By
Michelle Rivera -
[email protected]
As an
animal activist, I am inundated, as I am sure every reader of Animal
Writes is too, with action alerts, requests to sign petitions, appeals to
take part in surveys, demands that the e-mail be spread "far and wide" so
as to "get the word out" about this animal or that situation. As I was
complaining during a phone conversation with our publisher, Susan "EnglandGal"
Roghair, about these e-mails that clog up my inbox and take up my
precious time, (as I am sure it does yours), she did what any good
publisher does, she suggested (ok, assigned) I do a little research, as us
journalists are wont to do, and get to the bottom of all these pleas for
action.
First off, let me just say that I am not opposed to local e-mails that go
around among local animal advocates in a small community that alert the
"group" that there is a dog at Animal Control with only three hours left
to live or that there is some commissioner who is scheming behind our
backs to remove gopher tortoises from a proposed land developers' work
site. Those e-mails are necessary, important, and most of all, traceable.
Most of the folks on those forwarded lists know one another. The people
who are saving the manatees know the folks who are saving the Bassett
Hounds and the people who are looking out for alligators know the people
who were all at last week's fund-raiser in Palm Beach to fete the local
feral cat lady. All their names appear on the e-mail list, and the
situation is local and handled locally. It would not make much sense for
me, a Jupiterite, to send an e mail about a puppy found wandering
dangerously close to an alligator hang-out and now needs a home to Karen
Dawn www.dawnwatch.com , a California girl. I mean, unless I am going to
send said puppy to California, what would be the point?
What I am addressing here are other forms of activism, however noble and
feel-good at the time, that are basically useless and have no effect
whatsoever except, possibly, the unintended result of getting your name on
a spammer's list and or an undeserved sense of accomplishment that
substitutes for real work, to wit: I don't have to attend that
demonstration against racing greyhounds next Saturday because I signed an
online petition!
So, here, for your edification, elucidation and education, is the real
deal straight from the horses' mouths.
Those letters asking you to write a congressman or senator out of
state:
I hesitate to address these because so many of them come from
well-respected organizations such as HSUS and Peta, but the truth is, if
you are not a constituent of the congressman or senator being lobbied,
they don't care a wit about what you have to say. In an interview I wrote
for Animal Writes published in 1998, Congressman Mark Foley stated that
his feelings reflect that of other lawmakers who do not want to hear from
those outside his constituency, he only answers to those he represents. So
asking someone from Florida to write to the Governor of Ohio or a
Congressman from Alaska is pretty much an exercise in futility. However,
since we do not want to ignore those pleas from the HSUS and others, there
are some things we CAN do that may help the effort: 1-Contact your own
representative and ask them to co-sponsor the legislation and/or let that
out-of-state lawmaker know that people in your state are watching; this
way, if that out-of-state lawmaker has designs on a higher calling, say, a
run at the presidency, they will know that others have watched their
ascent-remember Mitt Romney? 2-Write a letter to the editor of the paper
where the issue is taking place. Hometown newspapers love to hear from
people in other states, it puts their paper "on the map" and implies that
they are such good newspaper makers, that even when people move to other
states they keep in touch. 3-If you have friends or friends of friends or
family in that state, lobby THEM to lobby their lawmakers. 4 -Of course,
if an issue is taking place in YOUR state, make a big, fat deal about it
and write, call, fax or whatever it takes to get your reps attention.
Those e-mails asking you to sign online petitions:
According to the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Cyber Security,
�"an Internet petition has no validity at all as no
signature can be checked or validated. The other problem with this
petition is that this is the latest way for Internet spammers to get huge
lists of valid e-mail addresses." There, you have it straight from the
horse's mouth, or in this case, the Chief Information Officer of the U.S.
Office of Cyber Security. So when someone asks you to sign an online
petition, don't. I know it's hard not to, especially when the plea
includes an "it will only take a minute of your time" but it's irrelevant
and could do more harm in the way of giving out your information to
spammers.
This does not apply to online surveys which do not ask for your name, only
that you check a box, and the media does occasionally cite these surveys
as in "A survey of internet users shows that 87% oppose seal hunts as
opposed to 13% who are in favor of seal hunts". You may visit the site of
the Office of Cyber Security at
http://ciac.org.
Forwarded e-mails that warn of deadly consequences if not read and
adhered to:
There is nothing wrong with sharing a funny joke or cute poem or
pictures with a few friends, but some e-mails take on a life of their own
and I am constantly surprised at the number of educated people who insist
on perpetuating myths that have long since been busted.
Take the "Swiffer Wet Jet" for example. That hoax has been making the
rounds for years. I found its dire warning yet again in my mailbox,
telling me to avoid using Swiffer Wet Jet because it contains ingredients
similar to antifreeze and will kill my household pets. When I informed the
sender that this was an old hoax, she replied "Oh, well, it's made by
Procter and Gamble and we shouldn't buy those products anyway." Well, true
enough, but those of us who have been in the animal rights movement for
thirty years or more know that the truth is always on our side 100%. One
of our strongest points is that we never have to lie or embellish the
truth. The footage of dolphins being ripped from the ocean for amusement
parks is bad enough, we don't have to add anything. Ditto the slaughter
houses, puppy mills and greyhound race tracks. So when we perpetuate a
rumor about our enemy that is not true, and then defend it by saying we
hate them anyway, it takes away from our credibility.
These e-mails contain everything from A-Z with the animal-related hoaxes
being about 20% of them. Every hoax from the Bonsai kitten (which I still
get outraged e-mails about) to the KFC hoax, the lethal rat urine hoax,
Littermaid killed my cat hoax, rabies in the air hoax and the
kid-with-just-a-head-hoax (ok, that's not animal related but it's really,
really stupid). Please, before you pass on one of those e-mails check out
www.http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/.
As animal activists our job is to educate the community and hopefully
through that education we can effect change. Misinformation is the demise
of any good social movement and ours is no exception. If you like this
article, please go to
www.itsnottrueandthereisnosuchthing.org and sign our online
petition, or put your name and address on the back of a $26 bill and mail
it to Animal Writes, POB 000X, Tampa, FL. Thanks for your support.
<><><><><>
Notice to AW readers: Is there some animal question that has been nagging
at you? For example, did you know that a mother cat can have a single
litter of kittens and all the kittens be from different dads? How is that
possible? Or that snakes can bite after they are dead? How can that be?
If you have questions such as these, send them to me at [email protected]
for an upcoming publication on these and other such questions and help us
to educate the general public so that they may have a deeper understanding
and appreciation of animals. Thanks!
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