumpho, the executive director of Pet Project Rescue in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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Alexane Ricard: This nonprofit organization focuses on TNR or as we call it, Trap Nature Return, which is the only way to control cat overpopulation.
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Alexane Ricard: So thank you so much for being on the show today, Maia.
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Alexane Ricard: Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your nonprofit?
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Maia Rumpho: Hi, thank you for having me.
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Maia Rumpho: My name is Maia Rumpho.
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Maia Rumpho: I started PPR, Pet Project Rescue back in 2008 with a focus initially on rescue of dogs and cats.
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Maia Rumpho: But over the years, we really realized that the only way we're going to control the population and prevent the need for rescue is through spay and neuter.
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Maia Rumpho: And we created our TNR program in Minneapolis actually back in 2009.
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Maia Rumpho: So pretty early on as a result of seeing how many cats were entering our local Minneapolis shelter and not making it out.
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Maia Rumpho: So we have been working with the city of Minneapolis ever since.
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Maia Rumpho: And of course, residents all over Minneapolis.
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Maia Rumpho: We did expand our program a handful of years ago to a few surrounding suburbs.
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Maia Rumpho: And then just this year in July, we actually opened up our program to the state of Minnesota, which has been a huge expansion.
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Maia Rumpho: And a learning experience for sure.
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Maia Rumpho: But it's been fantastic.
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Maia Rumpho: And we've been able to help a lot of cats.
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Maia Rumpho: And we hope to continue to help a lot more as the years go on.
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Mary Tan: So, Maia, I have a question for you.
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Mary Tan: So a lot of people don't understand TNR.
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Mary Tan: And typically TNR organizations in the US and abroad, Alex knows this too, don't get the kind of support that like the adoptables do.
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Mary Tan: So that's kind of what we call them, like the adoptables.
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Mary Tan: And then there's the stray ferals.
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Mary Tan: But many of what people need to understand is many of the adoptable kittens actually come from these cats that you trap and neuter and return.
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Mary Tan: And then if they're, you know, if they have kittens or something, you take the kittens, correct?
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Maia Rumpho: Yes, most often the kittens are removed from the colony, socialized, and then placed in rescues and adapted out.
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Mary Tan: How hard has it been to get the message out in terms of, with every cat rescue, right?
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Mary Tan: It's all about fundraising.
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Maia Rumpho: So, yeah, fundraising is key.
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Maia Rumpho: And, you know, a lot of people are asking and there is a lot of need.
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Maia Rumpho: So that is something we, you know, constantly battle.
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Maia Rumpho: How do we get people to feel as passionate about TNR as we do, and want to fund it, and understand that it does have a connection to rescue, and that when you are funding TNR, you are actually supporting rescue, because you're preventing rescues from being inundated with kittens or friendly cats.
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Maia Rumpho: It frees up space for people to focus on the cats that need to get off the street when there are fewer of them, which happens with TNR, because it's the best way to control the population.
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Maia Rumpho: So, yeah, getting the message out there, making it relatable to people is always something that we struggle with, and we're always trying to tell those stories, make those connections with people.
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Maia Rumpho: But it's definitely an uphill battle a lot of times.
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Mary Tan: That's amazing.
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Mary Tan: I mean, what you do, I mean, you live here in Minneapolis, and so that's, I live in the area too, and so that's how we got to know each other through Chris Kaiser, who is the marketing director at our favorite catnip company, Yow, or how do you say it, Alex?
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Alexane Ricard: Yahoo.
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Mary Tan: It's a little, a European twist.
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Mary Tan: But anyways, a few weeks ago, Whisker Media helped Maia with a big news conference because she had a big challenge.
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Mary Tan: So when we come back, we're going to talk about what that was all about.
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Announcer: Let's talk pets on petliferadio.com.
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Mary Tan: And we are back.
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Mary Tan: A few weeks ago, we held a press conference to raise money for Maia's rescue.
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Mary Tan: And it was a classic PR move.
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Mary Tan: And so, Maia, can you tell everybody what the situation was and why you were in urgent need of fundraising?
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Maia Rumpho: Yes, urgent is very accurate.
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Maia Rumpho: Back in July, we found out that our local humane society that for a number of years previously had run a free TNR program for the state of Minnesota was going to be ending that free program.
