The #MeToo and #TimesUp movement have had a profound effect on the animal advocacy movement as some top male activists have lost their positions of influence. I have taken time to process events, at least partly because the departure of both Wayne Pacelle and Paul Shapiro from the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) have hit me so hard. Both men have passionately supported DawnWatch and thereby empowered my work for years. I honor them for that, but also honor the voices of the women who found their influence, and that of other powerful male activists, disempowering. I look forward to moving forward together.

HUMANE SOCIETY GIFTS

Back in the early 2000s, when Wayne Pacelle spoke about media at animal rights conferences, he would mention DawnWatch and advise people to sign up. A decade and a half later he continued to read DawnWatch alerts and send frequent appreciative comments. Last year, when I realized I wanted DawnWatch to recreate, in Gretchen Wyler's honor, a live animal advocacy media awards ceremony, my very first phone call was to Wayne. I asked for his blessing, knowing I would need it in order to have Gretchen's, who had seen him as a son of sorts. He offered not only his blessing but his full support. Having the passionate support of arguably the most powerful person in the animal advocacy movement meant everything, so the events of the last few weeks have hit hard.

I have noted previously that until Wayne Pacelle took the lead at HSUS, the organization focused mainly on cats and dogs, and that Wayne's first act as president was to form the farm animal division. Paul Shapiro, who had co-founded Compassion over Killing, headed up the department with extraordinary dedication and talent. And I don't think a week went by that Paul and I were not in touch on email. He sent kind words about almost every DawnWatch alert and valued the impact of DawnWatch enough to make sure I knew every time the HSUS Farm Animal Division's work made the media - which was often. He has been, for years, one of my closest colleagues.

When I founded DawnWatch, right at the turn of the century and millennium, animal stories in the media were rare. Though I recall some fantastic coverage of a Humane Farming Association slaughterhouse investigation, which made the Washington Post front page, it was an isolated incident. PETA was the only group getting regular media coverage for animals, and they were doing it PETA style, using outrageous stunts to attract attention. Those antics continue, with PETA reps currently getting press while protesting fur, topless, during fashion week in London. The stunts may still have a place; while they surely risk trivializing our issues in the eyes of the public, that's no worse than media silence and the continuation of the status quo for animals. Watching animal issues in the media, however, I learned largely from Wayne Pacelle that one need not resort to outrageous behavior to get consistent top press for animals.

PETA chose stunts to break media silence, Pacelle chose welfare. Of course welfare has immense value in its own right - the less suffering for the billions of animals unjustly sentenced to death, the better. But perhaps even more importantly, studies have shown that welfare coverage in the media simultaneously leads to lower meat purchases in the markets of the coverage. People don't like being reminded that their dinner had feelings.

Like PETA, Pacelle saw that the media a decade ago wasn't eager to cover straight stories with a strong vegan message. So he practiced what my friend and mentor Guru Singh (quoting his own teacher, Yogi Bhajan) calls "forklift activism." That's when instead of reaching and preaching from above, we try to meet people where they are and then lift them higher. Pacelle is one of the activists who has been willing to meet the mainstream at welfare and health, knowing that once we have their full attention it will be incomparably easier to broach liberation. And he is a master of gentle, soft-sell activism. It's what got him onto Oprah's Super Soul Sunday, where he was willing to assure her that she doesn't have to be vegan, something she still seems to need to hear, yet could inspire her to commit to Meatless Mondays, urging her tens of millions of Twitter followers to join her. Who knows how many animals were saved by that one act, which helped make plant based eating, for ethica
l reasons, part of mainstream thinking and behavior.

It is no surprise that the meat industry fears Pacelle. He has also faced critics within our movement. I, for example, objected to a deal that gave SeaWorld support from HSUS if the company voluntarily agreed to end Orca breeding, before facing a ban that seemed imminent. Watching things play out, however, I will admit that I now see the wisdom in getting SeaWorld's agreement on the need to end breeding, which suggests mass consensus, and then letting other activists continue to fight for the rehoming of the current SeaWorld inmates, which of course Pacelle would like to see.

No group has done more than HSUS under Wayne Pacelle to combat dog-fighting, but Pacelle made a bad call when he said that Michael Vick's pit bulls were beyond help and should be euthanized. Then we saw one of his finest qualities when he was willing to consult with pit bull advocates, including me, and to rethink and revise his initial call. We saw another great quality when he withstood predictable flak in order to do what he believed was right, in welcoming Michael Vick to speak against dog-fighting on behalf of HSUS. Pacelle believed that no other spokesperson would have comparable impact in the neighborhoods where dog-fighting was rampant; he stood firm for the cause in the face of a justifiable storm. I admired his strength and I learned from him. If he also happened to believe in the beauty of redemption, perhaps that will show up in his karma.

