Good intentions can be a loaded gun

I call the first ones, the emphatic proclaimers, the “Do it Yourselfers” (or the DIY) of the advocacy world, and they are extremely important to the grassroots movements because of their amazing passion and eagerness to spread the world and do whatever is necessary to further the cause. The obstacle that can be presented because of the DIY advocates, is that they can be easily swayed by the emotional scenes that they witness through video and other media, circulated by large extremist groups to, for lack of a better term, “shock and awe” their potential new constituents into acting from emotions, and not from logic. This then produces advocates whose hearts are in the right place, but who are acting from a very emotionally charged place. Their passion gets funneled into anger and an almost intense, frantic, need to talk-up the subject to anyone who will listen.

The other obstacle with the DIY is when they do not regularly follow the information of their advocacy organization of choice, or do not arm themselves with the proper information before going out into their community and preaching the good word. They may get their information casually from seeing something on the news, or reading a mass-forwarded bulletin on Myspace, and begin to spread the word from there. I am sure that I do not have to delve into just how much the media twists stories themselves, and I certainly think one can appreciate the mass game of telephone that is the Myspace bulletin, but yet, many DIY will take this as absolute word, and continue to spread the misinformation.

The fallout that we see from the DIY spreading this misinformation is that, once that misinformation is found out to be untrue, that DIY, as well as the cause, loses credibility. The DIY may sometimes repeat nothing but the worst-case-scenario of the situation, which is then also given a highly emotional spin (I will be posting later about emotions vs. logic in animal advocacy). This can also turn into a game of telephone, as the issue gains momentum in the community and starts to get embellished and made to sound worse than it is. I cannot tell you how many times, while working at an animal shelter, an animal came in that we determined possibly came from a home where it was perhaps showing slight signs of neglect, or perhaps was just put out in the backyard and rarely given attention. When we would put out the word on this animal to try and get rescue or foster-care for it, calmly explaining our suspicions about possible neglect,  we would inevitably get a frantic phone call from someone wanting to “save that poor dog that was chained and beaten daily and forced to eat out of the trash everyday”.

The good news about these misguided DIY is this; they are truly trying to do the right thing because this issue is one that stirs them and is a cause about which they are truly passionate. What I would strongly urge to the DIY advocate is this; find an animal advocacy organization behind which you can firmly stand and when you hear about a new story or situation, look to their website, or email them, to find out the truth of the situation and their stance on it. Many times, their stance will reflect things that you may not have realized because you are not in the field professionally. If you find that your organization does not have a stand on this issue, or does not know about it, ask them which organization would best represent this issue so that you can go to them directly. You can then make yourself the expert on this situation and can be the go-to person to give information that is most accurate. And remember, stick to the facts, not the emotion.