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Maia Rumpho: And they were going to start charging people $75 a cat to TNR.
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Maia Rumpho: There was a lot of panic around it because people knew that they wouldn't be able to afford that and the alternative to not being able to afford that is the cats don't get fixed and there's a population explosion.
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Maia Rumpho: So, I was approached by a number of people wanting help.
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Maia Rumpho: And because we are one of the main TNR organizations in the metro area, it just made sense for us to step up and ideally partner with other organizations and help build out something that could still give the community resources around TNR.
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Maia Rumpho: And that's how I connected with you, Mary and Chris, and the ball just kind of sort of rolling.
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Maia Rumpho: And here we are a couple of months later, still in the midst of fundraising, still trying to get the word out.
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Maia Rumpho: But yeah, that's where we started.
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Maia Rumpho: And this is where we are now, TNRing a lot of cats across Minnesota.
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Mary Tan: Yeah.
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Mary Tan: So what we did was, Maia came to me and said, you know, we lost this funding.
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Mary Tan: We now have to fund these surgeries ourselves.
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Mary Tan: And, you know, Chris also said, what do we do?
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Mary Tan: What do we do?
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Mary Tan: And I said, well, let's hold a news conference and explain to the media why, you know, this is so important.
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Mary Tan: From working with media all over the country, I know they don't understand TNR.
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Mary Tan: They don't.
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Mary Tan: So there's a ton of education involved.
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Mary Tan: But we held a press conference at another Whisker Media client's place of business, Purniture.
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Mary Tan: And much to my surprise, in fact, I don't think I've ever had a press conference that well attended.
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Mary Tan: We had every major media organization there, which blew my mind.
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Mary Tan: And I do think part of it was that it was a very slow news day.
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Mary Tan: So I was praying for that, but they all came up and Maia and another one of her colleagues, Jackie Wilson, shout out to her with the Bitty Kitty Brigade, which is a neonatal adoptable kitten rescue.
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Mary Tan: They both talked about TNR and they did a fantastic job.
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Mary Tan: And Maia, we rehearsed with it.
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Mary Tan: We made sure you and Jackie didn't overlap in what you talk about because when you have a press conference, you have to go direct to the point.
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Mary Tan: They want to know right away.
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Mary Tan: They don't have a lot of time.
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Mary Tan: They're in between news stories.
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Mary Tan: So it's important when you have a press conference that you plan out exactly what people are going to say.
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Mary Tan: Maia did a beautiful job.
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Mary Tan: You made the plea.
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Mary Tan: And then tell us what happened after that.
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Mary Tan: Like how much money did you raise because of the news coverage?
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Maia Rumpho: Well, two dates, the fundraiser is still running.
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Maia Rumpho: We have raised just a little over $18,000.
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Maia Rumpho: That's fantastic.
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Maia Rumpho: I think one of the best things about the press conference, we were able to reach a large audience.
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Maia Rumpho: We also had Breanne there who is an independent trapper in Minneapolis, and she was able to share her stories, how lack of funding would impact her.
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Maia Rumpho: And I think really seeing who is going to be affected by this outside of just nonprofit organizations was really impactful.
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Maia Rumpho: So yeah, it's been great.
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Maia Rumpho: Our goal is 25,000, so we're not quite there yet, but I'm really happy with the 18,000 that we raised that for us as a small organization is huge.
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Mary Tan: Yeah.
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Mary Tan: And Alex, you chime in because you do the same thing as Maia.
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Alexane Ricard: Yeah, I do the same thing as Maia.
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Alexane Ricard: But first, I wanted to ask you, Mary, for all the other nonprofit listening to us, when is a good time to hold a press conference?
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Alexane Ricard: Like, what are some tips?
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Alexane Ricard: Like, when should a rescue hold a press conference?
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Alexane Ricard: Can you give us some tips about that?
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Mary Tan: It is, I'm going to first say, it's kind of a crap shoot and it's kind of like, you need to be really lucky.
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Mary Tan: And the day that we held the press conference, there was absolutely nothing else going on.
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Mary Tan: And now it's going to be, it's much harder now because of the presidential election.
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Mary Tan: And so what happens is the news holes are actually smaller for several reasons.
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Mary Tan: Number one, they're covering all the issues right now.
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Mary Tan: And everybody's sick of it, by the way.