THE HUMANE SOCIETY BOARD

I don't expect everybody to feel as I do about Wayne Pacelle's legacy at HSUS. But many people do, which may explain why the HSUS board, who saw the direction and impact of HSUS before and then during Pacelle's reign, did not address the sexual harassment allegations as they should have. Animal advocates with long term perspective may be deeply concerned about the future of our movement without the influence of the men who have been leading HSUS (and that of other talented men who have now been removed from other organizations). I hope people who think that the HSUS board should be punished for their inaction will reflect more on those reasonable concerns and judge them less harshly.

I find the calls for HSUS board resignation of particular concern with regard to the women on the board. Now is not the time to be removing women from positions of power! While some women are accused of inaction, others, on the board and throughout our movement, have actively spoken up in defense of Wayne Pacelle and Paul Shapiro in the face of the allegations. I will share below why I don't agree with their stance, but must note that the willingness to go against the crowd, a crowd that is currently angry and powerful, is a fantastic quality in an activist. That's why I hope we can change their take on the issue, instead of extinguishing their strong female voices.

Of great concern is that the harassment allegations have been lumped in with and even used to fuel other criticisms of Pacelle and Shapiro's work. I am concerned not only because it minimizes work that many of us treasure, but because it minimizes the importance of the allegations.

LEARNING FROM HOLLYWOOD

Though my own experiences with Wayne Pacelle and Paul Shapiro have been good, I have had the blessing of a traumatic experience with one of the Hollywood men who stands accused of a number of serious offenses. When I met him, I envisioned myself as a consultant to Hollywood on animal issues. He envisioned me naked in numerous positions, which he detailed on email. When I called him on it, he persuaded me that I was being way too hard on him, for he was just having fun. Then, with immense skill he took a different tack to reach his goal.

I have taken responsibility for, and am ashamed of, my part in the degrading and humiliating game that played out over the next few months, but am yet to see him take any responsibility. Instead, when called on his behavior, he dived deep into the role of victim, first with me, and now in the legal system as he sues an accuser. I have seen men in the animal advocacy movement acting similarly victimized when challenged about their destructive behavior.

As numerous accusers have now stepped forward against the Hollywood man, it has been suggested, just as it has in our movement, that they are part of a plot designed by a powerful organization he has harmed. Those who know his darker side know that charge is absurd, as it is in our movement.

The most salient similarity to me is that women who have had entirely different dealings with the man, women who appreciate his good art and activism, have defended him and cast suspicion on the women he has hurt. One of them even released a public statement in which she called him a gentleman. Good Goddess, that word lying against my own experience gave me some sleepless nights. It also gave me immense empathy for the women in our movement forced to read about the good work of my friends Wayne and Paul, when they have had entirely different experiences with them.

TAKING RESPONSIBILITY

Hanging out with Wayne Pacelle over the years before he was married, at conferences and volunteer meetings, I saw countless terrific women offer themselves to Wayne. And I saw him help himself with delight rather than restraint. I called him a Casanova and didn't see the harm in it; we were all playing by different rules at the time. And I truly believe Wayne didn't understand the impact. I now realize that his behavior, and the influence he had over others on his staff who may have been too completely his proteges, created a toxic working environment for many of the female staff and volunteers at HSUS, an organization at which they are the majority.

I know both Wayne Pacelle and Paul Shapiro well enough to guess they have done more or less what they are accused of. Some of the same behavior has not bothered me, but I have never experienced it in the context of a work environment. I would not have wanted to, so I take the charges seriously.

Having read both of their public statements on the issue, I cannot tell how seriously they take the allegations. Wayne's statement shows immense grace, as is his way, as he dodges the issue at hand. He really is a master politician and I wonder, with some hope, if he will move into the political field eventually. Paul's statement tackles some of the issue but he hopes we will dismiss his behavior as "juvenile." He doesn't seem to get that the policies he violated at HSUS were in place for good reason, because sexual involvement and even flirtation with coworkers can be based on and cause complicated and destructive power dynamics, dynamics that many of us are only slowly coming to understand. I think we will hear more from both Wayne Pacelle and Paul Shapiro on this issue in time; only in time, because what both they know and I know about activism is that real change doesn't come when one feels forced into it. It comes when the pressure is off.

