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How to Start an Animal Advocacy Group and Get Results: Lessons from Pennsylvania Voters for Animals · The Animal Advocate

0:00
Welcome back to the Animal Advocate. Last week, we talked about
0:04
retail pet sales bans and how they reduced the demand for
0:07
puppy mill dogs. We explored the policy arguments and
0:11
the legislative landscape. But understanding the policy is
0:15
one thing. Actually making change happen in your community,
0:19
that's where so many people get stuck. They think they can't really do
0:23
anything to change things. Today's guest is here
0:27
to show you otherwise. You can do this. And she's
0:30
going to tell you how step by step.
0:37
Welcome to the Animal Advocate, where we arm animal
0:40
lovers with the information and inspiration you need to become
0:44
effective advocates. I'm your host, Penny Ellison,
0:48
and I've taught animal law and advocacy at the University of Pennsylvania
0:51
since 2006. If you've ever thought
0:55
someone should do something, I'm here to guide you
0:59
on your journey to being that someone. You can
1:03
find us on the web@animaladvocacyacademy.com
1:07
and that's where you'll find show notes and resources, and you can
1:11
send us your comments on episodes and ideas for topics you'd like to
1:14
hear on future shows. So on to today's
1:18
topic.
1:24
Suzanne Gonzalez is the founder of Pennsylvania Voters for Animals,
1:27
and her story is exactly what aspiring advocates need to hear.
1:32
She and her friends formed a nonprofit, set clear
1:35
priorities, built strategic partnerships, and started
1:39
at the local level. And they won. Easton,
1:43
Pennsylvania, now has an ordinance that bans the sale of almost all
1:47
live animals in pet stores, not just puppies, but a
1:50
comprehensive ban that goes further than almost any other municipal
1:54
ordinance. What makes Suzanne's story so
1:57
valuable isn't. Just that they succeeded. It's how they did it,
2:01
with no prior experience, limited resources, and
2:05
a practical approach that any group of committed advocates could
2:09
replicate in their own community. So whether you're
2:13
thinking about starting your own advocacy organization or. Or you're wondering
2:16
how to turn your passion for animals into concrete policy change,
2:21
let's hear from someone who's been exactly where you are and proved that
2:25
you don't need all the answers. Before you begin, you just need to start.
2:29
Welcome, Suzanne. We're so excited to have you on the podcast. Oh,
2:33
thank you so much, Penny. I am honored to be here.
2:37
Suzanne is the co founder of Pennsylvania Voters for
2:41
Animals, which is a grassroots organization working on local
2:44
ordinances in support of animal issues. And my first question
2:48
is, what gave rise to this organization? What. What was your
2:51
idea? Oh, thank you, Penny. About 10 years ago,
2:55
when I retired, I just decided
2:59
that I wanted to dedicate whatever time I have left,
3:02
I want to work to help make this
3:06
World a better place for animals. I had worked for years as
3:10
a nurse and worked in the pharmaceutical industry and
3:14
had an awareness of animal use by
3:17
pharmaceutical companies, animal use and research, entertainment,
3:20
et cetera. And so I thought, I need to do
3:25
more. And so my sons actually were
3:28
already vegan. For a number of years, I was vegetarian.
3:32
But when I retired, I said, I am truly dedicating my
3:36
life to animals and people, of course, but predominantly
3:39
animals, because I saw such a tremendous need and an opportunity.
3:43
So what I did was I volunteered for different animal welfare
3:47
organizations. I've gotten involved with different rescues,
3:51
in particular a rescue in Montgomery county
3:55
that actually rescues dogs from puppy mills. So I had that
3:59
experience and still do to this day. I've also
4:03
rescued farmed animals. And so I've had that
4:07
firsthand experience of seeing firsthand the suffering,
4:11
looking at into the eyes of the animals who are being
4:15
used by humans for food. So I had that experience as well.
4:20
And through this, I saw an
4:23
opportunity to form a grassroots
4:26
organization that is really powered
4:30
by people. And that's what I did not see.
4:34
And, you know, maybe I just was in a little bubble,
4:38
even volunteering with these other bigger organizations. But
4:41
it felt as though we had such an opportunity
4:45
to get people engaged in this movement.