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Mary Tan: And then the other thing is that the presidential advertising can affect how big the amount of content in a news segment might shrink because this is like the big time for television stations to make their money, right?
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Mary Tan: Because the candidates are all spending money on ads and everything.
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Mary Tan: So, you know, cha-ching, this is the this is the heavy time for advertising in especially television and local news, by the way, is still heavily watched in the United States.
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Mary Tan: More people trust their local news people than the national people.
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Mary Tan: And so here in Minneapolis, the news viewership rates are actually pretty high.
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Mary Tan: But in most cities, like, this is where you get your super local yokel news.
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Mary Tan: This is where you find out what's happening on in your city council and that sort of thing.
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Mary Tan: But a general rule of thumb is that you want to hold the press conference not too early in the day and not too late in the day.
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Mary Tan: You have to go by their deadline.
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Mary Tan: So if they have a noon newscast or they have a five or six, you don't want to have it generally right before.
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Mary Tan: Now, the noon is a little different because more they have more staff coming in.
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Mary Tan: But I would say the times I like to hold press conferences would be like 10 a.m.
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Mary Tan: or like 1 p.m.
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Mary Tan: That's more for TV news.
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Mary Tan: The newspapers have far more ability to cover things because their deadline for the paper isn't until the evening.
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Mary Tan: But for broadcast TV, they have multiple deadlines.
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Mary Tan: And so I usually typically hold them either at 10 or 1.
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Mary Tan: And that's also typically when they're full staffed.
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Mary Tan: Also, another great time to have a press conference is on the weekends.
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Mary Tan: If it's a harder news thing too, especially because and I would consider this a harder news thing.
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Mary Tan: Like we pitched it as this was kind of dramatic, but it's true.
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Mary Tan: Cats are going to die in the street.
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Mary Tan: There's going to be more and more cats, right, Maia?
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Mary Tan: I mean, if you don't spay and neuter, the population is going to explode.
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Maia Rumpho: Yeah.
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Maia Rumpho: And the harsh reality is that the most vulnerable are the young kittens, and nobody wants to see deceased kittens in the street.
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Maia Rumpho: Like that's where people get really upset.
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Maia Rumpho: Even cats, too, being hit by cars or just they die of old age even on the street, they can live a long time.
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Maia Rumpho: Yeah, nobody wants to see that.
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Maia Rumpho: So that's something we want to prevent and give people resources.
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Mary Tan: Yeah.
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Mary Tan: And of course, you need eye candy, too.
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Maia Rumpho: Yeah.
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Mary Tan: So Chris brought one of...
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Mary Tan: Did she bring several foster kittens?
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Mary Tan: I think she did.
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Maia Rumpho: She brought her little kitten, the little famous guy, I'm blanking on his name.
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Mary Tan: Oh, Berry.
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Mary Tan: Yes.
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Maia Rumpho: Berry, yes.
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Maia Rumpho: And then I believe Bitty Kitty brought some of their bottle-fed babies.
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Mary Tan: So I think because if you looked at the news coverage of it, and of course, we're going to link to it in our show notes so you can see it, the kittens were a huge part of it because that was the visual.
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Mary Tan: And so, you know, and of course, you know, as all things, everything comes down to a great story, you know, and if you can put urgency into your story and make it kind of dramatic.
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Mary Tan: Some people don't want to do that, but, you know, I've always had the most success in putting like, jazzing it up a little bit, if that makes sense, because we could have just put out a news release that said, you know, we need money and please donate, but instead we focused it on if we don't get some help, you're going to see more kittens on the street and you're going to, you know, horrible things happen to them, as Maia said.
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Maia Rumpho: So, question with that, what's the best way to deliver a maybe not so happy story?
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Maia Rumpho: Like, nobody wants to talk about dying kittens, but like, that is a reality if we don't TNR.
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Maia Rumpho: So how do you deliver that in a way that doesn't just make people want to run and hide under the covers?
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Maia Rumpho: You know, like, how do you deliver that story and make people actually want to help not run away or feel defeated?
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Mary Tan: Okay, so this is an interesting question.
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Mary Tan: We're all about storytelling at Whisker Media.
00:17:01.460 --> 00:17:07.120
Mary Tan: And when I was in news, we always used to say, if it bleeds, it leads.
