No Kill Conference 2011: Advocacy blogging

This is so meta -- our own David Greene and me, liveblogging the presentation by bloggers Brent Toellner of KC Dog Blog and Shirley Thistlewaite of YesBiscuit! talking about advocacy blogging at the No Kill Conference in Washington, DC. That's Brent, Shirley and David in the photo.

All the usual disclaimers apply: I'm doing this live, there will be typos, and I'll be updating a few times during the presentation so use your refresh button to check for new material.

By the way, there is a persistent rumor that Shirley is going to sing for us. Brent started that rumor. Shirley says if she does, it will be at the end.

The session starts at 10:45 AM Eastern, so stay tuned!

Brent and Shirley are introducing all the bloggers in the audience. Kathy Pobloskie of Wisconsin Watchdog, the Pets Alive blog, SavingShelterPets.wordpress.com, No Kill Nation, Valerie Hayes from coolcrazybeautifulworld.com, David and me  from PetConnection.com, new blogger from Prince Georges, MD (georgeofdenmarkscounty.blogspot.com), straycatalliance.org (Los Angeles).

Brent has been blogging at KC Dog Blog for around 5 years, Shirley at YesBiscuit!

Brent: How get news has changed. From over the fence to papers to TV news to 24 hour news channels, to media conglomerates.

People losing faith in the news media now. 57 percent have little to no trust in mainstream media (Gallup).

Online news is growing. 41 percent of Americans get news from Internet. Online is single biggest news source, more than TV and newspaper.

This is great for us. Your start up costs of an online community are zero. Go to Blogger or WordPress, it's free. We can be on the same playing field as maimstream media and cover things they aren't.

Trust in bloggers we "know" is growing -- and we define "know" very broadly these days.

Citizen journalists are doing journalism.

Reviewed basics of setting up blog.

Typepad, WordPress, Blogger, Examiner.

Looking at how to get content for blog. More basics. Some in audience interested in getting started with blogging.

Discussion of freedom of information act requests. How to get info from animal control and from private orgs doing animal control. Even when they don't want you to. Brent says you'll be amazed at how much people will tell you -- including animal control officers who want things to change but feel they have no voice. Also gets data just by putting "FOI request" in the subject line of his emails -- not an official request that way, but signals to clerk that he knows he has the right to the info.

Promoting blog. SEO, be involved in the community, provide links, reach out to others, use other social media tools like Facebook and Twitter.

Just looked around -- this session is JAMMED. Yay, Brent and Shirley!

Discussion of various platforms that track web traffic. Google Analytics, etc.

Now to Shirley. Kind of things you can do on a blog.

Alabama 44. HSUS got owner to surrender these dogs. Shirley wanted to find out what happened to the dogs. Online newspaper in South Carolina said they'd rescued some dogs from Alabama. She wanted to find out where the rest went.

HSUS did not want to release the info. So she started digging.

The three dogs sent to Lincoln County in SC were put in a gas chamber. "This was not a rescue."  This, she says, is why HSUS did no promo of this "rescue."

Some of the dogs ran away from small groups HSUS farmed them out to, without any support. Dogs were scared, unsocialized.

How she ended up finding out what happened. Readers helped. Digging, digging, digging. "Where did these dogs go?"

Several had been killed by "shelters" they were sent to, several ran away, and some were adopted It was very hard to find the info and couldn't have done it without help from readers. Ultimately HSUS did issue a statement on website about case, "of course they told it a little differently than I told it."

HSUS said/implied were all unsocialized, feral. Would be no good to anybody.

Shirley eventually tracked 41 of the dogs. Put last 3 as unaccounted for, presumed dead.

Back to Brent. Story of Fay, which we also covered here on Pet Connection.

HSUS sent out a fundraising letter using Fay's picture "to help dogs like Faye (sic)." "HSUS in the end raised about $1.4 million with this." A small organization in St. Louis was really caring for Fay, and until furor erupted, Brent does not think the people really caring for Fay would have seen a penny.

"This one was my Twitter moment, because it exploded on Twitter." Within a couple of days, HSUS had donated $5K and then went up to $10K, and when Fay died during one of her surgeries they tried to get some of the money back.

Comment from audience: Reading Shirley and Brent's blogs has helped her put the pieces together in her own community.

Brent: We're trying to hold people accountable and providing an alternative information source to the official press release.

