Advocacy Strategies

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The most exciting project this new year, is the release of our latest study examining how easy it is for the average person to read and understand animal advocacy literature. Specifically, HRC partnered with VegFund and FARM to evaluate the readability of the most widely distributed vegan outreach pamphlets.

Using honest, direct and accurate language seems simple enough, but when working in the field of animal protection it is anything but. Many of the typical ways of talking about animal issues in the English language are inherently biased against animal interests. Common words and phrases mask animal abuse, reinforce human exceptionalism and dominance, and normalize animal exploitation.

2012 is nearly upon us, and everyone at the Humane Research Council would like to take a moment to thank our donors, volunteers, and clients, as well as everyone who uses our resources to help animals. With your support, in 2011 HRC made huge strides toward our mission of empowering animal advocates to use research to be more effective and help more animals.

It was her last three days. She woke up, alone in her room, and looked out onto the world. She had spent her days trying to sit up and look happy just in case someone looked through the window long enough to catch her eye. But they never did. She’d go to sleep, wake up, and do it again. It was now down to her last few days. Time was running out. After three more days, she would be dead.

As you may know, last year HRC launched our Grassroots Research Fund, which provides up to $5,000 of research services to small animal protection groups. Our goal is to help less-funded groups better understand their audience, measure their effectiveness, and generally improve their advocacy.

Do you know a small organization doing great work for animals? If so, please make sure they hear about HRC's Grassroots Research Fund, the deadline for which is now just one month away (January 1st). The group(s) we select will receive pro bono research projects of up to $5,000 to help them evaluate and improve their work and help more animals. Also, any donations to HRC during the month of December will be earmarked for the Grassroots Research Fund so that we can help even more small groups in 2012. And be sure to check out our two guest blogs from the past month covering the topics of Big Black Dog syndrome and vegetarian/vegan recidivism. Thank you for reading!

In a recent review in ANIMAL PEOPLE, Merritt Clifton responded to the Humane Research Council’s Humane Trends study with questions regarding its validity and usefulness. We appreciate the feedback and are always open to improvement, but we are concerned that some of Mr. Clifton’s critiques were misdirected and that they undervalued the overall usefulness and importance of the Humane Trends study.

In my last article about Big Black Dog Syndrome, I detailed tactics for re-homing black dogs and cats during Halloween.  The color-based discrimination that black dogs and cats face is so deeply engrained within US culture that it is acted upon unconsciously, and is an unalterable aspect of our culture.  However, through education, potential adopters can be made aware of their unintentional biases, increasing the chances that potential adopters will adopt a black dog or cat.  Because education is the key to thwarting the negative effects of Big Black Dog (BBD) Syndrome, this article will explore how even from early childhood, concepts of color – in this case, the color black – are engrained within our social memory.