The Association Blog

Bullying is running rampant in our industry. It is time to name it, face it, and do something about it.

Bullying is not a new phenomenon in the animal welfare industry. It has always been here, lurking beneath the surface of a field driven by passion, sacrifice, and an almost singular devotion to saving lives. And for too long, we have let it stay there, quietly destroying the people who have given everything to this work.

People who experience bullying in animal welfare and don’t speak up often stay silent out of fear. Fear that animals will suffer if they lose their position, fear of retaliation, fear of becoming the next target. So, they absorb the behavior, carry it home, and return the next morning to do it all over again.

I am no longer willing to stay quiet about it.

It Happened to Me

I want to share something that happened to me recently. Not for sympathy, but because calling out these experiences is the only way we can begin to change them.

During a recent phone call, I was called an expletive, a vulgar name for female genitalia, and told to shut my mouth. My offense? I was unable to fulfill an organization’s request due to insurance and policy guidelines.

Bissell Pet Foundation’s Fix the Future program provides for contract veterinarians who bring HQ-HV spay/neuter to areas where it is needed the most. The catch is that the veterinarians can only be deployed to host organizations that have signed agreements, certificates of insurance that specifically name us, and are part of the actual program. In the instance I’m sharing here, the group responsible for the spay/neuter event was not a host organization, and therefore, could not legally be approved. When I held the line, I was threatened with a social media smear campaign and “exposure” if I did not comply. In my 18 years in animal welfare, I have never been spoken to that way.

And I am certain I was not the first woman that person has treated like that. He will do it again.

I am extraordinarily fortunate. My organization’s leader was appalled, and stood by my decisions immediately and without hesitation. I did not have to fight alone.

Not everyone in this industry can say the same, and that is the part that keeps me up at night.

This Is Not an Isolated Problem

While there is no national census of bullying in animal welfare, we know this: Women make up more than 80% of the animal welfare workforce. I mention this figure because the type of conduct that was directed at me, and at countless others, is disproportionately aimed at women. It is gendered, it is calculated, and it is wrong.

Shelter employees across the country deal with bullying on a regular basis. The bullying comes from potential adopters. It comes from volunteers. It comes from partner organizations and, sometimes, from within their own leadership. Staff report threats from community members, coordinated social media smear campaigns, and targeted harassment, much of it sustained and public. And in most cases, they have to face it without institutional support.

The reason shelters often do not call out bad behavior publicly is simple and heartbreaking: They need their communities to keep coming through their doors. They need donors. They need volunteers. They need the public to trust them. So, they absorb the abuse in silence to protect the animals, and the cycle continues.

What This Is Actually Doing to People

We need to be honest about the cost of this silence. Research on workplace bullying and targeted harassment is unambiguous. The effects are serious, lasting, and in some cases, life-altering.

Bullying causes anxiety, depression, and chronic low self-esteem, particularly damaging in a field where the majority of workers already identify as introverts and may struggle to advocate for themselves. It causes social withdrawal, insomnia, headaches, fatigue, and gastrointestinal distress. Over time, it erodes a person’s ability to trust others, contributes to post-traumatic stress, increases the risk of substance abuse, and in the most serious cases, is associated with suicidal thoughts.

Long-term effects persist well after the bullying stops. The trauma does not clock out when the shift ends. It follows people home, into their families, into their mental health, into the rest of their lives. These are the people we entrust with the lives of animals. And we are doing almost nothing to protect them.

Leadership is not exempt from responsibility here. In many organizations, leaders look the other way, afraid of losing donors, afraid of being targeted themselves, afraid of losing high-performing employees who are also the source of the problem. That kind of institutional cowardice leaves workers exposed and tells bullies that their behavior has no consequences.

We must stop treating this as a cost of doing business in animal welfare. We have to do better. And I believe we can.

Here Is Where I Am Starting — I Hope You Will Join Me

I am not interested in writing about a problem without offering a solution. So here are two commitments I am making, and two I am asking you to consider making alongside me.

1. Do not participate in smear campaigns

Are you tired of hearing that people don’t trust animal shelters? I am. Every smear campaign that plays out online adds to that distrust. We are not just airing grievances; we are eroding public confidence.

Working out policy disputes, employment conflicts, or organizational grievances in public, on social media, in comment sections, through whisper networks, is destructive. It harms individuals. It harms organizations. And it harms the entire animal welfare field. It has to stop. Please join me in committing not to participate in smear campaigns.

2. Become a Crown Fixer

I recently heard this term for the first time, and I have not been able to stop thinking about it. A Crown Fixer is someone who lifts others up. They celebrate their peers’ achievements, offer encouragement in private, and show up when someone is struggling. They do not humiliate publicly. And when they see someone being bullied, they don’t look away — they step forward.

We know that more than 80% of our peers are women. Yet men, you are part of this too — Crown Fixing is for everyone. But in a field where women are the overwhelming majority of the workforce and a disproportionate share of the targets, we have an obligation to each other. We do not have to choose between being passionate and being kind. We can be both. We must be both.

Enough Is Enough

As animal welfare leaders, you know that the people working in animal welfare have chosen one of the most emotionally demanding professions that exists. They witness suffering. They make impossible decisions. They work long hours for modest pay because they genuinely believe that every animal deserves a chance. They deserve to do that work in a safe environment — safe from harassment, safe from threats, safe from the kind of degrading, gendered abuse that far too many of them have come to accept as normal.

It is not normal. It is not acceptable. And it will not change until more of us say so out loud.

I am saying it. I hope you will too.