Back to Shirley, and Memphis Animal Services saga.

"It's sort of become the blog's focus in the last few months."

Recapped history -- "shelter" raided by sheriff's deputies for animal cruelty and neglect ("starving dogs to death"). New mayor said he would right the animal shelter, and put web cams in place. Transparency.

She showed some of the disturbing webcam images. Says she's found out they tie all the dogs to the wall in the kill room and they have to watch each other die. Dragged on choke poles into the kill room, terrified.

Started letter writing campaign to ask city for reform. "The more we became active asking the city to clean up its act, the more they resisted."

Stray area is only visible on webcams. Public is not allowed in stray area. They ahve hundreds of dogs there and never get out of their cages until it's time for them to be killed. Public has no way of knowing. Literally behind locked doors. Select a couple dozen chosen for adoption hallway. Rest of them get three day mandatory hold and go to kill room.

Shirley wrote to shelter director about a dog she saw on webcam and offered to get dog veterinary care, but dog had already been killled. Shelter director told him they killed the dog "to prevent suffering."

Filed FOIA request for records on this dog. Brought in as a stray. Noted in record by time vet saw her, she'd been there a couple of days, vet noted , "The dog is suffering," but nothing was done until they killed her.

A reader posted a webcam photo of litter of pups being transported to kill room in a garbage can. Another of a cat being hung by neck by tongs. She said mayor continues to stand by director even so.

Locals have mobilized. Billboard. But the more they push, the more they resist. Now saying they'll remove webcams. Closing shelter advisory council meetings to public, and have added new members to council who are supportive of shelter status quo.

Local advocates still fighting, but Memphis doing everything they can to shut people out. Say they may privatize the shelter. Shirley says she's suspicious they're trying to privatize to get out of FOIA requests.

Should still be subject, but based on track record with city attorney threatening her because she was trying to help and fundraise for animals rescued from MAS, not optimistic about laws being interpreted and followed in accordance with public rights.

Shirley says these cases can burn you out. "It's very hard to do this, to keep with something like this, especially when you are seeing the images and they're so horrific and so heartbreaking. You have to know when to give yourself a break. If you get to the point where you're heartbroken and can't do it anymore, you have to step back.... " Make happy posts, talk about your pets.

Brent: May take you a while to build readership, stick with it, it will come. Think of yourself as a citizen journalist, covering the news no one else is. No ranting.

A log of blogs are constantly ranting, and it's not helpful. Get photos and data, and present solutions.

Involve your readers. Get a lot of data sources, even those you oppose. More info you have, more blog ideas you'll have, more accurate your info will be.

Grab screenshot in case it's changed in the future.

Verify tips. Can get bad information, even false info.

Time posts for optimal readership. News cycles.

How to win friends. You're going to make enemies. Have a thick skin. Be prepared.

Comments

[Linda]

Great work liveblogging and great blog. This was a terrific helpful session. As a REALLY new blogger, I had a chance to share my blog and blew it by misstating the blog address. So hey, join me in the blogosphere, folks. We can tumble along together.

[Peter J. Wolf]

Wish I were there...

[LynnO]

Thanks...appreciate the rundown!

[elaine]

"...We can be on the same playing field as maimstream media and cover things they aren’t..."



How apt! Thank you!

[Karen D. Mitchell]

Me too Peter! Maybe next year.

[Sue]

This was a wonderful seminar, and it was truly inspirational to meet Brent & Shirley. (Christie's seminar this afternoon was also wonderful!)



So good to be here with 400 like-minded people, discussing something so near and dear to all our hearts.



Christie, thank you so much for covering the conference!

[Lindsay]

Enjoyed this update. Thank you. Nice to read it since I couldn't make the conference. Sounds like this one was an awesome session. I admire Brent and Shirley. Hope to attend the no-kill conference in the future.

[mary francis]

hope to attend in the future - meantime thanks for this...and the photo - nice to see the faces of the wonderful Shirley and Brent...the other guy too.

[David S. Greene]

The other guy thanks you.

[David S. Greene]

When compared to Shirley and Brent, I'm perfectly happy to be the other guy! They are real blogging superstars.

[mary francis]

Gosh I hope you're laughing I am...sorry yesterday I had brain freeze and was hurried...and I really appreciate the writings of David S. Greene...the other guy.



All three in the photo have kind faces. Great group.