Fw: [AGA] ACTION IDEA IF YOU LIKE TO WRITE FOR ANIMALS

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- Linda Gentille

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Tuesday, May 15, 2001 1:56 AM

[AGA] ACTION IDEA IF YOU LIKE TO WRITE FOR ANIMALS

How to Write Articles to Help Animals/5-9-01 veganvirago (Susan Gordon) How to Write Articles to Help Animals by Barbara Rosen Maybe, like me, you have a passion to make a difference for those who have no voice. When I first became a full-time freelance journalist ten years ago, my dream was to devote myself entirely to writing articles to help animals. It took eight years for that dream to come true. In March, an editor at a major animal protection publication told me he only knows of seven full-time animal-protection freelancers, and I'm one of them. Maybe, like me, you have a passion to make a difference for those who have no voice. Does it bother you that an estimated six million dogs and cats are killed in the U.S. yearly because no one wants to adopt them? Do you feel sad that some chimpanzees, who share about 98 percent of our genes, spend their lives in cramped, barren cages in research laboratories? Would you like to help stop companies from tearing down the rainforests that are home to many types of animals? If things like these matter to you, then writing articles to help animals might be a way you can gain money and some peace of mind as well. What Can You Write About? I'll wager you can find at least one animal angle for every type of readership. Pet magazines, and animal welfare magazines such as the ASPCA Animal Watch, are the most obvious markets. But that's just the beginning. For science magazines, why not cover the mental abilities of gorillas, and why scientists like Jane Goodall want to see these animals get better treatment? For a retirement magazine: "Are You Planning for Fido in Your Will?" For a children's magazine: "Five Reasons Not to Buy a Puppy from a Pet Store." For teen magazines, try profiling teens who have made a difference for animals. You might suggest in your query, "This might be especially appropriate for October, which is National Animal Safety and Protection Month." Then there are parenting magazines: "What to Do If Your Child Doesn't Want to Dissect Animals in Science Class." Holistic health magazines: "How to Be Beautiful Without Using Products Harmfully Tested on Animals." Even religious magazines can be carriers of your message: "Do Animals Have Souls Like Ours?" Women's publications might want an article on battered-women's shelters that allow women to bring their companion animals. Thumb through a book like Writer's Market to scan some of the trade publications. Truckers might want guidelines on how to avoid running over animals, or on how to transport animals humanely. I've been published in the law trade on how to be an animal-rights attorney. I get a seemingly infinite number of ideas from reading literature put out by animal- protection groups. Sometimes I have an experience that sparks an idea. Like the time a woman told me she didn't want a second cat because she wanted her lonely indoor cat to be starved for companionship and lavish love on her during the few hours she was home. Ooh! I could have given her a piece of my mind. Instead, I wrote an article for Cats on the companionship needs of these social creatures, and I used "Ms. Selfish" as an example of what not to do. J.R., a dog chained to my psychotic neighbor's car for 18 months straight, inspired me to write about the cruelty of chaining dogs. In one of my articles, I included the story of how I tried to rescue J.R. Keep your ears open to what's happening in your town. I wrote the cover story for a local alternative paper on the problem of homeless cats and dogs in my town. When I lived in L.A., I covered how local animal activists got every restaurant in the town of Venice to stop selling milk-fed veal. Don't forget celebrity profiles or interviews. Paul McCartney, Mary Tyler Moore, and numerous others have been outspoken in the press about protecting animals. Some of my topics are not obviously animal-rightsy, but they help animals indirectly. My article on how to give a dog a funeral (Dog Fancy) hopefully helped raise the status of dogs in society. Many companion animals are put to death because someone was allergic to them -- so I wrote about ways to conquer allergies to horses, dogs and cats. The most popular hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is Premarin, made by locking up mares for months at a time to collect their urine (then sending most of the babies to slaughter). So I wrote about the very real health hazards of taking HRT. For writers who want to help curb the suffering of farm animals, vegetarianism, fortunately, is an "in" topic these days. I've written, for example, about vegetarian diets for kids, and how restaurants can offer more meatless meals. I hope I also helped farm animals with my Q-and-A interview with a livestock consultant on how to raise "stress-free" sheep (National Wool Grower). Whom Do You Interview? I often interview representatives of animal-protection groups. Most of the time I balance out their points of view with the people they're charging with animal abuse -- for example, hunters, farmers and biomedical researchers. Run your animal-protection sources by editors first -- they may consider certain groups too "radical" to be in their magazines. Don't tell sources who else will be quoted, though, or they may refuse to be in your article. Sometimes I pick sources not because it's necessary, but because I want to influence them. When I wrote an article to promote sterilization of young pups and kittens (to curb animal overpopulation), I quoted two of Britain's major animal charities. I did this mainly so that I could send them a copy of my article and be sure they'd read it. I almost always send a copy of my published piece to everyone I quote. Usually I add a note: "Please feel free to distribute photocopies, if you'd like." That way, my articles help even more animals. Some Dos and Don'ts 1. Keep your readership in mind when you write. In your zeal, you don't want to come across as too "extreme" and have an editor reject your piece. If you're writing for a conservative business publication, it's probably better to quote a more conservative animal group like the ASPCA than a more radical one like PETA. If you're writing for a hunting magazine, it's probably better not to advocate banning all hunting -- but you might write about how bow-hunting leaves many animals to slowly die of their wounds. Almost always, you're most likely to spark change in readers if you focus on what's in it for them. For example, when I write about vegetarianism, I rarely mention how this will help animals. Instead, I tell readers how going vegetarian can improve their health, figure, environment, sports ability, etc. People generally care much more about cats and dogs than about coyotes and foxes. So when I wanted readers to abhor the excruciating leghold trap, I focused on how dogs and cats sometimes get caught in the traps. 2. Appear as "objective" as possible. Unless you're writing an opinion piece, or your editor lets you take a strong stance in articles, play it cool. For example, leave out superlatives like "amazingly," and loaded words like "vivisection." I tell editors and readers that I specialize in writing about animals, not animal protection. 3. Use language that promotes respect for animals. For example, refer to animals as "he" or "she" rather than "it;who" instead of "which;" and "companion animals" rather than "pets." Refer to people as animals' "guardians," not as their "owners." Avoid language that debases animals -- for example, "bird-brained,I smell a rat," or "he acted like an animal." You might want to avoid euphemisms like "The shelter put hundreds of animals to sleep," so that readers absorb what really did happen: "The shelter killed hundreds of animals." If you care a lot about animals, writing articles to help them can be one of the most rewarding things you do. After I wrote about vegetarian bodybuilder Meghan O'Leary, she told me how women would approach her in the gym, eager to learn what foods she ate. That, for me, was more rewarding than any paycheck could ever be. -- BR ©2001 Barbara Rosen Barbara Rosen is an award-winning journalist in Oregon, USA. For the sake of animals, she'd love to multiply herself. So feel free to take off on any of the article ideas she's presented here. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ AnimalTalk newsletter is a free service of AnimalTalk, Inc. 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