4:49
So I started doing some due diligence, looking
4:53
at, you know, what are different organizations that I could
4:56
form. And I found one group in particular
5:00
in New York called Voters for Animal Rights.
5:05
And I reached out to their president, Allie Taylor,
5:08
and I spoke with her and she was
5:12
incredible, so helpful. And she said,
5:15
suzanne, it sounds like you want to form a
5:18
501C4 similar to voters for Animal Rights.
5:22
So of course, I really didn't have any awareness of what a
5:25
501C4 was as compared to a
5:28
501C3. So she recommended that I reach out
5:32
to an organization called Animal Defense
5:35
Partnership. And they are comprised of animal
5:39
rights attorneys predominantly, and they will actually
5:43
help you pro bono to navigate through the
5:47
process. So they were incredibly helpful. I did
5:51
determine that a 501C4 was the way to
5:54
go. And 501 is a
5:57
nonprofit, but the difference is they
6:01
are considered a social welfare organization. And
6:05
as such, a 501C4 can actually
6:08
lobby or advocate for stronger
6:12
laws. So not just animal protection, but it
6:16
basically is any legislation that really
6:19
benefits the community, benefits people, and animals
6:23
are considered included because they are part of our community.
6:27
And so you can lobby for stronger
6:31
legislation either at the federal level, the state level,
6:35
or at the local level. Additionally, you
6:38
can inform voters about the Voting process,
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you can actually educate people on how to register to
6:47
vote, how. And very importantly, as an
6:50
organization, you can endorse candidates.
6:54
So that appealed to us or me at that time,
6:58
because I thought, you know, especially if you want to make that
7:02
commitment to really focus on stronger
7:05
legislation, that you also want to
7:09
be able to understand, you know, the legislative process
7:13
and understand the whole that
7:16
drives the legislative process. So looking at
7:20
your legislators, looking at candidates who are running for office,
7:24
to really understand what's their position.
7:28
If someone has already been elected to office, looking at their
7:32
history, how do they vote? Have they sponsored animal
7:35
protection laws? And then for candidates, people who are
7:39
running for office, what are their thoughts? Like, what
7:43
are their plans to include animals in their
7:46
work as a legislator? Most shelters, rescues,
7:50
they're all 501C3s, which means they can do some of
7:54
that work, but they can't spend much money on, for instance, a
7:57
lobbyist or. And they can't really endorse candidates. So a
8:00
501C4 is meant to be more sort of a political voice for
8:04
animals. That's such a great way to frame that pending. The
8:08
other really important point is that a
8:11
501 donations made to that
8:15
501 are not tax deductible. That's the downside.
8:19
That is a downside. But we were willing to take that
8:23
downside with having that empowerment to
8:26
move legislation forward or lobby for stronger
8:29
legislation. So I was fortunate enough
8:33
to know three individuals who were
8:37
on a seat similar journey, not retired, but
8:41
dedicated to working with animals,
8:45
rescuing, volunteering, and we came
8:48
together over the past, you know, 10 years or so.
8:52
And when I approached them with my idea
8:56
for Pennsylvania voters for animals, they jumped on it.
9:00
So that was really the beginning. In 2023, I filed
9:04
our application, our application to become a
9:06
501C4, and we received our tax exempt letter
9:10
in June of 2024, and we
9:14
officially kicked off in October of
9:17
2024. So it's a year. So you've only been doing this a year and you're
9:20
already seeing some success. That's fantastic. Yeah. But
9:24
in summary, it truly is a
9:28
labor of love and commitment to animals
9:32
here. That is a great story and I think really inspirational for
9:36
listeners because I think a lot of people, especially currently,
9:39
feel kind of powerless. And you're saying, you know, you're not powerless, especially if you
9:43
start acting on the local level. And I think recognizing,
9:46
I have also spoken to that New York group that you mentioned, the New York
9:50
Voters for Animals. And I think that when you operate a
9:53
501C4 and these kind of political advocacy campaigns.
9:57
You have to go beyond an argument that says
10:02
this piece of legislation is good for animals and it's fair and
10:05
it's just and it's humane. And you have to kind of
10:09
recognize that most politicians, like most people are
10:13
self interested and you have to do things like you're talking about to
10:16
say we're going to endorse candidates and we have
10:20
members in our organization that are your constituents and they're going to
10:24
know whether you co sponsored this bill and whether you voted for it.