MOVING FORWARD WITH WOMEN ON TOP

I am eager to see Wayne and Paul take true responsibility for the mess at HSUS, and move forward with a clean slate. But that doesn't mean I am eager to see them back leading HSUS. I met Wayne's interim replacement, Kitty Block, about a year ago and was taken with her smarts and charisma. There are other fantastic women at HSUS. My clearest memory of my first animal rights conference back in 2001 is of a plenary speech given by Heidi Prescott of the Fund for Animals. (How rare for a woman to give a plenary in those days!) It knocked my socks off and I am glad she is now, thanks to Wayne, with HSUS. So are the accomplished women, Michele Cho and Beverly Kaskey. And perhaps Jennifer Fearing, a force to be reckoned with, will be back. There are other fantastic women who I know but haven't mentioned, or who I am yet to meet personally. I can't wait to see what all of those women will bring to our movement and the world.

Statistics from conference attendance, and from the group Faunalytics, which gathers demographic information on animal advocacy support and participation, tell us that our movement is about 75% female. As much as I admire the work of Wayne Pacelle and Paul Shapiro and other men in our movement, given those stats I am not eager to see any more men at the head of animal advocacy organizations, with heaps of female staff or volunteers underneath them so to speak. I am a big believer in affirmative action and think that until the top leadership reflects the demographics of the rest of the movement it would be best if leadership appointments were female.

THE ANNUAL ANIMAL RIGHTS CONFERENCE

That brings us to the animal rights conference, mentioned above. Alex Hershaft has done an enormous service to our movement by forming it and presiding over it for years. In many ways Alex is a beautiful and even great man. But he is also an old-fashioned sexist. I hate to share this, but as allegations have emerged against him, at least one friend stated, "I don't believe it." Unintentionally, she has suggested that the women making the charges are liars. I believe I owe it to them and our movement to share my own experiences with him and the conference.

In the early 2000s, while Wayne Pacelle used his platform to urge conference attendees with an interest in media to sign up for DawnWatch, and all employees at PETA were advised to sign up for DawnWatch, and I had op-eds on animal issues printed in the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, and had a radio show on Los Angeles' KPFK, I had to beg Alex for plenary speaking gigs, while almost all of the spots were filled by men. What I didn't beg for, when I went to greet him with a friendly kiss on the cheek at the bar one night, was for him to turn his head last minute and stick his tongue into my mouth.

It wasn't the end of the world, it wasn't rape - and I do worry that minor incidents like that are being lumped in with truly horrifying assaults. But it was upsetting and demeaning. And because I did not know that side of Alex, it made me question myself and wonder if I had, with my general warmth, somehow invited it. I have been helped by learning, recently, that it was part of a pattern. That is why I share the story here, even though I know we are all flawed and I do not enjoy speaking against people. The most important aspect of the tale is that I sense the incident, in ways I don't yet understand, was somehow connected to the battle I went through to get plenary gigs despite my qualifications for them.

The only person I told about that incident was Pattrice Jones, who kept the confidence for many years due to my concern about the impact sharing it would have on future speaking engagements and therefore on DawnWatch. It surely helped form her opinion of Alex, and could be part of why he is quoted in the Nonprofit Chronicles, where many disturbing allegations about him have surfaced, as saying that Pattrice "feels like it is her mission in life is to bash men." Pattrice is an extraordinary advocate for women and animals and generally not all that concerned with men. If Alex feels bashed by her he can take it personally and know that at least a little bit of bash may have been on my behalf.

I doubt Alex will confirm my tongue story, and not because I think he will intentionally lie. We remember a miniscule proportion of things that happened years ago - only what matters to us most. Small crude acts, just like the small crude jokes some of my dearest colleagues are accused of telling, which were tossed off lightly but landed hard, will be remembered only by the recipient.

Because of my conference difficulties I was thrilled when I learned that Erica Meier, the talented director of Compassion Over Killing, was taking over numerous projects previously under Alex's organization FARM, but I was disappointed to learn that the conference was not one of them. Now I hear that the Dawn Moncrief and Jen Riley will be in charge. I am bursting with excitement to see the gift Alex gave our movement run by women who are up with the times and part of the beautiful change we are seeing in the world. I support them in every attempt to make sure that the male/female make-up of the panels, and especially the plenaries, reflects that of the attendees. Of course there are some fantastic men in our movement who deserve to be heard, even some who haven't sexually harassed anybody. But there are many more fantastic women, and it's our time now.

