Home | Back to Program Schedule
Research/Info Programs
- Sun. 4:30pm
Animals
Voice, DawnWatch, Kinship Circle
Presenters:
Dawn, Shoss, Stram
Brenda
Shoss
Founder/President,
Kinship Circle, www.KinshipCircle.org
Click
here and here for Brenda's printable detailed
handouts (pdf).
Brenda Shoss: Founder/President, Kinship Circle, a nonprofit
organization that gives animal activists tools to communicate.
We provide:
- Weekly Action Campaigns
- Downloadable
Educational Literature
- Design Gallery Of Ideas For
Animal Rights Advertising
- Other Tools To Speak/Write/Present
Influentially On Behalf Of Animals
KC is an online community with subscribers worldwide.
The Internet is an amazing activist tool. It gives us:
- The
electronic means to communicate news and take action
daily.
- The ability to see measurable results for animals.
But a strange thing happened on our way to becoming better
activists…
- We’re over-inundated with information — so
we dash off a petition or alert without verifying claims
of
of animal abuse seen online. If it’s on the Internet,
it must be true!
- Instead of ACTivists, we’re becoming
SLACKtivists.
DO ONLINE PETITIONS MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR ANIMALS?
The
leading tool for today’s slacktivist is: THE
E-PETITION. Online petitions mean well, but don’t
work. Here’s why:
- There is no guarantee e-petitions
reach key decision-makers.
- For any e-petition — someone
must collect and collate signatures to deliver to the
right parties.
Just because you see
a petition on your screen doesn’t mean someone
will actually do that.
- Complex problems aren’t resolved
with online petitions. Lawmakers are not inspired to
pass sweeping reforms because keyboard activists are
mad at them. Ongoing cruelty requires the nuance and
diligence of letter campaigns to decision-makers as circumstances
evolve. Commitment, creativity & persistence
elicit real change.
- Electronic signatures are unverifiable.
With cyber signatures, one person can sign fake names.
Any adept programmer can code petitions to create thousands
of false names. Lawmakers, business leaders, and others
positioned to sway outcomes know this. So, they may toss
e-petitions in the nearest trashcan…
WHAT ABOUT WEB-AUTOMATED LETTERS?
You
go to a website and a letter is prepared in a box. You
enter your name, hit “submit,” and the
letter is sent for you.
Bundled emails sent from one website may be as overlooked
as e-petitions. Washington Post report (2007) shows:
- Lawmakers are so frustrated with volume of emails produced
through interest-group websites — many block emails
that don’t come directly from personal addresses.
- 2005: Congressional Management Institute conducted poll
of 350 congressional staffers. Half did not believe form
letters [from websites] were sent with the knowledge or
approval of constituents.
BOTTOM LINE: YOUR WORDS + THE WAY YOU SEND THEM
ARE WHAT MATTER.
Send it yourself — from
your own email, fax/phone, or mailing address. Subscribers
to Kinship Circle’s
email list receive:
- 1-2 Action Campaigns per week: We research
animal cruelty situations and add relevant statistics,
studies…and
contact info for legislators, business leaders, lawmakers,
and any recipients able to effect change for animals.
- You
get: Well-reasoned SAMPLE LETTER along with address /
phone / fax / emails for where to send it.
- You can: Copy
our letter into the software program of your choice to
modify, print, mail or fax it. All letters are in Word
Docs or PDFS at our website. Or copy our letter into
an email, to send from your OWN email address.
- Ultimately
your comments reach pivotal decision-makers who realize:
Their ties to animal abuse have gained public attention
that can jeopardize their reputation.
- You see: measurable
results. I.E., A cruelty investigation accelerates; an
animal protection bill advances; a university drops live
animal labs; an animal abuser is fired from his job...
- We
UPDATE you about victories, progress & setbacks
relevant to campaigns you participate in.
Your voice really does count. I invite you to be a part
of our circle for animals… You can SUBSCRIBE to
Kinship Circle any time at: subscribe@kinshipcircle.org
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The importance of spending
time online researching specific issues AND researching
actions already taken, so less time is wasted reinventing
the wheel. Being willing to learn some new action,
new direction, new information. Stand on the shoulders
of animal victories, other movement's victories.
Using AnimalsVoice.com as a starting point — 20,000
links, all of which have their own links pages.