10:27
And I think that's such an important part of the process is that
10:31
I know in Pennsylvania legislators get thousands
10:35
and thousands of bills are proposed and very few of them get passed.
10:38
And they have to know that this is something
10:42
that their constituents are prioritizing. Yeah, that's such
10:46
an excellent point, Penny. One of our board members, Karen
10:49
Winkler, will often say how she approaches her legislators
10:53
is she'll say, animals are important to me
10:57
and as your constituent, I want them to be important to
11:01
you. That's great. And so that's really
11:05
foundational to our organization that we, this
11:09
is the messaging that we say that
11:13
our stakeholders as Pennsylvania voters for animals
11:16
are the animals. They're not the donors, they're not
11:20
legislators, they're not lobbying groups, they're the
11:24
animals. That's who we are held accountable
11:28
to. And there are so many ways in which animals
11:31
need our help and need stronger laws. So I'm sure when the
11:35
four of you got together to get started, you. Had to figure out what
11:39
are our. Priorities going to be? Because we can't do everything. We're a small
11:43
organization. So how did, how did you set some priorities?
11:46
We sat around, we had a brainstorming session and we
11:50
said between the four of us, we had over 20
11:53
years experience in animal
11:57
rescue, in volunteering for organizations.
12:01
And we said the one thing that really just rang true
12:05
to all of us is that we need to do something first
12:08
and foremost to shut down the
12:12
puppy mill to pet store pipeline. As I
12:15
mentioned, I do volunteer for Wonderful Rescue
12:19
and they rescue primarily from puppy mills. And I did have
12:23
the privilege of going with the, the founder
12:26
to several puppy mills and I saw firsthand. So
12:30
we knew as a group, we said, we've got to do this. We've got to
12:34
prioritize ending the sale of dogs
12:37
in pet stores and hopefully someday
12:41
shutting down puppy mills. However, that said,
12:45
as we started to do our due diligence, looking
12:49
at really getting an understanding of what does that look
12:52
like and what we found is yet, yes,
12:56
puppy mills are horrendous. However, there are cat
13:00
mills, there are fish mills, there are bird
13:03
mills, there are reptile mills, there are amphibian mills,
13:07
there are small mammal mills. There's
13:11
no difference in the level of
13:14
suffering, of neglect. It's abysmal
13:18
the conditions that these animals are kept in. So
13:22
it's not just puppies that are suffering or their parents
13:26
that are suffering. It's all animals that are sold
13:30
in these retail pet store chains
13:34
are coming from commercial breeding operations.
13:38
That's interesting because there has been, as I know you know, a bill
13:42
pending at the state level in Pennsylvania to ban the
13:45
Victoria's law to ban the sale of, I think it's dogs and cats
13:49
and sometimes it may include rabbits. Yes. But they don't go out to
13:53
all the species that you're talking about. So you decided based on what you
13:56
learned that, you know, if you go into a pet store now, you
14:00
might not see puppies, but you might see guinea pigs and chinchillas
14:04
and ferrets and fish. And you would like to ban the
14:08
retail sale of all animals. Exactly. And so
14:12
we did look into, and we are highly supportive of its
14:15
House Bill 1816, which is victorious law, because we do
14:19
feel we have to start somewhere at the state
14:23
level. However, that said, we
14:26
also looked at ourselves as how do we differentiate
14:30
from the other organizations who are also fighting for
14:33
stronger animal laws or welfare laws or protection laws
14:37
in Pennsylvania? And so what we did was
14:40
we said, we're going to fight for
14:44
all animals. We're not going to set up
14:47
boundaries over, you know, who suffers more,
14:51
because they all are. And our position is
14:54
we are going to advocate for everyone.
