Addenda to Swinging Canadian elections keeps the sealers swinging clubs: Animal Alliance of Canada pursues electoral strategy

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:
Addenda to Swinging Canadian elections keeps the sealers swinging clubs:
Animal Alliance of Canada pursues electoral strategy

Commentary by Merritt Clifton
Long before University of Texas at El Paso philosophy
department chair Steven Best became a popular speaker at animal
rights conferences, noted for fiery defenses of “direct action”
vandalism, film maker Stephen Best of Shelburne, Ontario became
quietly known to animal advocacy insiders–and the political
opposition–as one of the most astute strategists in the cause. When
defenders of the seal hunt produced strategy papers, obtained
eventually by news media, Best was repeatedly identified as one of
the voices most essential to isolate and neutralize, even though few
grassroots activists had ever heard his name.
Grassroots activists knew his work. Best’s 1973 documentary
Seal Song, commissioned by the International Fund for Animal
Welfare, “became part of the long-running British television series
Survival,” he remembers. More than that, Seal Song put the annual
Atlantic Canada seal hunt into living rooms worldwide. Eighteen
years earlier, film maker Harry Lillie brought back the first film
of the seal hunt, inspiring an informed few to revive anti-sealing
campaigns that had previously been waged in the early 1900s, late
1920s, and late 1930s, but it was Seal Song that turned the cause
into a cultural phenomenon.

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Raising funds in hard times

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:
Raising money during crises is an area that I have had a
particular interest in since college-not just the impact of the
economy on donations, but also the effects of war, natural
disasters, terrorism and even positive “good feeling” events such
as, for example, the 1969 first human landing on the moon.
Today animal charities are asking, “What impact will the
recession in the United States have on donations?” There is a
prevailing fear that the effects will be considerable. However,
this fear is not well grounded. While recessions have a definite
impact, historically charitable giving, overall, has not declined
during recessions.
Different sectors of donors and potential donors react
differently, and different types of charities are affected
differently.

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Balancing fundraising needs with program work in the developing world

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:
Last year after forwarding our annual accounts to Animal
People for inclusion in your annual Watchdog Report on Animal
Charities, I received a stinging e-mail from editor Merritt Clifton
pointing out that if we wished to survive we simply had to invest
more money in fundraising and marketing. He pointed out that
successful charities usually reinvest between 20% and 30% of their
income on such activities.
Whilst accepting the validity of this statement, I pointed
out that as a small foundation working in the third world, we like
many others depend almost entirely on a few volunteers to do the
work, and with increasing demands on our resources, every cent we
raise goes directly to assisting the animals we help. Working in a
poor community, we are almost entirely reliant on overseas donors.
Although there are many wealthy expatriates living in our region,
most are interested only in making money, not in helping animals.
We would love to employ a high-powered marketing manager on a
six-figure salary, but unfortunately if he did not deliver, that
would be the end of the foundation.

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No need to apologize for helping animals

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:

Once upon a time at the earliest edge of recorded memory,
the earth shook, the sky caught fire, the sea rose, a tidal wave
swept away anything standing, and for forty days and forty nights a
torrential rain and wet ash covered everything left.
The myths of at least 35 ancient cultures representing every
inhabited continent and many remote islands recall that event, in at
least 175 different versions of the story, which appears to be among
the oldest, most ubiquitous, and still among the most popular of
all stories. Many peoples date their history from whatever happened.
The number of human survivors is said to have been anywhere from just
one pregnant woman to 30 scattered individuals –and their animals.

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What empty cages and night killing mean at animal control shelters

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2008:

LOS ANGELES, NEW YORK CITY–Why do animal control shelters
claim they lack space to hold dogs and cats longer before killing
them, yet have empty kennels and cages when rescuers visit?
Why are animals killed at night, if not to conceal the
numbers being killed?
The Los Angeles County Depart-ment of Animal Care & Control
and the New York City Center for Animal Care & Control are each
killing fewer dogs and cats per 1,000 human residents than ever
before in their histories–under seven in Los Angeles, under three
in New York. Each city is well below the current national average of
12.5.

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Whalers spend winter hiding

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2008:
HOBART, TOKYO–Sea Shepherd Conservation Society captain
Paul Watson on March 2, 2008 reported that the crew of the Sea
Shepherd vessel Steve Irwin had pitched two dozen bottles of rancid
butter onto deck of the Japanese whaling factory ship Nisshiin Maru
in Porpoise Bay, off Antarctica.
The stink bomb attack came toward the end of a winter-long
campaign that saw Sea Shepherds, joined at times by Greenpeace and
the Australian coast guard, stalking the Nisshin Maru since the
Steve Irwin sailed from Melbourne on December 5, 2007. The Nisshin
Maru, four whale-catching vessels, and the supply ship Oriental
Bluebird spent most of the winter trying to elude observation,
rather than killing whales. The Japanese coast guard vessel
Fukuyoshi Maru #68 had shadowed the Steve Irwin since January 15,
but was ultimately not able to keep the Sea Shepherds away from the
Nisshin Maru.

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Guest column: Death by economics

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:
Guest column:
Death by economics
by Melanie Jackson
In the world of animal welfare the decision to terminate an
animal’s life is often based on economics rather than the animal’s
overall health and welfare needs.
To avoid depleting budgets more than the seasonal rhythm of
animal control contract payments, donations, and revenue from
adoption and surrender fees can be expected to replenish, shelters
have for decades typically maintained limits on how long an animal
may be held. If the animal is not adopted within that rigid time
period, or transferred to a rescue organization that can focus on
placing hard cases, the animal will be killed to make room for
another animal.

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Who was really behind “Your Mommy Kills Animals”

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:

 

LOS ANGELES–Producing a video about the
animal rights movement in 2005-2006 called Your
Mommy Kills Animals, Minneapolis documentarian
Curt Johnson, 39, spent much of 2007 and may
spend much of 2008 fighting lawsuits for
allegedly misrepresenting the project to both
anti-animal rights investors and animal rights
advocates Shane and Sia Barbi, who are credited
in the video as associate producers.
Johnson lost the first round to Center
for Consumer Freedom founder Richard Berman and
Speakeasy Video company owner Maura Flynn, wife
of former Center for Consumer Freedom employee
Michael Flynn.
Alleging copyright infringement on
January 12, 2007, Berman and Flynn contended
that Johnson violated their intent to produce a
documentary attacking the People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals.

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Editorial feature: Why animal charities need to learn to pass the hat

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:

 

Among the outcomes of sending ANIMAL
PEOPLE to nearly 11,000 animal protection
organizations worldwide, as often as we can
afford the postage, is that we receive constant
inquiries from people who hope we can help fund
proposed projects, or provide introductions to
others who might, or at least publicize a
proposed project in hopes of attracting funders,
even though more than 80% of our readers are
themselves trying to raise funds for their own
worthwhile pro-animal projects.
Probably every reader of ANIMAL PEOPLE
has at least one brilliant idea about things that
could and should be done to help animals, if
only the money was available.
Some of the ideas we hear about are
impractical, ill-conceived, or have already
been tried in other times and places with
disappointing results. Yet many other ideas
presented to us are eminently practical, and
could succeed with adequate investment. The only
obstacle is that the necessary funding is not
easily or immediately available. Someone needs
to go out and raise the funds, by persuading
donors to put their contributions into this
particular project, rather than any of the
myriad others that the typical donor will hear
about between now and the next time the person
has money to give.

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