Activists Aren’t Crazy
I’ve been called a bunch of things in my life, sometimes even nice things. But I have noticed that if people call me an activist its often with a negative tone.
The Media & Activism
Activism is a topic that often creates a fairly heated argument between the ‘for’ and ‘against’ teams and it is hard to get a balanced discussion on the subject. I have noticed animal activist articles are not as prevalent in the general media channels as it used to be, and I think it should definitely have some attention on the topic from the mainstream. A great deal of what has been allowed to happen to our animals is because people are simply not aware of what is going on. Bugger the ratings, the political correctness, the paywalls, and stories of a super star who had a baby, we need the media to simply go back to good old fashioned reporting on matters that are actually newsworthy and relevant to the average person.
Frustration By Design?
In my dealings with various agencies I have found it to be an extremely frustrating and drawn out process. Maybe its designed to make you give up, who knows, but I noticed when you start questioning the actions of certain departments the responses (if any) are often designed to get more about you, and for them to offer little to no information. From my experience they don’t want to tell you anything of substance, but they want your full name, where you live, date of birth, phone number, occupation, that sort of thing. While it may appear your communications go nowhere, I’d be willing to bet someone has read it and its the squeaky wheel that gets the oil (and the surveillance) – so don’t give up. After many months of being stuffed around I realised – this is why you see activists using unconventional methods to raise awareness.
Here are the basic results I received when looking into what was happening:
Ombudsman: Nothing they can do in this case.
CCC (investigates departmental staff misconduct): Suggested I seek independent legal advice to assist me. Nothing the CCC can do, and they requested I refrain from communicating with them any further regarding this matter.
RSPCA: Not their jurisdiction, report it to DES.
Local Council: Doesn’t cull birds, report it to DES.
DES: No response.
Police: No harassment, nothing suspicious.
Ever wondered why you see some activists doing extreme things to get exposure? Well wonder no more.
They Aren’t Crazy
I believe most activists have had enough of the system as it stands today, hence the nature of their protests. They may have gone through all the steps and come out the other end thinking that the officials working for us to protect our environment and animals, might just be looking out for their own interests instead. Now, I’m not the ‘shouting at you waving a sign’ kind of guy. I prefer showing people what I have found, sharing my experiences online, and then letting people make the choice. They can then either side with me, or be catapulted into the Sun. I’m totally fair about it. Looking around at the activist scene I can see the frustration out there, I’m sure many are thinking that our leaders are not forward thinkers nor overly concerned with anything other than power and money. One group I have briefly seen doing public awareness campaigns are Anonymous for the Voiceless they seem to be doing it about right. If people want to stop and take a peak behind the curtain of what happens to animals, they can. If not, they can walk on by.
So next time you see an activist group, consider how hard they are finding it to reach the people with their message. They are trying to get people to see behind the curtain, likely after a long time of struggling with a system that doesn’t seem to really give a damn that our animals are being shot, poisoned, and gassed.