14:58
So the retail pet store bans we
15:02
looked at, where can we start? So we did take a
15:05
strategic approach to this and we said, let's start at the local
15:09
level. We will always support state level laws that are really
15:13
working to end animal suffering. But we
15:16
looked at where's the opportunity here? And with over
15:20
2,500 municipalities in Pennsylvania
15:25
and with 15 pet sales
15:28
ordinances that have been enacted to date, we have a
15:32
lot of work to do. So we said, this is what we're going
15:36
to do. We're going to work on setting precedent
15:39
by working to have pet sales
15:43
bans at the local level that include
15:46
all animals. That's great. As you know, since you
15:50
and I have consulted some, I am a big fan of starting locally,
15:54
both because, for a lot of reasons, because it feels more manageable to people,
15:58
because a small group of individuals is Much
16:01
more important to a local legislator who doesn't have as many constituents.
16:05
So you might not need as big of a group to get movement on that.
16:09
And it's a precedent. It starts the ball rolling
16:12
and gives you momentum if you then want to go for a state law.
16:16
Absolutely, Penny. So we decided, we did
16:20
establish five other initiatives that we
16:24
want to work on as well and are, however,
16:28
because we are so small, we said, let's
16:31
prioritize our initiatives. And our number one
16:35
focus is the local ordinances to get these enacted
16:39
that will ban the sale of all
16:43
animals in retail pet stores. So we came up with our
16:47
list of six initiatives. We worked to prioritize
16:51
our number one, which I just shared. And so we
16:54
started to look at, you know, where might we start? And
16:58
so one of our board members, Cheryl Petrillo,
17:02
she's a force to be reckoned with. She had already worked on
17:06
getting four pet sales ban ordinances
17:10
enacted in Allentown, Easton,
17:13
Bethlehem and Forks Township.
17:17
And so they were predominantly.
17:21
It was the dogs, cats, rabbits. And then
17:24
three of the four enacted actually expanded the ordinance to include
17:28
guinea pigs. So we thought, okay, you know, these are
17:32
obviously municipalities that are open to
17:36
considering adding more animals. So we
17:40
went to city of Easton, or Cheryl did actually reached out to
17:44
Councilwoman Tyba Sultana, and she asked
17:47
Councilwoman Sultana, would you sponsor an expanded
17:51
ordinance for the city of Easton, including all
17:54
mammals, reptiles, amphibians, species, birds and fishes.
17:58
And again, this is historic. This is a novel
18:02
concept in the state of Pennsylvania. So
18:05
Councilwoman Sultana jumped on it and we did
18:08
give testimony at the first meeting.
18:12
And I will share. It was an interesting experience
18:16
for me because this is my first attempt. Cheryl had already had
18:20
ordinances under her belt. For me, it was, it was new.
18:23
So what did you learn? What did you learn? So much. I
18:27
was prepared, I have to say. I had been, you know, I
18:31
studied their existing ordinance. I also built the
18:35
rationale why this was so important. So I, I took
18:39
an approach that it's like, benefits consumers, so it
18:42
benefits their constituents, benefits animals, and it also benefits.
18:46
It protects our ecosystems. So it was a multi pronged
18:50
approach. Too, because people dump animals that they don't want anymore
18:54
and you're trying to protect reptiles and amphibians and. Yeah,
18:58
and so I did, just for, you know, people to keep in mind
19:01
that I was able to back up all
19:05
of my, you know, arguments, if you will, with data.
19:09
So I had articles that were relevant to
19:13
Pennsylvania and recent. So what
19:16
I did, I did encounter is I did get pushback I
19:20
mean, and rightfully so. Rightfully so.
19:24
I mean, there was a lot to digest because
19:27
they're going from a dog, cat, rabbit, guinea pig,
19:31
to now let's include everyone in,
19:35
you know, an amended ordinance. And so the
19:39
other part of this, Penny, as I know you can understand and
19:42
your, your listeners as well, is that we also
19:46
have to deal with, as animal advocates and animal
19:49
activists, speciesism. So it is
19:53
hard for people to understand that a
19:56
reptile or an amphibian, fish,
20:00
birds, that they suffer. It's
20:03
really hard for people to understand that
20:07
they suffer. They suffer like your dog or
20:11
your cat, people don't. Other mammals, you can look
20:15
into the eyes and it reminds you of your dog. But you know, fish and
20:18
birds and amphibians, people don't feel that way about usually. So
20:22
that was the biggest, I don't want to say opposition, but it
20:26
was the questioning that I was receiving.
20:29
And again, like I said, bring it on, like, rightfully
20:33
so. I'm here to speak on behalf of the animals and
20:37
your consumers, your constituents and
20:41
our ecosystems, because I live in Pennsylvania and I know
20:44
what's happening. And so I took that approach.
