Florida Bar Animal Law Section Agrees with Howie

Today the FL Bar ran Howie’s article (See Dec. 20, 2018) and it’s all over the Internet now.  Game ON, FWC!

 

https://www.flabaranimals.org/single-post/2019/01/03/IT-IS-TIME-TO-END-THE-EXPLOITATION-AND-MISTREATMENT-OF-BIG-CATS-IN-FLORIDA?fbclid=IwAR0nHtRkqz6n-NkznJB2tjXM-f2SoEvl04Fj4bNgDDUKjrOYSqhCfuTGan8

 

Howie has been putting out some feelers, primarily with HSUS to see if they have an appetite for going after the FWC this year legislatively.  Dana Young, a Republican who had been animal friendly lost to Democrat, Janet Cruz, so we don’t have a champion for animals in the Republican held FL Congress.  

 

On the federal front, I sent the following to Kim and Lisa at Directive Group who manages our Google ad grant for us for free.  I had asked her to see if we could use our grant for running the ads against cub petting and gave her the following background:

 

Just as a little background on PPK.  Back in 2003 they donated time to help us change our name and logo when they were with a different firm that is now defunct.  In 2011 we hired one of the team as our PR director (Susan.Bass@BigCatRescue.org).  Michael Schillig has become close friends and a tennis mate with my husband.  PPK donates their art and copy to us every year and they win all kinds of awards with the stuff they have made and donated to us to end the practice of keeping big cats in captivity.

 

We did a $50k campaign with them last summer as our hail Mary to try and get the Big Cat Public Safety Act passed.  The money all went to ad buy, not to them.  They created this video below and then targeted ad spend to just people in a narrow area around DC, to try and reach the aids in Congress, to see it.  The video performed magnificently, with something like 70% or more watching it all the way through.  We never heard about an aid seeing it though.

https://youtu.be/-8Iy3pI9qI8

One of our board members works for Cox media and he's had the audio from that played on the radio on 6 stations for quite a while, but mostly in late night slots that aren't sold.

 

Since the DC thing didn't work, what we thought we'd try next is to target people who are either in the areas where big cub petting operations exist, like Myrtle Beach, SC., Wynnewood, OK, Thackerville, etc., and target people searching for things to do in those areas, who are also searching cubs, zoos, etc. and show them this video and one that we are having done.  The one we are having done is a longer and better 2.5 minute remake of this one:

https://youtu.be/1ewz7AjUz6M

If we can reach people before they pay to pet or see a cub, then maybe we can just kill the industry.  We are reintroducing our federal bill and have both an R and D Sponsor in the House.  We think we can pass it there very quickly as the head of the committee was a co sponsor last year, but getting it through the Senate will still be a challenge.  We have a lobbyist working half time for us on it and his goal is an R sponsor in the Senate by the end of February.  Our bill had close to 150 cosponsors last time around and would have passed in the House, if we had been able to get a hearing, but Chairman Bishop had blocked us.

 

So, to sum it up, PPK is doing all of this for us for free, but we will have to spend money on the actual ads.  I'm trying to figure out ways to leverage their efforts at a reduced ad spend cost.  Anything you know about the non profit Google grants would be a huge help.

 

Hi, I’m Carole Baskin and I’ve been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views.  These are my views and opinions. If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story.  The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/

 

I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story.  My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.  

 

You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile!

Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile

 

You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org

 

Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue

 

Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk