Interview! Rachel Geller, Certified Humane Education Specialist

We are once again re-visiting an old friend of the podcast—Dr. Rachel Geller, vice president of the Gifford Cat Shelter and certified humane education specialist. As a cat behavior counselor, Rachel has been busy giving talks at various youth organizations to teach children compassion towards animals. She has worked with high-risk children and youth for a long time, teaching not only the importance of empathy towards animals, but also helping to build symbiotic relationships between youth and animals for mutual support. Rachel talks about the different types of humane education programming at Gifford, such as a program where children who lack confidence in reading or speaking aloud come to the shelter and read to a cat—the child gets a non-judgmental audience, and the cat receives some much-needed attention and company!