Humanitarians Creating Kinship: Adopting Rescue Dogs from Russia to Finland

Abstract This anthropological study explores how Finnish rescue dog volunteers importing dogs from Russia to Finland are challenging prevailing notions of humanitarianism and kinship. The study is based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork conducted among volunteers of Viipurin Koirat ry – a Finnish rescue dog organization – operating in Western Russia. The article argues that the volunteers are strategically employing dominant humanitarian practices and reason in order to get the stray dogs adopted. However, this humanitarian reason is subverted by the practice of kinship-making by the volunteers, which turns nameless and abandoned street dogs into fully recognized Finnish family members. This arduous labor of kinship-making is based on ethics of responsibility and care, which is ultimately antithetical to humanitarian ethos based on rights and pity.