Animal Advocacy in the Age of Information 1CHAPTER Ché Green Introduction It is a very sad thing that nowadays although technology can be instru- choose research priorities as well there is so little useless information. mental in helping to facilitate the as generate and share important —Oscar Wilde process. Information management information more effectively. systems are critically important he Humane Society of the both within individual organizations United States (HSUS) began and between groups with similar Why Do Animal Tits State of the Animals series purposes, such as those working for in 2001 with the ambitious but animal protection. In general, the Advocates Need necessary objective of evaluating scope of this chapter pertains to Research? the position of animals in society. shared information, with some em- Making a significant difference in Animal advocates no doubt agree phasis on data that are relevant to the lives of animals is predicated about the importance of the goal, the entire animal protection move- on the ability to access and inter- but accurately and consistently ment rather than proprietary or rel- pret reliable information about evaluating such a complex issue evant to a single organization. how society sees and uses them. requires substantial time and To assist the information man- Without access to accurate data to effort. In this chapter I propose to agement process, I have proposed determine effective campaign take an important step toward that an overall framework for categoriz- messaging and measure their per- vision by evaluating the informa- ing and prioritizing information formance, for instance, animal tion available to animal advocates and research for animal-advocacy advocates operate in a virtual vac- about the position of animals in purposes. The framework includes uum. Perhaps even more impor- society. The goal is to encourage “research categories” based on the tant, in most cases animal advo- and assist data collection and the different relationships between ani- cates do not engage in the be- development of information man- mals and humans and several “data havior they are trying to change in agement systems that allow animal types” for each category. I also pro- other people (the target audi- advocates to measure the impact vide more than fifty references to ence). For this reason and due to of their efforts on society and, good sources of information that other inherent biases, advocates most important, on efforts to im- may be used as starting points for simply cannot rely only on their prove the lives of animals. finding relevant data. I’ll use these own perception of why the target Information management involves and other sources to provide an audience thinks or behaves the the collection, creation, storage, overall assessment of the availabil- way it does. Similarly, they cannot distribution, and utilization of data ity of information by category and evaluate their impact on attitudes for a specific and defined purpose. data type. Finally, this chapter also and behavior using only their It is not simply a database or an includes a set of recommendations hunches and anecdotal evidence. intranet and, in fact, does not nec- for individual groups and the move- For many it has just been too long essarily involve technology at all, ment overall regarding how to since they have walked in the 1 suede shoes of those they hope will taxpayer funding of animal including primarily companion switch to pleather. research. The group says that animals, farmed animals, research, Information is the basis of in- in 2005 the U.S. government and wild and exotic animals. Any formed decision making. Indeed, gave $12 billion in funding for system designed to manage the no animal protection campaign or animal experimentation, an information must be comprehen- project should begin without first increase of nearly $7 billion sive (or nearly so) regarding the identifying and analyzing the avail- over ten years earlier. SAEN types of data and animal issues cov- able data on the topic or issue and, uses the research data to help ered and organized in mutually where the information is not avail- persuade policy makers that exclusive categories. able, collecting new data to sup- animal experiments are waste- Prioritization of the most neces- port critical decisions. Detailed and ful by combining them with sary and practical information is reliable data, obtained through re- details of duplicative research essential. For some animal protec- search, have played an important protocols from the NIH data- tion issues, there are very few data role in many successful animal- base (Budkie 2005). (e.g., the number of actual vegetari- related projects and campaigns; These are just a few instances ans and their motives), and it is nec- below are a few examples. where research-driven data have essary to carefully pick and choose • In New Hampshire P. Marsh, of been instrumental in helping ani- the most strategic areas for con- Solutions to Overpopulation of mals. Effective information man- ducting new research. For other ani- Pets, collected and analyzed agement can also help animal advo- mal issues, advocates have access to shelter intake and euthanasia cates level the playing field with significant information (e.g., demo- data to determine the state’s animal-related industries and cor- graphics of companion animal “own- primary sources of “surplus” porations, for which “data mining” ership”), in which case the priority animals: low-income residents. (involving a detailed quantitative may be to figure out where to begin Using these data, the group analysis about consumer traits, analyzing and interpreting the data. was able to create a publicly attitudes, and purchase behaviors) Once the initial framework is devel- funded and highly targeted is all the rage. Advocates may not oped (see the next section), an in- spay/neuter program for these have resources comparable to cor- formation management system can low-income individuals. Ongo- porations’ to devote to information help animal advocates understand ing research and tracking of management, but in this area a and keep track of which data are shelter data indicates that the small investment can reap signifi- known (and which aren’t). In all program led to a 77 percent cant rewards. In most cases it is cases animal advocates’ knowledge decline in the state’s euthana- inexpensive (although perhaps is much improved by having a con- sia rate over an eight-year time-consuming) to collect and tinuous historical perspective, so period (Marsh 2005). analyze all of the publicly available data collection must also be an • In New York City and Washing- data on an issue. When animal ad- ongoing effort. ton, D.C., The Fund for Ani- vocates need to collect primary mals conducted focus groups data because there is little or no with fur garment owners and existing research, a host of inex- A Proposed teenage females to test its anti- pensive and do-it-yourself research fur advertising. The qualitative methods can often be used. Framework research clearly showed that for Animal- two of the Fund’s prototype ads—one featuring a rabbit Knowing What Related Data and the other a chinchilla—did Information is a source of learning. not elicit nearly as much sym- Animal Advocates Unless it is organized, processed, pathy as ads featuring a young Need to Know and available to the right people in bobcat and a fox cub. The re- The breadth of information that is a format for decision making, how- sults were used to create a potentially useful to animal advo- ever, it is a burden, not a benefit more effective campaign with cates is nearly overwhelming. It (Pollard 2000). ads in Teen People and Seven- includes various types of animal A framework for organizing in- teen magazines (Green 2004). demographic and “usage” data, formation of value to animal ad- • Ohio-based Stop Animal Ex- “public opinion” data, consumer vocates must be comprehensive, ploitation Now (SAEN) con- behavior research, economic data, but it must also be as pragmatic ducts detailed audits of the and so on. Advocates need all of and useful as possible. In this National Institutes of Health these data and more for the full chapter, I recommend two general (NIH) database to estimate range of animal protection issues, bases for data classification: (1) 2 The State of the Animals IV: 2007 research categories and (2) data types; these are described in detail Table 1 in the following sections. I also briefly discuss the most likely Primary Research Categories sources of information for each and Data Types data type. The framework I sug- gest in this chapter is intention- Research Categories Data Types ally oversimplified to meet the Companion animals Animal demographics and usage data goals of practicality and compre- Farmed animals Attitudes/behavior about issues/advocates hensiveness, but it has the poten- Research animals Economic and financial support data tial for significantly more detail. Wild and exotic animals Other data not classified elsewhere In the future the framework can be defined in much more granular Other animals and issues terms, including multiple subcate- Animal advocacy gories for each research category and subtypes for each data type. to be companionship. In the category, with chickens, in turn, See the next section for selected United States, this research cat- making up the vast majority of ani- highlights by research category egory primarily includes dogs and mals slaughtered. Fish (and crus- and data type (Table l). cats kept as pets simply because taceans), historically composed of they represent the majority of such predominantly wild animals caught individuals in this country. How- in oceans, lakes, and streams, are Primary Research ever, the category also includes now increasingly being farmed for Categories other companion animals, such as food as ocean fish are dwindling in Because the eventual goal is to be birds, horses, rabbits, turtles, number.