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What Is Animal Advocacy? How to Become an Animal Advocate · The Animal Advocate

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Somewhere right now, there's a person who loves animals,
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has a free evening, and no idea what to do with it. So they
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type, how to become an animal advocate, into Google.
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And the internet hands them a numbered list of 50 things. 50!
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Numbered 1 to 50, in no particular order.
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Number 2 is asking your local restaurant to offer more
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plant-based options. Somewhere in the 40s is combating
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global wildlife trafficking. Both are fine
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things to do. They are not the same afternoon.
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So you close the tab, nothing happens, and you feel
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vaguely worse than before you looked. Other sites will
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tell you to sign up for an email list, which is a lovely thing to
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do for a nonprofit's mailing list and does very little for
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the animals suffering right now.
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So how do you go from being someone who's upset about the treatment of
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animals to someone who advocates for them? It's
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more straightforward than those long lists lead you to believe, and
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I can help you get started right now.
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Welcome to The Animal Advocate, where we arm animal lovers
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with the information and inspiration you need to become
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effective advocates. I'm your host, Penny Ellison, and I've taught animal law and
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advocacy at the University of Pennsylvania
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since 2006. If you've ever thought
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someone should do something about that, I'm here to guide you on
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your journey to being that someone. You can find
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us on the web at animaladvocacyacademy.com,
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and that's where you'll find show notes and resources, and you can send
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us your comments on episodes and ideas for topics you'd like to hear
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on future shows. So, on to today's topic.
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So I just said in the intro, if you think someone should do
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something about that, this is your guide to being that someone.
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So today's topic is, how do you become an animal advocate?
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So let's start with what being an animal advocate means. An
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animal advocate is someone who takes purposeful action to
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improve something for animals. That can mean helping
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one animal. It can mean helping a shelter or rescue do its
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work better. It can mean changing what a company
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does. It can mean changing a law.
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The common thread is that you move from caring about something
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to doing something useful about it. And there are
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4 basic moves. Pick something
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specific you want to change. Figure out who
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or what controls that outcome. Learn
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enough about the problem to be useful. Then
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keep showing up. That's basically it.
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We've managed to make it look a lot more complicated.
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The first thing I want to do is widen the definition of advocacy.
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Because I think people hear animal advocate and imagine one
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particular type of person. Maybe someone standing at a
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microphone at a city council meeting. Maybe someone
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protesting outside a laboratory. Maybe a
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lawyer. Maybe the person on Instagram who appears to be
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furious before breakfast every single day. Advocacy
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is a much bigger tent than that. You know the
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basics for companion animals. Adopt,
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foster, volunteer, donate.
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All real, all needed. But even those come in more
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forms than most people realize. Fostering
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isn't only about taking a 12-week-old puppy into your house until
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somebody adopts her. It can mean keeping a dog for one
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weekend so the regular foster family can go to a wedding.
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Bottle kittens in April, kitten season.
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Recovery care after surgery, just take an animal home
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that can't recover from surgery in the shelter. Hospice for a
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senior dog with a few good months left, or
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Fospice as we call it.
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Sometimes the commitment you can make is 3 months.
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Sometimes it's 3 days. Similarly,
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volunteering isn't only dog walking. Shelters need
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photographers, and a good photo can be the difference between an animal being
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noticed and overlooked. They need bios
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written, laundry folded, data entered,
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events staffed, adopters called a week later to see how
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things are going. Transport is advocacy.
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Animals move from places where they have few options to places where they're more
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likely to be adopted, sometimes one volunteer driver at a
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time. You don't have to drive 6 hours. You can
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drive maybe one leg of that route. And one of the most
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overlooked ways to help animals is to use whatever you already
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know how to do. Your day job may be worth
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more than your hands. Bookkeeping,
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IT, grant writing, HR,
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design, fundraising, marketing,
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photography. Somewhere tonight, a rescue
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director is doing payroll at 11 at night,
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and she didn't go to school for that. Offer what skill
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you have first. Board service is
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advocacy too, the real kind, with governance and
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fundraising and responsibility for whether the organization succeeds.