00:17:07.120 --> 00:17:08.760
Mary Tan: If you're dead, I'm live.
00:17:08.760 --> 00:17:16.920
Mary Tan: And my training as a journalist, news stories, the reporters, they want you to get them to read your story.
00:17:16.920 --> 00:17:23.020
Mary Tan: And if you don't kind of dramatize it, you're not going to get the eyeballs that you need.
00:17:23.020 --> 00:17:26.460
Mary Tan: So you need to, you need to make your story compelling.
00:17:26.460 --> 00:17:33.320
Mary Tan: And when I heard about your story, I'm like, I knew that you could raise a sizable amount of money on your story.
00:17:33.320 --> 00:17:38.820
Mary Tan: And so we wrote the press release, which was pretty straightforward.
00:17:38.820 --> 00:17:49.760
Mary Tan: But I can tell you when I was talking to the reporters to get them to come, I would tell them, you're gonna find dead kittens in dumpsters, you're gonna see them on the street.
00:17:49.760 --> 00:17:54.380
Mary Tan: And so I kind of pumped it up a little, but you have to.
00:17:54.380 --> 00:17:56.540
Mary Tan: And I don't think it turns people off.
00:17:56.540 --> 00:17:58.720
Mary Tan: I think it gives, it's a call to action.
00:17:58.720 --> 00:18:00.620
Mary Tan: And that's what you need to do.
00:18:00.620 --> 00:18:01.560
Mary Tan: And that's what we did.
00:18:01.560 --> 00:18:03.420
Mary Tan: We said, this is urgent.
00:18:03.420 --> 00:18:09.520
Mary Tan: If you don't help us, if you don't donate, you're gonna see, you know, the problem is gonna come to everybody.
00:18:09.520 --> 00:18:12.340
Mary Tan: Everybody's gonna have to deal with these stray kittens.
00:18:12.340 --> 00:18:18.380
Alexane Ricard: I just want to chime in here because Maia, I've got the same struggle as you with a TNR organization.
00:18:18.380 --> 00:18:25.240
Alexane Ricard: It's really hard because you always want to stress how important TNR is and how sad it's gonna be if we don't act.
00:18:25.240 --> 00:18:29.660
Alexane Ricard: And for a press conference, what Mary did was really good, you know, because she called people to act.
00:18:29.660 --> 00:18:36.660
Alexane Ricard: But when you're just trying to fundraise, how do you fundraise without always saying, if you don't give me money, a kitten is gonna die?
00:18:36.660 --> 00:18:41.740
Alexane Ricard: So what we've seen that works for us, it's to give people hope.
00:18:41.740 --> 00:18:47.480
Alexane Ricard: Because if you only show them sad stories, they're gonna stop giving you money because they want to see hope.
00:18:47.740 --> 00:19:04.940
Alexane Ricard: So what you need to do is have a really good story of like a TNR, a success story about TNR, like that little kitten, you manage to sterilize his entire colony, and now that kitten is thriving, and there's not gonna be any more kitten like this one, that's gonna suffer through the streets.
00:19:04.940 --> 00:19:10.540
Alexane Ricard: So that's kind of what we try to do with my organization, is to always give a message of hope at the end.
00:19:10.540 --> 00:19:15.320
Alexane Ricard: And that's what I found made people want to give more money to us.
00:19:15.320 --> 00:19:16.340
Maia Rumpho: Yeah, that makes sense.
00:19:16.740 --> 00:19:18.400
Mary Tan: Alex, you hit on a good point.
00:19:18.400 --> 00:19:25.920
Mary Tan: So this is kind of our personalities too, that I'm kind of more of a drama queen and Alex is more of the subdued.
00:19:25.920 --> 00:19:33.240
Mary Tan: So that is a great way to do it, is to start with the drama, but to keep it going, giving people hope.
00:19:33.240 --> 00:19:35.480
Mary Tan: I think that's a phenomenal thing.
00:19:35.480 --> 00:19:48.660
Mary Tan: So we need to take a break, but when we come back, we're gonna talk with Maia again on some next steps that perhaps we can do to keep the fundraising going and also try to attract grant funders.
00:20:09.260 --> 00:20:10.060
Announcer: See you next time.
00:20:13.420 --> 00:20:14.780
Announcer: Thanks for watching.
00:20:17.380 --> 00:20:18.020
Announcer: We'll see you next time.
