How To Do Animal Rights. Campaigning Methods for Animal Rights: Lobbying

How to Do Animal Rights - & Win the War on Animals

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Chapter Sections

1. Introduction

2. Campaigning

3. Civil Disobedience

4. Direct Action

5. Action Planning

6. Lobbying

7. Picketing

8. Starting a Group

9. Publicity

10. Leafleting

11. News Media

12. Internet

How to Do Animal Rights - and Win the War on Animals

Chapter 3

Campaigning Methods for Animal Rights

6. Lobbying

"It is the province of honest men to enlighten the government." Attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte.

The thrust for changing the human governed world for the better for animals is essentially two-pronged. One prong involves law-making for animals (the other is educating people). However, in order to go and make laws you must become a legislator, but we all cannot do this and the next best thing is to influence the legislators. And this is what lobbying is about. You go lobbying to persuade the legislators, your political representatives, elected political officials, senators or members of parliament, to do what you want them to do: change or enact laws that benefit animals or otherwise support your cause. In the same way you can influence local or national directors and board members of institutions and businesses to adopt animal friendly ways for their establishments. The origin of the term lobbying is lost, but it might be connected with cornering and petitioning politicians in the foyers or lobbies of their building.

Who Can Lobby?

Lobbying is democratic; it is an important process that gives people a say in political, economic and other polices that affect them. Political representatives in democratic countries are elected by the people to serve the people. You are one of the people, so representatives must serve you, especially if you are one of their constituents, by bringing their political standing to bear on your concern.

The lobbying field is open to anyone or any interest group. You do not have to be a powerful business corporation that retains professional lobbyists or employs their own specialist staff to lobby for them. Nor do you need any particular experience to go lobbying, just a desire to communicate what you think should be done. No one and no group is too small to make their voice heard. If you do not make yourself heard, the policy makers cannot take into account your opinions, laws are unlikely to change and animals will not benefit. By lobbying for animals you change the way society acts by harnessing the power of the law for animals.

Targets to Lobby

Although lobbying is often associated with political representatives, you can just as effectively lobby anyone, such as the figures who have access to the policy makers and legislators; they hold a variety of positions with different powers at all stages from local through national to federal levels. There are also representatives in institutions and businesses whose activities affect animals and who have the power to help animals. Representatives of private companies, unlike our political representatives, are not obliged to assist you but they might respond if they want themselves and their organisation to be seen by the public as honest and caring.

What Lobbying Can Do

What do you want to lobby for? You may want to:

Prohibit toxicity testing of substances on animals.
Change the law to prohibit live exports of animals.
Ban inhumane jaw traps and snares used by animal trappers.
Proscribe the production or selling of foie gras, veal and other animal body parts.
Introduce stiffer and more appropriate penalties for animal abusers.
Change the law regarding how animals are transported.
Prohibit the importation and trade of living wild animals and their body parts.
Propose new laws to regulate breeders of animals.
Proscribe the mutilation of animals for cosmetic and economic purposes.
Regulate or make illegal the keeping of wild, non-domestic, animals as pets.

You will have to address political representatives to lobby for such changes as these. But you can equally lobby representatives from business companies, like persuading your supermarket to change its policy on selling factory farmed produce, such as eggs and broilers. Equally, you could lobby your college professors to organise courses on animal ethics. Or you could lobby your canteen to ban factory farmed food and offer choices for vegetarians.

Start Lobbying

Ask yourself these four questions.

What specific issue shall I campaign about?
For example, livestock transport, entertainment animals, fur-bearers (for ideas see Chapter 3: Campaigning, under Where to Begin?).
What is my specific campaign objective?
For example, change the law or other procedure governing how animals are kept or used.
Which authority shall I lobby?
For example, the Secretary for Agriculture, the Home Secretary, or a company's chief executive officer.
What lobbying methods will I use to persuade the authority?
For example, write letters, arrange meetings, organise public debates.

When you have decided on these questions you must find out who your targets are, such as who politically represents you. Good lobbyists do not just know who their representatives are but get to know about them. This way you know you are targeting the right people and can make the best impression on them. For political representatives you should at least know their political party, political status or rank, past and present campaigns, and their involvement with animals.

