ANNOUNCING THE REBIRTH OF THE ANIMALS' VOICE MAGAZINE.
REMEMBER: THE POWER OF THE PRESS BELONGS TO THOSE WHO OWN ONE. EVEN IF
IT'S ONLINE.
Hello friends.
Some of you know me, but perhaps most of you don't, so
allow me to introduce myself and The Animals' Voice Magazine. If you're
already familiar with the publication, you can skip this introduction
and go directly to http://www.animalsvoice.com where you'll find the
magazine reborn on the Internet. You'll find there more than 100 pages
of editorial, as many images, and nearly 200 outside links. This
introduction will give you an overview of what The Animals' Voice
Magazine was, what it has become, and where we know it's going.
Like its print version, your news is our news. We are
still all about expos�s, global networking, and moving the heart a bit
closer to truth. We invite you to check out www.animalsvoice.com right
now, and then let us know how we can further help you help animals
(reciprocal links, editorial and photographic contributions,
advertising, reaching our database of activists, groups, the media,
legislators, the clergy, et al, with your message of animal defense).
If you help us (by word-of-mouth advertising, exchanging
ads with us on your web site or newsletter, letting your readership or
members know about us, etc.), we'll help you in return. And that makes
us a team, which is what we need to be!
Oh, and don't worry about seeing graphic photography.
These times and the Internet were made for us. Unless you CHOOSE to (ah,
yes, the magic of "rollover images"), you won't see anything graphic on
any page of the web site.
HISTORY
I founded and then began producing "The Animals' Voice" out of my
typewriter, on my living room coffee table, back in 1982. I had the
four-page black-and-white "newsletter" photocopied, then circulated
among the rural countryside of upstate New Jersey. Its mission was to
provoke unprecedented discussion about a little known but growing
concept: that animals, differing from humans only in degree but not in
kind, had inherent rights, among them the right to freedom from human
exploitation.
In its first year of humble production, The Animals'
Voice played a critical role in turning New Jersey into a steel-jawed
trap-free state. Its uncompromising position on behalf of animals,
coupled with its in-depth investigative editorial, was as informative as
it was transformative. It then took on a life of its own (and I became a
means to its end).
A full-color, global networking magazine was born. It
never retreated from its position of being an effective voice on behalf
of animals: from activist frontlines to the hidden recesses of animal
abuse and exploitation, from bullfighting to bear-baiting, veal crates
to vivisection. And its truth-telling presence on the world stage
brought the wrath of its adversaries for hitting too close to home ("If
nothing has got you fired up yet to stop the animal rights movement,"
Trapper and Predator Caller warned its readership, "then this magazine
should.").
The magazine also gave birth to activist organizations
in remote corners of the globe. Hong Kong's first animal rights
organization, for example, credited The Animals' Voice Magazine with its
inception. There are now a couple of animal defense organizations
thriving there.
For 11 years, the international Animals' Voice Magazine
topped the charts in publishing excellence, both in design and
editorial, taking the 1990 Maggie Award for Best Overall Issue in
Politics and Current Affairs. Spearheaded by its Board President Sudhir
Amembal, the magazine was the first, and only, of its kind to be
commended by a mainstream audience.
But such a position is costly, both in terms of finances
and in taxing the environment (even though we used recycled paper in its
later years). And the amount of money it took to reach the amount of
people we did was dismaying at best. So, after more than a decade of
production, The Animals' Voice Magazine opted to merge with its sister
publication, The Animals' Agenda, an equally strident activist
periodical, and thereby effectively shut down the presses.
I then turned my focus to the Internet. For a third of
the cost, one can reach ten times as many people, and all without paper.
So Amembal and I have teamed up again. I taught myself
web design (and that wasn't without heartache in itself!), and with his
backing, we have launched AnimalsVoice Online, everything the print
magazine was, and more! This first-rate web site (at least we think so)
contains the same timely news, current and eloquent commentary,
priceless in-depth investigative reports, compelling prose and poetry,
and thought-provoking philosophy, as well as award-winning design and
powerful (and sometimes) graphic photography.
With your support, our site will also feature an
annotated anthology of humane thought, an extensive resource section of
books, film, media and legislative contacts, animal defense
organizations and their propaganda, links to hundreds of groups and
related sites, as well as selected, timeless highlights from the pages
of The Animals' Voice Magazine's eleven-year reign.
We also have two sister sites in the plans, one on the
celebration of animals and nature (www.coyotenation.com), and the other
on animal rescue and sanctuary (www.kingdomkeepers.net).
Future plans also include the inclusion of video
spotlights of animal issues and interviews, musicians' audios, artistic
and photographic gallery exhibits, and live, online chats with
celebrities and activists from around the world. A grassroots section,
interactive bulletin board, and photographic archive will make
AnimalsVoice Online the single most powerful Internet tool for animal
activists and newcomers worldwide, bar none.
The goal of AnimalsVoice Online is to become an Internet
"household" word. But we want to reach far and beyond the animal defense
community. We want it to be THE place to go regarding information about
animal rights, its defenders, and the critical issues affecting animals.
We want the mass media to use it. We want Congress to use it. We want
the global clergy to use it. We want university libraries to use it. And
we're not stopping there, either.
We want to turn every visitor to www.animalsvoice.com
into an activist.
Stop on by: www.animalsvoice.com the online magazine for
animals. The power of the press still belongs to us.
Thanks for "listening."
Laura A. Moretti, Executive Editor
The Animals' Voice
1354 East Ave #252
Chico, CA 95926
530-343-2498
email: [email protected]
web: www.animalsvoice.com
Go on to
Dedicated To A Nameless Bull by [email protected]
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