00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:19.940
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00:21:12.800 --> 00:21:24.220
Mary Tan: And we're back with Maya from Pet Project Rescue.
00:21:24.878 --> 00:21:32.178
Mary Tan: And Maia focuses on TNR, so she traps cats, she sterilizes them, and then she returns them to their colonies.
00:21:32.178 --> 00:21:36.998
Alexane Ricard: Maia, question, because TNR is very different from rescuing.
00:21:36.998 --> 00:21:43.098
Alexane Ricard: How did you manage to change your organization from rescuing to TNR?
00:21:43.098 --> 00:21:45.758
Alexane Ricard: How did you manage to educate people on that?
00:21:45.758 --> 00:21:46.998
Alexane Ricard: Or how are you doing it?
00:21:46.998 --> 00:21:48.478
Alexane Ricard: What are you struggled about that?
00:21:48.598 --> 00:21:52.118
Alexane Ricard: Because people only want to see rescue, they don't want to see the TNR part of it.
00:21:52.118 --> 00:21:53.598
Alexane Ricard: So how do you handle that?
00:21:53.598 --> 00:21:57.838
Maia Rumpho: Yeah, that was a big concern within the organization.
00:21:57.838 --> 00:22:05.238
Maia Rumpho: A lot of people thought that we would lose a lot of following and support, and actually the exact opposite happened.
00:22:05.238 --> 00:22:08.278
Maia Rumpho: We had a great response to it.
00:22:08.278 --> 00:22:15.598
Maia Rumpho: I think our situation was unique in that in Minnesota, there are a lot of rescues.
00:22:16.078 --> 00:22:22.658
Maia Rumpho: And at the time that we made the full transition back in 2018, there weren't a lot of people doing TNR.
00:22:22.658 --> 00:22:25.138
Maia Rumpho: So we are a bit ahead of the curve in that regard.
00:22:25.138 --> 00:22:28.598
Maia Rumpho: I will say I'm very happy to report that that has changed.
00:22:28.598 --> 00:22:40.758
Maia Rumpho: There are especially, not necessarily organizations doing it, but a lot of community members doing it on their own, which also leads back to why this fundraiser is so important.
00:22:40.758 --> 00:22:45.098
Maia Rumpho: But we've really seen a boom in the number of people helping TNR.
00:22:45.638 --> 00:22:53.118
Maia Rumpho: I think the other thing that helped us is that from the very beginning, we were always heavily involved in spay-neuter programming.
00:22:53.118 --> 00:22:56.058
Maia Rumpho: I got my start actually in rescue in Mexico.
00:22:56.058 --> 00:23:02.538
Maia Rumpho: And so that's a side of PPR that is pretty much solely focused on spay-neuter.
00:23:02.538 --> 00:23:08.878
Maia Rumpho: We do big clinics, we do clinics weekly with our partners in Mexico, even though I'm based in Minneapolis.
00:23:08.878 --> 00:23:11.638
Maia Rumpho: And so it was kind of just a natural transition for us, too.
00:23:11.638 --> 00:23:12.638
Maia Rumpho: It didn't come out of the blue.
00:23:13.378 --> 00:23:17.198
Maia Rumpho: And our TNR program had been in existence since 2009.
00:23:17.198 --> 00:23:22.178
Maia Rumpho: So I think all of those things together, just it made sense.
00:23:22.178 --> 00:23:25.758
Maia Rumpho: And the response from the public was really like a big thank you.
00:23:25.758 --> 00:23:28.138
Maia Rumpho: They were like, thanks for trying to prevent the problem.
00:23:28.138 --> 00:23:29.778
Maia Rumpho: Thanks for getting ahead of it.
00:23:29.778 --> 00:23:32.918
Maia Rumpho: I think people really recognize that prevention aspect.
00:23:32.918 --> 00:23:35.078
Maia Rumpho: And we've had great support.
00:23:35.078 --> 00:23:42.598
Maia Rumpho: That doesn't always translate into dollars though, which I think is where the PR comes in and why it's so important for us.
00:23:42.938 --> 00:23:54.718
Maia Rumpho: To learn and get better at that and really get those stories out so that people do want to give, not just to rescue, but to TNR so we can keep preventing the need for rescue.
