Why is advocacy so hard?
Rescue saves one, or a few, animals at a time. Successful advocacy produces organizational and even systemic changes that, at best, prevent animals from being in danger at all. Rescue compared to advocacy is like donating to a food bank compared to lobbying for social welfare programs and a living wage. Each animal under deadline has a more immediate need for rescue, but in terms of impact, advocacy can have a much bigger impact than rescue can—when it is effective and successful. So why are there so few advocates for life-affirming sheltering, compared to the number of rescuers? Why is advocacy so hard?
A few thoughts:
Most of us are socialized to defer to those in authority. Even when we have overwhelming evidence that officials are making ill-informed, counter-productive, and even callous and irresponsible decisions, it’s hard to overcome that socialization.
Effective advocacy requires us to get educated. It is so much easier to rescue one animal after another than it is to learn about how No Kill sheltering works, learn about how our own pound or shelter is working, and develop a clear message and goal for advocacy.
There’s no immediate gratification. When you rescue an animal, you see the difference you’re making in real time. Advocacy can take years to achieve the goal, and even then, it’s not a “one and done” achievement. No Kill sheltering is not a single accomplishment; it is a constant practice requiring attention and continuous improvement. It takes perseverance and willingness to tolerate conflict.
One thing pounds and shelters are really good at is portraying themselves as the beleaguered champions of the animals, even when they are the ones killing those animals. “We all want the same thing!” they say. “We need to work together.” They portray advocates as haters and shelter bashers, and themselves as the victims. Advocates have to understand that dynamic and overcome it. It’s such a common challenge that No Kill advocates have been writing about it for well over a decade.
As No Kill advocate Shirley Marsh said in a 2011 blog entry, “In reality, it takes a group of dedicated animal advocates willing to stir things up in their own community by challenging the status quo and refusing to accept killing as a means of population control. There are consequences to such actions: old friendships may be broken, egos may be bruised, glass houses may be shattered. This ain’t no fairy tale. It’s hard work which will be met with resistance by some. You will no longer be able to ride the I Love Everybody and Everybody Loves Me bus. You will not be nominated for homecoming queen. No soup for you.”
Now what? Are you willing to be an advocate?