The Inner Herd
Building Extremely Human Animal Care, together.
The Inner Herd is a paid membership tier of Fortifyu.
Members get full access to research-backed essays, downloadable resources and frameworks, bonus podcast episodes, and the knowledge that their support directly funds independent research on moral injury in animal care.
What The Inner Herd Is
The cost of this work is real, and for a long time, no one in research had the language for it. That's changing. The Inner Herd is where the people committed to that change come together.
This is a community of animal care workers, researchers, advocates, and the clinicians, friends, and family members who hold them. Members get the writing, the research, and the resources I produce. The Inner Herd is accessed through Fortifyu’s Substack Human + Animal. While some content is free for any subscriber to Human + Animal, paid Inner Herd members get the full archive, member-only resources, bonus podcast episodes, and directly support independent research.
What You Get
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Every paid essay, research note, and field dispatch on Human + Animal, past and future, for as long as you're part of the Herd.
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Downloadable tools, worksheets, and reflective practices designed specifically for the people doing this work. The library grows over time.
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Member-only episodes from This Too Is Rescue — extended conversations, behind-the-scenes from research, and audio that doesn't appear in the public feed.
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Your subscription funds the studies, open-access publication fees, IRB protocols, and the work of getting findings into the world where they can change practice. This research exists because of members like you.
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When you reply to my emails, I read them. What resonates with you shapes what I write next. The Inner Herd isn't a content library — it's an unfolding conversation, and you're part of it.
Why Your Support Matters
Independent research on moral injury in animal care doesn't get funded by traditional channels. There are no grants or funding sources for independent research work yet. The papers, the open-access fees, the IRB protocols, the conferences, the data collection — each research study costs thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, and those costs have to be funded somehow..
The Inner Herd is one of the ways it gets funded.
When you join, not only do you get access to materials that will help you personally, but your subscription also goes directly to funding the next study, the next paper, the next framework, the next workshop, the next piece of writing that puts language on what people in this field have always known. You're not just getting access to content — you're making the content possible.
Pricing
Monthly $10/month
Full Inner Herd access, billed monthly. Cancel anytime.
Best for trying it out.
Annual · $100/year
Same access, billed yearly. Saves $20 versus monthly.
Best value for ongoing members.
Keeper of the Herd $240/year
The founding tier, for members who want to provide additional support. Keepers get everything in the Inner Herd and the lasting recognition of being among the people who made this work possible from the foundation up.
Free Subscriber
For those who are not yet ready to join the Inner Herd, you can still subscribe to the free tier of Human + Animal. You will receive occasional essays and posts and can upgrade to a paid membership at any time.
Who I am
I'm Dr. Jamie McNally, a researcher, licensed clinician, military veteran, and founder of Fortifyu Consulting. I'm a Veterinary Social Worker/Veterinary Mental Health Professional, and my work focuses on moral injury in animal care: the wound that comes from doing, witnessing, or being unable to prevent acts that violate your deepest values.
For the last several years, I've been building the research foundation for a field that has long known something was wrong but lacked the language and data to name it. My published work appears in peer-reviewed journals and I’ve developed the MIRA framework, a theoretical model of moral injury.
I write here at the intersection of moral injury, animal care, and force-free philosophy — the conviction that compassionate care should extend to humans and non-human animals alike.
Frequently Asked Questions
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I publish when there's something worth saying, not on a fixed schedule. Inner Herd members know that new member content releases intermittently, as my research program and consulting work allows for it. But when materials DO drop for the Inner Herd, they are pieces that carry real value.
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Yes. Membership is managed entirely through Substack and you can cancel from your account settings at any time.
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Free subscribers get public essays and field dispatches in their inbox. Inner Herd members get the full archive, member-only resources, bonus podcast episodes, and direct support of the research. Inner Herd members will also get first-access to new courses as well as occasional discounts on additional services or products throughout the year.
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Keepers are founding members who choose to contribute beyond the standard Inner Herd tier. They receive the same access to all member content; the difference is solely that they have the means and the desire to provide additional financial support for this work.
Inner Herd pricing is kept intentionally low so it doesn't present a barrier to entry for those who want access to these resources but cannot otherwise afford a higher rate. Keepers are members who have the ability to pay more and believe in funding this mission, helping ensure that the research, writing, and resources continue regardless of who can or can't pay at full cost.
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On Substack, at humanplusanimal.substack.com. When you subscribe, you'll receive new posts by email and can browse the archive anytime by section (Essays, Research Notes, Resources, Bonus Audio, The Field).
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Yes! Substack supports gift subscriptions. You can gift a subscription to the Inner Herd here.