00:23:54.718 --> 00:23:57.658
Mary Tan: Maia, maybe you can go to Greece and help Alex.
00:23:57.658 --> 00:23:58.598
Maia Rumpho: I want to.
00:23:58.598 --> 00:24:02.378
Maia Rumpho: Greece is actually huge on my list to do for TNR.
00:24:02.958 --> 00:24:05.458
Maia Rumpho: I have a handful of places.
00:24:05.538 --> 00:24:12.678
Maia Rumpho: I was in Curaçao this last January and February and did some spay-neuter work there and rescue work.
00:24:12.678 --> 00:24:18.818
Maia Rumpho: It was amazing and it just reminded me how much I love to travel and do animal welfare stuff.
00:24:18.818 --> 00:24:19.978
Maia Rumpho: I'm in.
00:24:21.778 --> 00:24:28.818
Mary Tan: What's interesting about Maia's rescue is a lot of the volunteers are actually independent trappers who do it on their own.
00:24:29.018 --> 00:24:31.658
Mary Tan: They're not affiliated with any rescue.
00:24:31.658 --> 00:24:33.538
Mary Tan: But am I right, Maia?
00:24:33.638 --> 00:24:37.598
Mary Tan: That Pet Project Rescue funds their spay-neuter surgeries?
00:24:37.598 --> 00:24:39.618
Maia Rumpho: Yes, as much as we possibly can.
00:24:39.618 --> 00:24:40.198
Maia Rumpho: Yep.
00:24:40.198 --> 00:24:43.078
Maia Rumpho: As much as the dollars allow.
00:24:43.078 --> 00:24:58.658
Mary Tan: So I think the next step in this, and Alex chime in here with some ideas, but I think the next step in this would be for Pet Project Rescue to invite journalists to come with you as you're trapping cats.
00:24:58.658 --> 00:25:04.758
Mary Tan: Because tell us what that looks like to, especially we have a lot of for-profit business owners who listen to this.
00:25:04.758 --> 00:25:07.238
Mary Tan: So this is all new to them.
00:25:07.238 --> 00:25:11.718
Mary Tan: But tell us what the visual aspect is so important.
00:25:11.718 --> 00:25:14.838
Mary Tan: And so what could journalists see?
00:25:14.838 --> 00:25:15.738
Maia Rumpho: Yeah.
00:25:15.738 --> 00:25:19.578
Maia Rumpho: When we trap at colonies, we usually set up a number of traps.
00:25:19.578 --> 00:25:26.498
Maia Rumpho: And ideally, for something that a journalist would be involved in, it would be a large colony, so there would be action.
00:25:26.898 --> 00:25:31.238
Maia Rumpho: Because TNR can sometimes be a sit-and-wait experience.
00:25:31.238 --> 00:25:33.398
Maia Rumpho: It's not always action-packed.
00:25:33.398 --> 00:25:34.438
Maia Rumpho: Sometimes it is, though.
00:25:34.438 --> 00:25:43.398
Maia Rumpho: I mean, we're working with a colony of 40 cats right now in Minneapolis, and it's wild, literally.
00:25:43.398 --> 00:25:45.638
Maia Rumpho: Literally and figuratively, it's wild.
00:25:45.638 --> 00:25:57.178
Maia Rumpho: So yeah, it would just be a matter of setting traps, trapping cats, then we have to transport them out of the area to wherever we're holding them for the night, and then before they go to their surgeries.
00:25:57.178 --> 00:26:13.618
Maia Rumpho: But it's pretty rewarding every time you get a cat, for me at least, even after all these years, you get that cat and my feeling is always, finally, they will not have to go through any of this again, no more litters, no more fighting because they're mating.
00:26:13.618 --> 00:26:18.918
Maia Rumpho: It just feels like every single time you trap a cat, immediately their life is going to be better.
00:26:18.918 --> 00:26:22.838
Maia Rumpho: And that's just such a rewarding feeling for me every single time.
00:26:22.958 --> 00:26:26.738
Maia Rumpho: It keeps me going even in the hard to trap colonies.
00:26:26.738 --> 00:26:39.458
Alexane Ricard: And I think that's something you need to lean on when you do any PR and marketing for Pet Project Rescue is to show the feeling that you get as a person because that's what we always say in PR.
00:26:39.458 --> 00:26:40.698
Alexane Ricard: You need to make it personal.