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So is keeping animals out of shelters in the first place. Pet food
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pantries, temporary boarding for somebody in the hospital
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or someone leaving a violent home, maybe a ride to the
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veterinarian, helping a neighbor repair a fence so their
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dog doesn't get out anymore. Sometimes the best
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shelter intervention is making sure the animal never needs the shelter.
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If community cats are your issue, There's trap-neuter-return and
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colony care. If wildlife is your issue,
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there are rehabilitation organizations, habitat projects,
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local policy fights, and public education.
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If farmed animals are the issue you can't stop thinking about,
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there are organizations working on everything from corporate practices to
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legislation to new food systems.
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And yes, money is a form of advocacy too.
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Organizations can't do this work on good intentions. You
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don't need to be wealthy. A reliable monthly donor is
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useful because the organization can plan around that
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money. So before you decide you're not
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really an advocate because you don't want to stand up at a microphone, stop.
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There are a lot of ways in. The question isn't which one
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makes you look The most like an advocate. The question is which
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one fits your life well enough that you'll keep doing it.
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And that brings us to the first move: pick something
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specific. I want to help animals is a
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value. It's not yet a project.
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Start with the thing you keep coming back to. Maybe it's the dogs
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chained outside in your neighborhood every winter. Maybe it's the
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shelter that never has enough foster homes. Maybe it's people
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giving up animals because they can't afford veterinary care.
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Maybe it's the pet store you drive by every week with puppies in the window.
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Maybe it's community cats. Maybe it's wildlife habitat.
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Maybe it's factory farming. You don't have to choose the most important animal
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issue. That's a good way to spend 6 months deciding and 0
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months doing anything. Choose something you care
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enough about To keep working on after the first
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burst of enthusiasm wears off. Then narrow
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it. I want to end animal cruelty is too
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big. It can't tell you what to do on a
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specific day. I want to help my local shelter find
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more foster homes is something you can work on.
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I want people in my neighborhood to have access to low-cost spay and
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neuter is something you can work on.
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I want my municipality to protect dogs left outside in dangerous weather
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is something you can work on. A specific
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problem gives you a next step. Then
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comes your second move: figure out who
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or what controls the outcome. This
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doesn't always mean government. If you want to help shelters
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recruit fosters, the place to start may be the shelter.
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If a company is doing something you want changed, the
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decision maker may be the company, and it likely is.
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If people are surrendering animals because they can't get veterinary care,
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you may need to look at what services already exist locally before
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deciding what would help. And if the problem is law or
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government policy, Then yes, your decision-maker may
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be a city council, county commission, state
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legislature, or executive agency.
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That kind of advocacy is its own skill set, and I'm doing a
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separate episode on how animal protection laws get
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passed. For today, the point is simpler.
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Don't start with the action. Start with the outcome.
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Then ask, Who can change this? That one
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question will save you an enormous amount of wasted effort.
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Because there are things that feel like advocacy
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that usually aren't. Arguing in the comments under a
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shelter's post about an animal whose outcome was already decided—
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not advocacy. Tagging a rescue group in a cruelty
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post when the rescue has no authority to enforce cruelty laws.
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Not advocacy. Signing an online petition
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and assuming your work is done? Mm, not really
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advocacy. Getting angry at a shelter for a policy
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that may have been set by the government agency funding it?
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Not advocacy. Every one of those things can give you the
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feeling of having done something, but activity and
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effectiveness are not the same thing.
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Before you act, ask who can change the
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outcome. Which brings us to the
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3rd step: learn enough to be useful.
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Not everything, enough. This is where
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people often go in one of two directions. Somebody reads a couple
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of posts on Facebook and immediately becomes the world's leading
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expert, or Somebody decides she can't
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possibly speak up until she has read every study, every
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statute, and every annual report published since 1987.
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I will tell you, I tend to fall in the latter category.
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But neither of these is necessary. Learn enough
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to understand the problem. Talk to people already doing the
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work. Find out what's been tried.
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Ask what the real obstacle is. If you want to
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volunteer, ask what the organization genuinely needs
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instead of arriving with the job you decided you want to do.
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If you want to keep animals out of shelters, ask why people are surrendering them.