You can most easily find out who represents you at your library or by searching the Web. Virtually every citizen in the US is represented federally by a member of the House of Representatives and by two members of the Senate. Most US states have this same system of representation. Note that you must lobby federal representatives on federal matters and lobby state representatives on state maters because representatives deal only within their own sphere. Voters in Britain are represented nationally by their Member of Parliament and voters who reside in Scotland or Wales are represented by their member of their particular legislative assembly.

You must also know what your targets can do for you? For example your representative in your legislative assembly could:

Write officially to relevant ministers or other representatives on your behalf.
Convey your issue at a committee meeting.
Address the whole political assembly about your campaign.
Ask a question from the floor on your behalf to elicit information from a minister.
Propose an early day motion (a petition for representatives to sign) as part of your campaign.
Set up a committee to study your issue.
Initiate a parliamentary debate about your cause.
Introduce a draft law on animals for debate.
Attempt to alter an existing draft law.
Propose changes to statutory law.
Support or impede legislation.
Attend your public gatherings and make speeches to support your campaign.

The primary means of lobbying your targets are writing (letters, email, faxes, and sometimes phoning), arranging face to face meetings, and making use of the news media.

Lobby by Writing

Writing a letter to your representatives or other targets is possibly the best way to make initial contact and state your case. Paper documents give them something to study at their leisure and refer back to.

Be concise; one page is probably sufficient. Keep to one subject per letter so as not to cloud the issue.
Do not make more than two or three points or there will be too much for your representatives to handle.
Put the main points (the who, why, where and when) in the first paragraph.
Include supporting information, evidence, photos, but do not over do it; if you have a lot of data, summarise them on a separate sheet.
Always include your address and zip/post code so that your representatives can verify that you are one of their constituents, otherwise they may not act for you.
End by asking politely for a response to your letter.

Make your letter personal. Put one or two specific questions to your representatives and ask for their opinion; they will take your letter more seriously. If you do not do this they might simply forward your letter to somebody who seems to them to be a pertinent third party, such as in a government department that handles such matters, and who is likely to send you a bland standard reply.

You will have more influence if you get other people to write, too. Your representatives might keep count of the letters they receive as a check of public opinion and the more letters they receive the more influence you will have. However, if you are writing as part of an organised group, never send a standard or model letter. Your representatives will give duplicated letters far less weight and an unfavourable response, even if they get a great many of them on the same subject. If you do have a group of people using a standard letter get each writer to subtract some remarks from their letter, add singular remarks of their own, and mix it all up to make their letter look personalised.

What about emailing, faxing and phoning? Email is quick and cheap but may not be effective if your representative is swamped by them every day. Your particular email may not receive the attention it deserves or might simply get lost in the flood. Letter writing is slow and arduous but is likely to get a better response.

A fax is more solid than an email in that it can be held in the hand, put on a desk and filed. But faxes are less legible and less attractive than a well printed letter. Sending a fax can be useful to add further information once your issue is already well know to your representatives or as a prompt to action, such as before an important vote. Otherwise always send a letter.

Phoning is fast. But you will probably not be able to speak to your representatives; they are likely to be out or busy. If phoning is necessary, however, before you phone jot down and stick to one or two points only that you wish to make. When you get through say you are a constituent and keep your conversation short and to the point.

Lobby by Personal Meetings

Elected representatives expect to be approached by the public as part of the democratic process, so do not feel inhibited. Go ahead and arrange a meeting with your representatives to present your case in person. And certainly meet them should the results of your correspondence be unsatisfactory.

You may visit your representatives alone or, more effectively, as a small group campaigning on your issue. Each one of you should have a good reason for being at the meeting, with something different to contribute. Decide beforehand who is going to lead the meeting and who is going to say what. Have all your documents to hand and ensure you cover all the items you wish to make.

How you come across and how you say what you have to say is important. Dress casually or conservatively but appropriately for meeting an elected representative of the people. Be rational and objective, not emotional and excitable. Speak clearly and concisely. Know your background facts well and summarise them on a single page to hand to your representatives and duplicate copies to any of their staff. Thank everyone before you depart and leave your representatives with a good impression of what an animal rights activist is.

