Skill-building Workshop for Farmed Animal Protection in Bangalore, 29 November, 2009

Last Updated on Tuesday, 15 December 2009 09:59 Written by FIAPO Monday, 14 December 2009 15:16

Action Highlights - Action Highlights

The Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations held a skill-building workshop in Bangalore on 29 November, 2009 to provide a forum for people to discuss activities and events for farmed animal protection from the past three months and to further develop skills in public demonstrations, media relations and effective methods of reacting to current events related to farmed animals.


1)  World Farmed Animals Day: demonstration held on October 4th promoting a vegetarian/vegan for environmental and animal protection. The event was attended by more than 45 activists and around 1,000 leaflets were distributed.

2)   Screening of “Meat the Truth”: About 70 people attended, linking factory farming with environment destruction, held in a public hall followed by vegan snacks.

3)   KFC booklet distribution: Four people entered the KFC mid-day and began distributing leaflets explaining cruelties caused chickens by KFC. Conversation ensued between Kranti activists and KFC staff.

4)   Humane Education in Colleges:  Presentation to college students about environmental effects of factory farming using material from PETA and others, with “go veg” message.

5)    Canadian Seal Slaughter protest: Held outside the Canadian embassy mid-day, involved about 5 activists. Held posters and met with Canadian officials requesting pressure on Canada from India’s side.

6)    Humane Education in Schools: Animal Aid in Udaipur, Karuna Society and individuals showing various videos.

Some of the positives the groups felt of their activities and events were in media relations, creative marketing, good use of the “hook” of environmental issues with factory farming, large numbers of activist participation, good material for handouts and use of educational films. Challenges discussed were in the need to increase media coverage, increase audience numbers at demonstrations, better track the response, more preparation with teachers and control of venue dynamics.

Jayasimha walked the participants through the processes involved in identifying potential news events as “hooks” for your activities such as demos, letters to the editor, or public events, and how to conduct an animal protection demonstration from the point of view of gaining maximum media coverage when your resources are limited. To exercise the methods for reacting to current events, the participants searched through newspapers to find animal related articles, afterwhich Jayasimha explained effective reactions.

Tips for successful public demonstrations included:

•    Hold demo during hours convenient to the media
•    No need for huge crowd; two or three people can be fine for a good photograph
•    Prepare your sound bites (what you say) with memorized information
•    Rehearse your tone and ability to recite accurate information
•    Don’t wear white if possible, it doesn’t photograph well
•    Don’t wear leather or leather-like products
•    Bring plenty of water
•    No need to have a long demo; it can be as short as an hour to be effective
•    Anyone photographed or selected to speak should hold a placard

FUTURE PLANS

Before the day ended, the workshop participants held a meeting amongst themselves to coordinate thier up-coming actions. We look forward to sharing the news about the Bangalore events and activities with you on the Animal Protectors' News page soon!