20:48
I welcomed their questioning, but I'm a very
20:51
transparent person. There was some real vitriol,
20:55
if you will. There was just questioning
21:00
why is this so important and why do we need to do this
21:04
now? And so I was able to respond
21:08
professionally and. But, but I was prepared.
21:12
We also had support from Rose Lupicolo,
21:15
who is an executive director with the center for
21:19
Animal Health and Wellness and they are in Easton.
21:24
So she was that to support your argument that the animals are
21:27
suffering in conditions. Okay. And she shared, and this
21:31
is all public record, she shared in her testim that she
21:35
had actually worked for a time in a
21:39
large retail pet store and she saw
21:43
firsthand the suffering of the animals coming
21:47
into the pet store. And she also shared
21:50
that the employees suffer. To see
21:54
these animals in such bad condition and
21:58
literally coming in either dead or almost dead and
22:02
then being tossed out loud, trash.
22:06
So she presented a really human side
22:10
to our, you know, our case, if you will. You know why this was
22:14
so important to enact this ordinance. That sounds like, that sounds like very
22:18
powerful testimony. I mean, what did industry come out against it
22:22
and give reasons why? Yes. So then I know
22:26
you know this, but maybe your followers do not. With
22:29
this type of legislation or proposed legislation,
22:33
there has to be a public comment period. And so
22:37
this was, was all open, the press was there. And so
22:41
they had a two week period that people are made
22:45
aware that this is a proposed ordinance. And almost
22:49
immediately we were informed of
22:52
opposition and the way it was going to impact or it was
22:55
positioned that it was going to impact, it was going to
22:59
eliminate the community's choice in
23:03
buying pets. Well, what's so interesting, Penny,
23:06
and to your listeners, Easton
23:10
did not have any pet stores that were selling animals,
23:14
but. The organizations that support the industry
23:18
are speaking more broadly. They don't want these things to start happening.
23:22
So the community didn't have that awareness
23:25
that, oh, by the way, the city of Easton did not have pet
23:29
stores that were selling live animals at that time. So
23:33
no, this ordinance was not going to impact any pet store
23:37
within city limits because they weren't selling live animals.
23:41
There were stores, pet supply stores, they. Weren'T going to be
23:45
impacted that are still making money. Pet supply stores can still make money
23:48
without live animals. Absolutely. And so
23:52
what was being conveyed to people
23:55
unbeknownst to them was your right to buy
23:59
an animal's being taken away from you. And that's basically what
24:03
the argument was. So prevailed. Right. We
24:07
did prevail. So that was a learning for me that
24:11
I was aware of organizations like
24:14
an organization called Pet Advocacy Network. And
24:18
from the sounds of it, you think, oh, you know, they're an advocacy group for,
24:22
for companion animals, but they're not. There are organizations
24:25
like Pekka Advocacy Network that are actually groups that
24:29
represent the pet trade industry. And
24:33
so, you know, you can look at, and this is just an example, but you
24:36
can look at their website and you can look at their board of directors and
24:40
you see that they're comprised of individuals who
24:44
work for the different retail pet stores or the
24:47
commercial distributors for animals, you know,
24:51
being sold in pet stores. It was, was real eye opener for me
24:56
because I knew they were there. I didn't
24:59
anticipate the swiftness of their
25:03
opposition response. So they have, they have an email list, they have
25:07
templates just like you might get if you're a member of an environmental
25:10
organization, a nonprofit, they might send you a form
25:14
email that says send this to your legislator. So, so the Pet Advocacy
25:18
Network and other organizations like that, they those same kind of templates that
25:21
their members can send in opposition to a bill like yours.
25:25
Absolutely. And so that was a
25:28
takeaway for us organizationally that we will
25:31
be even more prepared the next time. That is great because
25:35
I do want to, you know, I, we, we could probably talk all day, but
25:38
I, I do want to leave the listeners with some tips if they
25:42
decide to make a similar effort in their area. So on hearing some tips
25:46
from you, one of them, of course, is, you know, you need to meet with
25:48
your local legislators and tell them that animals are important, but you also need to
25:52
have a very specific ask. You need to have drafted the bill for them
25:56
and tell them, this is what I want you to do. Right, exactly.
