HRC Happenings: October Has Been Anything But Scary

I know October is supposed to be a scary month, but at HRC everything is looking great and we have nothing but excitement for the rest of the year. Here is a list of all the great stuff that happened this month:

• Our Facebook page now has over 4,000 fans. Spread the word because we hope to get to 5,000 fans by the end of the year.


• We have launched a new video site featuring our Research Primers in the form of webinars. If you are beginning a campaign dealing with companion animals or vegetarianism be sure to check them out. They will provide you with the current behavioral and attitudinal research on the topics in an easy to access video format.


• We continue to post a new research item to our research database every single day, and to make it easier for people to access that research and our other free resources, we've made the entire website open-access. You no longer need to register to use HumaneSpot.org, but registered users still get perks like access to the search feature of the research database and a weekly email containing research and other relevant information tailored to the animal protection issues you choose.


• The pro-bono research projects awarded through HRC’s Grassroots Research Fund are underway and going well. Don’t forget, applications for the next round of free research grants are due January 1st, 2012, so get your application in soon!

Thank you to everyone who helped HRC win the Microist.org challenge

Each day Microist puts two non-profits up for a vote and whoever gets the most votes is later featured on their website and receives a donation. Earlier this month, HRC was put to the challenge on Microist and you all came through! Thanks to your help, we will have a little extra money to help us continue our efforts to bring animal advocates free and relevant research to improve their advocacy.

What Was Popular in October

HRC's blog, Humane Thinking, is now offering more in-depth series as well as posts from a wider variety of experts. Amanda Leonard has dedicated her advocacy and research to the issue of Big Black Dog Syndrome—the trend of black animals being less likely to be adopted out of shelters. Earlier this month she posted about strategies that can be used around Halloween to help adopt out black cats and dogs. Stay tuned because she will be blogging for us on a monthly basis through the end of the year. Check out her website, The Black Dog Research Studio, to learn more about her research and how to combat Big black Dog Syndrome.

Another popular blog was from HRC’s Director, Anthony Bellotti. He used his advertising expertise to evaluate the effectiveness of animal advocacy advertisements from a research-based perspective. This month, his “Ad Autopsy” focused on advertisements for spay and neuter. Over the next several months he will continue to bring similar ad autopsies from different animal protection campaigns and will discuss what does and does not work.

Our most “liked” Facebook post was a pick-me-up photo essay originally posted by Pet Magazine. One look and you will know why it was popular!

The most “liked” research items posted in our Database this month provided hope for the animal protection community and show that our efforts are paying off. One study conducted by Agriculture Canada finds that support for genetically modified fish and other animals is decreasing among Canadian adults.

In another study, A Comparison of Empathy for Humans and Empathy for Animals, researchers found that, in general, people have just as much empathy for human and nonhuman animals. And the best news of all is that the ban on whaling instituted in 1966 has helped the humpback whale population, which has increased from about 1,400 to over 18,000 whales in the past 40 years.

Volunteer Highlight

This month we want to give a special thank you to our volunteer Tagori Mazzoni, who helped HRC add to our skill set by teaching us how to use video editing software. This has allowed us to launch our new Webinar Series, so that advocates can quickly be updated on behavioral and attitudinal research on a variety of animal protection topics. Tagori is also self-directing another volunteer project for HRC that we will bring you soon!

Do you want to volunteer with HRC? Check out our volunteer opportunities.