In the US, representatives also fix a number of public meetings through the year to meet their constituents. At these meetings you should prepare yourself to ask your representatives questions in front of a public gathering, that may also contain news reporters. Ask your representatives to speak about their stand on your issue and make things hot for them if they go against you. Alternatively, your representatives might decide to meet you on the side at a private office and a typical meeting could last an hour. You could take the opportunity to hand out leaflets about your campaign to other attendees at the meeting who are not part of your group. Members of Parliament in Britain hold regular sessions in their constituency every few weeks when you can sit with them and speak privately. Check your representatives' web sites for particulars and make an appointment.

Lobby via the News Media

Another way of influencing representatives and to strengthen your cause is through the local or national news media. Use the media to:

Spur lethargic representatives to action.
Make your representatives take you even more seriously.
Pressure your representatives into publicly stating their position.
Give your representatives bad publicity if they do bad things.
Give your representatives good publicity if they act well.

Phone or email your newspaper and radio/tv stations and outline what you are doing. News media interest is often short-term, so get your timing right to approach them at the best point in your campaign. Politicians and companies love good publicity, especially at election time. Beware that editors simplify issues as black or white, so there is no point telling the if's and but's of your case, just make your message simple and clear. In any case, you should use the media to gain widespread public support for your cause, especially if you are not able to achieve your objectives through your representatives. See News Media, in this chapter.

Lobbying Techniques

Learn the House Rules

You must learn the rules of your legislative assembly to understand their manners and methods to prepare yourself to influence them.

Set Attainable Goals

Try for goals that are achievable. Stopping egg farming is too sweeping, but phasing out the production and sale of eggs from caged hens is attainable, whether from your supermarket chain or nationally.

Be Flexible & Compromising

If you think you will not be able to make headway or if you know your representatives are not in favour of animal rights, simply operate under the banner of animal welfare and adjust your goal so that it appears welfare oriented. Politics and influencing people is the art of compromise when you cannot be autocratic.

Pitch the Right Level of Information

Present your representatives with whatever information is strictly relevant and no more. They will not want to waste time with excessive and non-essential input.

Stick to Facts Not Feelings

You have opinions, but base them on indisputable facts and put them across in reasoned arguments. Know the important arguments for and against your case and be able to refute the latter rationally.

Always Go for Clarity

Do not use abbreviations or unusual, obscure or technical terms that your representatives may not know. Get your message across simply and quickly, so spell it out fully.

Always Tell Them

Be specific and clear about what you want your representatives to do. Always tell them what actions they must take even when it seems obvious to you. It may not be obvious to them and they will not want to waste time guessing what you want them to do.

Do Not Rely on Memory

Always make written notes of what is said, the decisions that are made and the names of the people you communicate with. Make notes even as you are speaking with people.

Build Up Your Credibility

You do not need to be an infallible expert, but always be open and tell the truth (or at least use your words carefully) to build up your credibility so that your representatives get to know they can rely on you.

Get the Weight of Authorities Behind Your Case

Individuals acting alone can lobby effectively, but you can be more effective if you have authoritative associates to bolster your case. Your representatives will be more ready and better able to act to influence others if they know your issue has some weight behind it.

Link to Your Representatives' Interests

Try to relate your issue to your representatives' constituency or to their personal or professional interests. For instance, you might be writing about blood sports and they are keen countryside ramblers or sit on countryside committees. This is where knowing about your representatives' backgrounds is advantageous.

Be Above Party Politics

Eschew party politics when lobbying. Lobby to get the best out of everyone irrespective of their political alliances, affiliations and the party they belong to.

Do Not Make Enemies

Your representatives should listen to you but do not have to agree with you. Courteously differ if their views are at odds with your own; you may be able to influence them another time on a different issue. Should you make enemies of them you may never be able to enlist their help.

Target Staff

Always be polite, understanding and patient to your representatives' personal assistants, secretaries and other office staff. They are your potential allies. They might influence your representatives for you or reciprocate your kindness by giving you background or other useful information.

Analyse Your Progress

Monitor your progress and evaluate your results. You can best do this by setting small practicable goals you must reach on your way to total success. See Action Planning in this chapter.

Thank People

Thank people who are helpful and if you have the news media involved with your campaign drop them names in praise.

Finally...

Keep on going if you do not get the responses you hoped for. Think about reaching the same goal from a different angle. Be persistent and do not give up easily!