00:26:40.698 --> 00:26:46.958
Alexane Ricard: You need to make it also about a human so people can relate to your emotion because we can't really relate to cat's emotion.
00:26:46.958 --> 00:26:51.558
Alexane Ricard: You know, I mean, we can as cat parents, but people who don't have cats don't really know cat's emotion.
00:26:51.638 --> 00:26:55.098
Alexane Ricard: But we all know human's emotions and we know how that feels.
00:26:55.098 --> 00:26:59.058
Alexane Ricard: The reward, the feeling of like, okay, I did it.
00:26:59.058 --> 00:26:59.918
Alexane Ricard: I managed this cat.
00:26:59.918 --> 00:27:01.358
Alexane Ricard: It's not going to go through that again.
00:27:01.358 --> 00:27:05.018
Alexane Ricard: Like this, that's what you need to share with the people.
00:27:05.018 --> 00:27:08.318
Alexane Ricard: You need to share your own story about TNR.
00:27:08.338 --> 00:27:09.878
Mary Tan: Absolutely.
00:27:09.878 --> 00:27:14.838
Maia Rumpho: Yeah, I think I have a hard time bringing myself into the equation.
00:27:14.838 --> 00:27:18.118
Maia Rumpho: My focus personally is all about the cats.
00:27:18.118 --> 00:27:24.338
Alexane Ricard: And so yeah, that's a really good point because I get that because I'm completely the same with Amber from Saving Lives.
00:27:24.338 --> 00:27:27.878
Alexane Ricard: We've always been, this is about the cat and this is not about ourselves.
00:27:27.878 --> 00:27:39.958
Alexane Ricard: But it's when we actually started to share a bit about like, who we are, why we do this, how does that impact us, that people really started to follow you because, I mean, in TNR as well, it's not like a rescue.
00:27:39.958 --> 00:27:41.878
Alexane Ricard: You can't really follow like a cat story.
00:27:41.878 --> 00:27:44.018
Alexane Ricard: Like you were talking about Chris and Barry.
00:27:44.018 --> 00:27:47.838
Alexane Ricard: People could really get attached to Barry, the cat and follow Barry's story.
00:27:48.218 --> 00:27:50.518
Alexane Ricard: But in TNR, you don't have one special cat.
00:27:50.518 --> 00:27:58.718
Alexane Ricard: I mean, you might see them again in the streets and feed them again once every few weeks or something, but people can't really get attached to one cat.
00:27:58.718 --> 00:28:07.218
Alexane Ricard: So they can get attached to you and they can relate to you as a person because you're the only consistent thing in TNR, if that makes sense?
00:28:07.218 --> 00:28:08.398
Maia Rumpho: Yes, absolutely.
00:28:08.398 --> 00:28:09.358
Maia Rumpho: That does make sense.
00:28:09.358 --> 00:28:16.558
Alexane Ricard: And I think that's why also, Sterling has been so good on social media is because people can relate to him.
00:28:16.698 --> 00:28:18.498
Alexane Ricard: He's the Trap King.
00:28:18.498 --> 00:28:20.318
Alexane Ricard: People don't know any names of any cat.
00:28:20.318 --> 00:28:22.978
Alexane Ricard: He sterilizes or he traps, but they know him.
00:28:22.978 --> 00:28:29.458
Alexane Ricard: And that's why he gets so much support because him as a person, he's a representation of TNR.
00:28:29.458 --> 00:28:29.698
Mary Tan: Yeah.
00:28:29.698 --> 00:28:40.838
Mary Tan: And just to point out, in case people don't know, we're talking about Sterling Trap King Davis, who is one of the few African-American cat rescuers in this country.
00:28:40.918 --> 00:28:49.458
Mary Tan: So that's a huge, yeah, he always focuses on his, what he's doing.
00:28:49.458 --> 00:28:53.958
Mary Tan: And, you know, yeah, in TNR, it's the people that are more important.
00:28:53.958 --> 00:28:58.338
Mary Tan: Like you're thinking, yeah, the cats, you gotta tell cat stories, but Alex is 100%.
00:28:59.218 --> 00:29:04.658
Mary Tan: You know, the feral cats aren't going to be able to show emotion, but you can.