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If you want to change a policy, read the policy first.
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I learned that as a lawyer. National animal
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organizations have people working on particular issues.
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States also have advocacy organizations.
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Local shelters and rescues know where the gaps are.
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Veterinarians, animal control officers, humane
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officers, and social service organizations may see
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parts of the problem that you don't. So
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ask. One conversation with somebody who's been working on the issue
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for 10 years can save you months. And unless
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there's truly nobody doing the work you want to do, you probably
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don't need to start a nonprofit. I've started nonprofits.
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This is not a recreational activity. Before you
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create a board, bylaws, insurance, a bank
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account, an IRS filing, and a brand new reason to learn
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accounting software, find out whether there's an organization
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already doing this work. Maybe they need you more than the
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world needs another organization. And
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then the 4th move: keep showing up.
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This is the part those lists leave out. The bar to
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becoming an advocate is low. There's no license, no
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exam, no certification board that decides whether you
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care enough about animals long enough to qualify. I
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teach animal law at the University of Pennsylvania. You
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know what the law degree mostly qualifies me to do? Read
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long documents that no sane person wants to read. It's
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handy, but it's not required. Some of the most
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effective advocates I know came to this from accounting or
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nursing or just being furious about one specific
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dog. The harder part is staying.
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Passion is common. Reliability
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over time is much rarer.
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If you tell the rescue you'll photograph 6 dogs on Saturday, show
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up on Saturday. If you join a board, don't just
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show up for the meetings, do the work between
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meetings. If you offer your professional expertise,
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follow through. If you start working on a policy,
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expect it to take longer than you think. The first action is
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what makes you feel like an advocate. The second and
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third and 20th are what make you
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useful. And you won't always win.
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Sometimes the foster dog you promoted doesn't get adopted.
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Sometimes the fundraiser is a disappointment.
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Sometimes the organization you volunteer for frustrates you.
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And sometimes The law doesn't change.
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Sometimes you discover that the problem is harder than it looked from the
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outside. That doesn't mean that the work was
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pointless. It means you've moved from caring about
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animals in the abstract to doing the much messier
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work of trying to improve what happens to them in the real
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world. So if you've searched, how do
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I become an animal advocate? Because you were waiting for somebody to tell you where
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to begin. Here it is. Pick one thing,
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not all the things, one. Figure out
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what would make it better. Find the person or organization that can
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affect that outcome. Learn enough to be
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useful, then do something this week.
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Email the shelter and offer the professional skill you already have.
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Apply to foster. Drive a transport leg.
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Sign up to give $20 a month. Attend a local
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meeting. Call an organization already working on the
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problem and ask how you can help. There's no
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ceremony when someone declares you an animal advocate.
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You become one by advocating.
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Animals have plenty to say, and they're frankly quite clear about it.
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What they don't have is the ability to walk into the institutions we've built
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and ask those institutions to change. We
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can do that. That's the gap an advocate
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fills.
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Your assignment this week is simple. Write down the one thing
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affecting animals that bothers you enough that you want to do
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something about it. Then find one person or
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organization already connected to that problem. Not 10,
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just one. Spend 10 minutes learning what they do,
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and then make one concrete move. Send the email.
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Fill out the foster application. Put their next
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meeting on your calendar. Make the donation.
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Offer the skill. Ask the question.
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You don't need a 50-item list. You need a first step.
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So take it.
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That's it for today. The Animal Advocate Podcast is brought to
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you by the Animal Advocacy Academy. You can find
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episodes You can find all of our episodes and show notes at
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animaladvocacyacademy.com, along with a link
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to our Facebook and LinkedIn pages, where we discuss our
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podcasts, and we'd love to discuss your thoughts and experiences there.
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If you're interested in learning more about protecting animals, subscribe to the
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show so you get every episode when it comes out.
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If you have any questions on this or any other topic related to animal law,
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email them to
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podcast@animaladvocacyacademy.com,
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and we'll make sure to get them answered. We'll either email you
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back or feature them in a future episode, or both.
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And remember, compassion is great, but
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compassionate action is infinitely better. Until
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next week, live with compassion.