25:59
So that's all the pre work we did. They had had an
26:03
existing ordinance, so it was pretty easy. I mean, it basically was an
26:07
amendment to an existing ordinance. I had met with
26:10
World Animal Protection actually, and I know we'll talk a little bit about
26:14
partnerships, but. But they were
26:17
absolutely integral to this, the success
26:21
of this ordinance. They. Liz Cabrera
26:25
Holtz was a partner in every aspect
26:29
of, you know, what, bringing this forward. She
26:32
advised us. She just helped us so much, you know, what worked,
26:36
what doesn't work. And we really were
26:39
so lucky that we had them. But. But what? Through this
26:43
connection with World Animal Protection us, I found
26:47
other cities that had already enacted
26:51
these expanded ordinances. So Arlington,
26:54
Massachusetts, Cambridge, Massachusetts. So I was so important.
26:58
That's another good tip, by the way, is legislators don't like to think that they're
27:02
absolutely the first. So if you can say you're not the first here, here are
27:05
other areas that have done this, that's very helpful. That was so
27:09
critically important, not only for me, for my
27:12
awareness that to understand what that language looked like,
27:16
the definitions that go into the ordinance of the
27:19
different species of animals, but also
27:23
seeing the approach. So that was so helpful. And I
27:26
would say, you know, to anyone listening, I
27:30
would love to help others, you know, in any way, shape or form, because
27:35
this is really all about building community and it's about
27:38
advancing, you know, ordinances and
27:41
legislation that's going to help animals. And it actually helps
27:45
people too, like throughout the process. So that is music
27:49
to my ears, Suzanne, because that's, you know, that is what I hope the Animal
27:52
Advocacy Academy can bring to people is that community. Because I'm
27:56
having guests on here that are saying I've had some success and I'm willing to
28:00
help other people because partnerships helped me. So I'm willing to be
28:04
a partner. For others and Pennsylvania Voters for Animals, we are
28:07
all volunteer. Like, we do not have any employees. We have no goal
28:11
to have any employees. We're people powered. And so
28:15
it's, you know, coming from our hearts. But we are strategic.
28:19
We do know what we're doing and we're learning along the way
28:22
and thanks to people like you, Penny and others. But
28:26
we are open to poor partnering with other groups
28:30
because when you look at this, and again, putting this into perspective.
28:34
Pennsylvania alone with over 2,500
28:38
municipalities and 15 pet
28:42
sales ordinances to date. And so we
28:46
do, we have so much opportunity. I do not look at any
28:49
other organization who's doing the same work that we're doing
28:53
or trying to do the same work. I don't see anybody as
28:56
competition. I see them as potential partners.
29:00
And that's what we want. That's a new world. That is
29:03
fantastic. So it sounds like with that number of municipalities,
29:07
I was going to ask you for your plans for 2026. Is it to take
29:11
that success that you've had in Easton and replicate it? Absolutely,
29:14
100%. We still are going to work to
29:18
support state level bills that really align with
29:22
our initiatives. So there's the live pigeon shoot
29:25
bill, there's so cat decline. There's a bill
29:29
that just made it out of judiciary yesterday, I think that will ban
29:33
cat decline. There's also other bills that
29:37
we absolutely want to support at the state level. But
29:40
our focus really is going to be on these local
29:44
ordinances because it is, as you said, it's so
29:48
critically important for us to start at the grassroots
29:51
level to really meet with local
29:55
legislators and municipalities to say
29:59
this is what your people want. And that was one thing I
30:02
didn't focus on. But this is so critically important
30:06
is we do need to get people engaged
30:10
within those communities. So we were so lucky
30:14
to have people in the city of Easton
30:18
who once we knew we had opposition, the people
30:22
in the city of Easton came out and so they were writing
30:25
letters that we did. We quickly mobilized, we did calls to
30:29
action. We were able to tap into
30:33
the community. So even at our second meeting, which is when
30:37
the bill actually was voted on, we did have people
30:40
come out in support and they gave testimony. So that was a beautiful
30:44
thing. I do want to share. The bill was
30:48
passed, a vote of 6 to 1 in favor. However,
30:52
I do want to also in the spirit of transparency, the
30:56
city council did remove fishes.
