PEOPLE NEWS
We couldn’t say it any better than our former colleague (and still) fellow activist Veda Stram could say it when searching for the words to impress upon you the importance of promoting us. In return, we do likewise for you and/or your organization. There is strength in numbers.
So, here, in the most eloquent words from Veda:
The Power of History and Networking
From the helpless horror of one nine-year-old girl watching a dog strangled to death only a few yards in front of her to a web site providing some 5,000 visitors a day with the harsh realities of how animals are treated—and also providing visitors with thousands of resources to help animals—the history of The Animals Voice demonstrates the power of a single voice and the exponential—inevitably magical—power when voices connect.
When nine-year-old Laura Moretti stood petrified and speechless, that dog’s cries reached her ears and lodged in her heart, never to disappear.
At twelve, she began writing short stories and essays about animals. People who “loved animals” read them and just adored them and asked her to write more. So she did.
At thirteen, she tuned into what she hoped would be a TV special extolling the beauty of seals, but watched in horror as a hunter’s boot stomped on a seal pup until it died, screaming. And then she wrote about that.
At fifteen, she began mimeographing her essays and, for the next several years, mailed and faxed them to the handful of people on earth who were starting to talk about animal rights—people who sensed that a movement was beginning. They listened for similarities in philosophical, artistic, legal, and educational domains—sharing everything they could with everybody they thought might have a sense of animal rights.
Tom Regan met Laura in her hometown of Chico, California, when she was 29. She had been amazed to find he was coming there to give a lecture and present a film on—of all things!—animal rights.
Gil Michaels was a man whose life had only recently been altered by his hearing the cries of animals. Tom Regan gave Gil Laura’s phone number. Gil called her and—having the financial ability to do so—made her an offer she couldn’t refuse: to provide beyond-her-dreams funding for production of The Animals Voice Magazine, publishing it as a high-gloss, full-color, professionally researched and marketed publication.
The premiere issue was launched in the spring of 1988 to the profound appreciation of animal activists around the world. Gil generously financed the The Animals Voice Magazine until 1993. After that, Laura devotedly kept her magazine alive and in production on and off the press in all the years since.
Realizing the dynamic potential and unbelievable reach of the Internet, Laura taught herself web design with a grant from Sudhir Amembal, a former Board President and Animals Voice Magazine supporter. In 2000, they created and launched Animals Voice Online.
The reason for telling you this abbreviated history of The Animals Voice is to remind you of the impact of one voice, one lecture, one phone call. Stated that way, it probably doesn’t inspire excitement or enthusiasm or a life-altering awakening.
And this is the point.
Excitement and enthusiasm and life-altering awakenings may happen when we are alone and listening to our own voice. But we all really know that magic happens, that differences get made, that paradigms shift, when our voices are in concert with the voices of other human beings. Whenever you doubt the ability of one individual to make a difference, remember the powerless nine-year-old girl who created a vehicle that empowers and supports thousands of people every day—day after day, year after year.
When you hesitate to go to one more meeting because you’re tired or don’t like some of the people who may be there or wonder what difference can it make anyway? remember Laura going to hear Tom Regan’s presentation.
When you meet someone on the street or over the phone or via the Internet and hesitate to speak of this great person or this fantastic project that matters to you, remember that Tom called Gil.
Having taken on the Herculean task of creating a world free of animal cruelty and abuse, discouragement is inevitable. But a friend once advised me to “never underestimate the inevitability of gradualness.” If each of us takes action, and then we work with each other, our success will be inevitable.
If you are reading this, then you are someone who is and has been a voice for animals. And too bad for whatever your opinions may be about you, you are hereby profoundly acknowledged for having been heard, for having gotten through, for having altered peoples’ relationships with animals.
And in doing that, you are causing a world that works for everyone and everything, with no one and nothing left out.
Thank you for being the animals’ voice.
RECENT NEWS
We couldn’t say it any better than our former colleague (and still) fellow activist Veda Stram could say it when searching for the words to impress upon you the importance of promoting us. In return, we do likewise for you and/or your organization. There is strength in numbers.
So, here, in the most eloquent words from Veda:
The Power of History and Networking
From the helpless horror of one nine-year-old girl watching a dog strangled to death only a few yards in front of her to a web site providing some 5,000 visitors a day with the harsh realities of how animals are treated—and also providing visitors with thousands of resources to help animals—the history of The Animals Voice demonstrates the power of a single voice and the exponential—inevitably magical—power when voices connect.
When nine-year-old Laura Moretti stood petrified and speechless, that dog’s cries reached her ears and lodged in her heart, never to disappear.
At twelve, she began writing short stories and essays about animals. People who “loved animals” read them and just adored them and asked her to write more. So she did.
At thirteen, she tuned into what she hoped would be a TV special extolling the beauty of seals, but watched in horror as a hunter’s boot stomped on a seal pup until it died, screaming. And then she wrote about that.
At fifteen, she began mimeographing her essays and, for the next several years, mailed and faxed them to the handful of people on earth who were starting to talk about animal rights—people who sensed that a movement was beginning. They listened for similarities in philosophical, artistic, legal, and educational domains—sharing everything they could with everybody they thought might have a sense of animal rights.
Tom Regan met Laura in her hometown of Chico, California, when she was 29. She had been amazed to find he was coming there to give a lecture and present a film on—of all things!—animal rights.
Gil Michaels was a man whose life had only recently been altered by his hearing the cries of animals. Tom Regan gave Gil Laura’s phone number. Gil called her and—having the financial ability to do so—made her an offer she couldn’t refuse: to provide beyond-her-dreams funding for production of The Animals Voice Magazine, publishing it as a high-gloss, full-color, professionally researched and marketed publication.
The premiere issue was launched in the spring of 1988 to the profound appreciation of animal activists around the world. Gil generously financed the The Animals Voice Magazine until 1993. After that, Laura devotedly kept her magazine alive and in production on and off the press in all the years since.
Realizing the dynamic potential and unbelievable reach of the Internet, Laura taught herself web design with a grant from Sudhir Amembal, a former Board President and Animals Voice Magazine supporter. In 2000, they created and launched Animals Voice Online.
The reason for telling you this abbreviated history of The Animals Voice is to remind you of the impact of one voice, one lecture, one phone call. Stated that way, it probably doesn’t inspire excitement or enthusiasm or a life-altering awakening.
And this is the point.
Excitement and enthusiasm and life-altering awakenings may happen when we are alone and listening to our own voice. But we all really know that magic happens, that differences get made, that paradigms shift, when our voices are in concert with the voices of other human beings. Whenever you doubt the ability of one individual to make a difference, remember the powerless nine-year-old girl who created a vehicle that empowers and supports thousands of people every day—day after day, year after year.
When you hesitate to go to one more meeting because you’re tired or don’t like some of the people who may be there or wonder what difference can it make anyway? remember Laura going to hear Tom Regan’s presentation.
When you meet someone on the street or over the phone or via the Internet and hesitate to speak of this great person or this fantastic project that matters to you, remember that Tom called Gil.
Having taken on the Herculean task of creating a world free of animal cruelty and abuse, discouragement is inevitable. But a friend once advised me to “never underestimate the inevitability of gradualness.” If each of us takes action, and then we work with each other, our success will be inevitable.
If you are reading this, then you are someone who is and has been a voice for animals. And too bad for whatever your opinions may be about you, you are hereby profoundly acknowledged for having been heard, for having gotten through, for having altered peoples’ relationships with animals.
And in doing that, you are causing a world that works for everyone and everything, with no one and nothing left out.
Thank you for being the animals’ voice.
PEOPLE NEWS