00:29:04.658 --> 00:29:18.038
Mary Tan: And if you get on there and you show the audience your passion and how you care about this and the ramifications of not getting them spayed or neutered, you're going to have an amazing story.
00:29:18.038 --> 00:29:23.018
Mary Tan: And in the end, everything is about a great story.
00:29:23.018 --> 00:29:33.198
Mary Tan: Because if you look at all the stuff on social media and everything, if you look at your newspapers, your TV news, it's all about a great story.
00:29:33.198 --> 00:29:38.258
Mary Tan: So in the end, it doesn't matter whether you're a for-profit or nonprofit, it's the story.
00:29:38.718 --> 00:29:41.458
Mary Tan: It's the story behind what you're doing.
00:29:41.458 --> 00:29:54.458
Alexane Ricard: And one last thing I want to advise you, Maia, that I've seen that has worked for many rescues is that, especially again, when you do TNR and no cats are constant, it's difficult for people to donate you money.
00:29:54.458 --> 00:30:03.898
Alexane Ricard: But if you do have one rescue story when you do TNR, maybe a cat that really needs help, and then you realize the cat is very social and then you're going to find them a home.
00:30:03.898 --> 00:30:12.898
Alexane Ricard: Even if it's one cat out of a thousand, then take that story because that story is so important because people can follow that story.
00:30:12.898 --> 00:30:16.998
Alexane Ricard: And the money you get from that cat, you can then reuse it for TNR.
00:30:16.998 --> 00:30:19.098
Alexane Ricard: So that's what we've been doing at Saving Lives.
00:30:19.098 --> 00:30:30.978
Alexane Ricard: When we saw that it was just easier for people to donate about one cat, we would do a fundraiser and say in the fundraiser, once we reach the right amount for Vesca, all the rest will be used to trap mutual returns.
00:30:30.978 --> 00:30:34.898
Alexane Ricard: So those cats don't have to go through what this cat is going through.
00:30:35.458 --> 00:30:37.618
Alexane Ricard: And we've had great success doing that.
00:30:37.618 --> 00:30:40.618
Alexane Ricard: So just a little tip as a TNR.
00:30:40.618 --> 00:30:41.638
Maia Rumpho: Yeah, that's it.
00:30:41.638 --> 00:30:44.338
Mary Tan: So Maia, we've come to the end.
00:30:44.338 --> 00:30:50.158
Mary Tan: Tell us how people can get ahold of you and how they can donate to Pet Project Rescue.
00:30:50.158 --> 00:30:53.378
Maia Rumpho: Yeah, you can reach us at petprojectrescue.com.
00:30:54.998 --> 00:31:00.678
Maia Rumpho: We have a fundraiser that is linked on our homepage there for our TNR effort.
00:31:01.018 --> 00:31:06.778
Maia Rumpho: You can also email us at petprojectrescue.gmail.com and check us out.
00:31:06.778 --> 00:31:13.078
Maia Rumpho: You'll see all of our programs on our site, what we do for TNR, what we do in Mexico, all of that.
00:31:13.078 --> 00:31:16.718
Maia Rumpho: And I would love for people to check us out and support our efforts.
00:31:16.718 --> 00:31:25.478
Maia Rumpho: And as we work to provide Minnesota with the resources that needs to spay, neuter, TNR, all of our community cats.
00:31:25.478 --> 00:31:26.878
Mary Tan: That is so awesome.
00:31:26.878 --> 00:31:33.578
Mary Tan: Thank you so much for taking the time to come on our podcast and that is a wrap for this show.
00:31:33.578 --> 00:31:36.858
Mary Tan: We're excited to be doing this for all of you out there.
00:31:36.858 --> 00:31:51.118
Mary Tan: We hope Maia's story and all the other stories of the pet business owners and marketers and PR professionals and journalists that we interview are making life better for you and the animals you're caring for.
00:31:51.118 --> 00:32:06.438
Mary Tan: And if you have a question that you want us to answer, or if you would like to come on the podcast and ask us questions, reach out to us on Instagram or Facebook under the Whisker Report and we'll try to answer it in a future podcast episode.
00:32:06.438 --> 00:32:11.158
Mary Tan: So, as we always say, bar cloud and par smart.
00:32:11.158 --> 00:32:13.018
Mary Tan: See you later, everyone.
00:32:13.018 --> 00:32:18.078
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