30:59
And so we were disappointed because we were advocating
31:03
for everyone and the spirit of partnership. There's an
31:06
organization called Fish Feel. They came out. Mary
31:10
Finelli, she wasn't there in person, but she wrote an
31:13
incredibly moving letter to the city council
31:17
asking them, you know, and, and telling them why it was so important to
31:21
include Fishes World Animal Protection us.
31:24
They advocated for all the animals, including
31:28
fishes as well as lady freethinker there in
31:31
California. So there was a host of organizations that
31:35
provided support, written support for our work
31:39
and it really did make a difference. But the most
31:43
compelling was the people
31:47
People coming out and saying, I live here
31:50
and this bill matters to me, and I want you to vote yes.
31:54
That is great, because that's a big part of my message, is that people do
31:58
have power, even if they don't think they do. And you're saying that made the
32:01
biggest difference. So that is fantastic. And you're also
32:04
illustrating, I'm in the midst of recording a private podcast series
32:08
that I'm going to Release called the Four Cs of Legislative Advocacy for
32:12
Animals. And one of them is compromise, which you just
32:15
underlined because when you said we wanted to protect all animals, we
32:19
lobbied to protect all animals. They ended up excluding fish,
32:23
but we didn't walk away then. We took what we could get because
32:26
we had to compromise. And sometimes that's the case.
32:30
Yes, we proposed what we wanted to
32:34
see in the ordinance, but it really is up to
32:38
the municipality to make the determination
32:42
what they want in that ordinance. So our
32:46
mantra is just ask,
32:50
don't be afraid to ask. That's where, you know, for me,
32:54
I'm just like, well, why aren't we advocating for everyone? Because
32:58
we're not making the ultimate decision. But if
33:01
we're going to do this work and we're going to
33:05
be the voice of change, why not advocate for everyone?
33:10
That is amazing. And I think that's a great place to leave. It is. Why
33:13
not ask is another. Is another great lesson for advocates. And if you need to,
33:17
as I said, if you need to compromise a little bit, you've still accomplished an
33:20
awful lot. So I thank you so much, Suzanne, for
33:23
joining us and hope to have you on next year again
33:27
when you have more. More victories under your belt. But I think there's that. Our
33:31
listeners can learn a lot from you. Thank you, Penny. Thank you so much. And
33:34
thank you to your community. What a genuinely
33:38
instructive conversation. Suzanne and Pennsylvania
33:41
Voters for Animals have created a blueprint that any group of
33:45
animal advocates can follow. Start local, build
33:49
relationships, do your homework, show up
33:52
consistently, partner with people who share your goals,
33:56
and most importantly, just get started. You
34:00
don't need a law degree or decades of experience. You need
34:03
commitment, a willingness to learn, and the understanding that
34:07
change happens one community at a time. Suzanne and her
34:11
team proved that, and they're continuing that work across
34:14
Pennsylvania. If you're a Pennsylvanian who wants to get started
34:17
on advocacy in your own community, Pennsylvania Voters for Animals
34:21
is an incredible resource. Reach out to them. They're building a
34:25
network of advocates across the state, and they want to help you succeed.
34:29
You'll find a link to their website in the show
34:31
notes@animaladvocacyacademy.com and as
34:35
Suzanne said, they're happy to hear from other advocates in other states as
34:39
well, and they'll help you get started.
34:43
That's it for today. The Animal Advocate Podcast is brought
34:47
to you by the Animal Advocacy Academy. You can find
34:50
episodes and show
34:51
notes@animaladvocacyacademy.com
34:55
along with a link to our Facebook and LinkedIn pages where we discuss
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our podcasts, and we'd love to discuss your thoughts and experiences
35:03
there. If you're interested in learning more about protecting
35:06
animals, subscribe to the show so you get every episode when it
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comes out. If you have any questions on this or any
35:14
other topic related to animal law, email them to
35:17
podcastnimaladvocacyacademy.com
35:21
and we'll make sure to get them answered. We'll either email you back
35:25
or feature them in a future episode, or both.
35:28
And remember, compassion is great, but
35:32
compassionate action is infinitely better. Until
35:35
next week, Live with Compassion.