DAWNWATCH IN THIS NEW AGE

While I am very much a feminist, with my thinking in that field profoundly influenced by Marianne Williamson's A Woman's Worth, I have devoted my life to animal advocacy because the need there is greatest. Women are not locked in gestation crates by the millions. And animals are not suffering because of lack of equal pay for equal work, they are suffering from absolute enslavement and complete confinement leading up to execution. That does not mean that effective male animal advocates should get any kind of pass now that #TimesUp for male domination. Consider the stats I noted above: women are three times more likely to be part of the animal advocacy movement. They are more likely to be vegetarian or vegan. And despite what feminists of my generation were taught, I am comfortable asserting that with some exceptions they tend to be fundamentally more nurturing and kind. That's why, when we see a shift in the balance of power, we will see a better world for animals. The anima
l advocacy movement must be part of that shift.

DawnWatch sure plans to be! At our first fundraiser, last November's Turkey Pardon Party, where we asked Tracey and Ellie Turkey to pardon our species for the more traditional Thanksgiving celebration, we gave out our first awards to activists and media. All four awards went to women. (Okay, one was to a couple, but the bad-ass woman gave the acceptance speech.) With our secretary having recently resigned, the role has been temporally filled by GFI head and beloved standing DawnWatch board member Bruce Friedrich (Look ma, no harassment allegations!) but he is "interim" as secretary because we intend to have a woman fill the role long term.

As for the future: we had been planning a media awards gala for May, which you can be sure, when it happens, will feature mostly women! I have shared above how hard DawnWatch has been hit by the changes at HSUS, and share here concerns about finding footing in the shifting landscape of our movement. We may need to find funding before making more plans. As they say on "This is Us," I may have to "slow my roll." But not for long. This is an exciting time. It is time for our movement to come together and honor the great work of some of the male activists who have been leading it, while at the same time honoring the women who have spoken out and insisted those men step aside while they account for behavior that has disempowered other activists and thereby hurt animals. Those female voices are ushering in a new day, which DawnWatch embraces with hope and passion.

Yours and all animals,'
Karen Dawn
Executive Director, DawnWatch, your Daily Animal World News Watch.
http://DawnWatch.com

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DAWNWATCH is the only animal advocacy organization entirely focused on major media. The DawnWatch mission is to encourage positive coverage of animal issues. DawnWatch news alerts share important stories that are about animals or that affect animals, and facilitate one-click responses.

You can learn more about DawnWatch, sign up for alerts, and support DawnWatch, a 501C3 nonprofit charity that relies on donations, at https://www.DawnWatch.com , where there is also an address for snail-mail donations. All donations are tax deductible.

If you would like to know more about any issue covered by DawnWatch, please go to http://tinyurl.com/254ulkx to check out Karen Dawn's book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals." It is a warm, friendly and comprehensive handbook of animal advocacy topics. The updated, eco-friendly e-edition came out in 2014.

For more frequent animal news, you can "like" DawnWatch on Facebook at http://Facebook.com/DawnWatchInc and under the "Follow" tab, select "See first."

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Date: Thu Feb 22 13:33:10 2018

From Animal Acres:
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Animal Acres Volunteer Needs Week of December 19th 2005

Home for the Holidays

Come out to Animal Acres this week to help us care for hundreds of rescued farmed animals who finally have a home for the holidays.and the rest of their natural lives.

Animal Acres will be open on Christmas (of course!) to care for our farmed animal friends. Volunteers are needed on Christmas Day from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. We will be holding a holiday potluck at noon, so please bring a dish to share and join in the festivities!

The sanctuary is also still in URGENT need of weekly CAREGIVERS who can commit to a regular 4 hour shift (or 8 hour shift for HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS) per week. We particularly need caregivers on Mondays and Saturdays.

Please call 661-269-0986 or email info@animalacres.org if you would like to sign up to be a Christmas Volunteer or would like to join our Caregiver Team. Thank MOO!

Animal Acres is a Los Angeles farmed animal sanctuary and compassionate living center directed by Farm Sanctuary co-founder Lorri Bauston. Thank you for your support.

Animal Acres 5200 Escondido Canyon Road Acton, CA 93510 Ph: 661-269-0986 Email: info@animalacres.org Web: www.animalacres.org


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Date: Wed Dec 21 18:52:07 2005