Episode Notes
NonprofitA non-governmental organization whose primary purpose is something other than selling goods or services. Specialist Julia and Community Education Specialist Andie discuss animal sanctuaries’ role as advocates. From a movement standpoint, sanctuaries are essential vectors of change when it comes to society’s view of animals. In terms of education and even legal advocacy, sanctuaries do a great deal to change hearts and minds while supporting the compassionate care of animals. We talk about how sanctuary education accomplishes, how sanctuaries can lobby for legal change, and the constraints around legal advocacy.
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This Episode’s Referenced Open Sanctuary Project Resources:
- In-Person Sanctuary Educational Programming: What Are Your Options? | The Open Sanctuary Project
- The Significance of Humane Education in a Sanctuary Setting | The Open Sanctuary Project
- An Introduction to Educational Programs and Opportunities Well-Suited for MicrosanctuariesMicrosanctuaries are small scale communities of human and nonhuman (generally “unconventional or farmed”) animal companions, who live together in a chosen shared lifestyle and in commitment to ending the oppression of all beings. Microsanctuaries adhere to the notion that no nonhuman member of the community should “serve a purpose.” Microsanctuaries can exist in any context: rural, suburban, or urban. A microsanctuary can consist of as small a community as one animal and one human caregiver. For more information on microsanctuary please refer to the Microsanctuary Resource Center. | The Open Sanctuary Project
- Fostering Empathy Towards Farmed AnimalsA species or specific breed of animal that is raised by humans for the use of their bodies or what comes from their bodies. | The Open Sanctuary Project
- A Guide to Fostering Farmed AnimalA species or specific breed of animal that is raised by humans for the use of their bodies or what comes from their bodies. Agency in Sanctuary Education | The Open Sanctuary Project
- Lobbying | The Internal Revenue Service
- A Farm Sanctuary Tour’s Effects On Intentions And Diet Change | Faunalytics
Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated)
Julia Magnus: Welcome to another episode of the Open Sanctuary Podcast. I’m Julia, the Open Sanctuary project’s nonprofit specialist, and today I’m chatting with my friend and colleague Andy, our community education specialist.
Julia Magnus: So today we want to talk about sanctuary education and its really vital connection to animal advocacy, as well as the other kinds of legal advocacy that sanctuaries can and cannot do. Whether you’re a newcomer to the sanctuary community or somebody who’s been involved in this work for quite some time, you might be wondering why we’re recording a standalone episode on this topic. And the answer to that question is because we’ve recently taken notice that in various realms of work, a distinction is often made between education and advocacy, and also a distinction between direct care and activism. While these distinctions may hold some weight in some circumstances, in the sanctuary world, the two are definitely not mutually exclusive.
Julia Magnus: In fact, it is our contention that sanctuary education is a critical form of animal advocacy and activism that can have a deep impact on the communities that we share it with. Nonetheless, the frequent notion that sanctuary education and animal advocacy are mutually exclusive can have serious implications for the sanctuary community and the residents that they care for, particularly when we’re seeking funding in the form of grants or trying to collaborate with other advocates in various sectors of the animal or otherwise collective liberationCollective liberation recognizes that all systems of oppression are intertwined and acknowledges that working in solidarity with one another to undo all of these oppressive systems is the only way we can achieve a world where everyone, human and nonhuman, is truly free from exploitation and harm. movement who may see our work as separate from what they do. First Andy, let’s start by briefly defining what we mean when we say education and advocacy.
Andie Springirth: Thank you, Julia. I think that is a great starting point for today. So, as you mentioned, education and advocacy are not the same thing, nor are they always mutually exclusive, however. But for the purposes of our time together today, I think that education can very broadly be defined as teaching and spreading knowledge to promote a deeper understanding of a particular topic or issue.
Andie Springirth: While advocacy on the other hand can very broadly be defined as supporting a cause or position in order to influence other people like the public or policy makers even.
Andie Springirth: So then this begs the question of what exactly are we doing at sanctuaries when we connect with the public and our local communities to share our missions and visions. Well, my friends, we are actually doing both.
Andie Springirth: So, let’s look at a specific example of what I mean. So, sanctuary education is facilitated in a variety of formats, of course, but most prominently, I think the format that comes to mind most often is guided on-site visits. And during these visits, sanctuary educators typically guide visitors through a tour of the sanctuary’s facilities. They introduce them to their missionThe stated goals and activities of an organization. An animal sanctuary’s mission is commonly focused on objectives such as animal rescue and public advocacy. and their residents via storytelling, usually. And sometimes when appropriate they facilitate consent-based interactions between the visitors and the residents.
Andie Springirth: And in our efforts to connect our local communities with our sanctuary missions and residents, we also typically educate people about the facts of modern agriculture and animal exploitationExploitation is characterized by the abuse of a position of physical, psychological, emotional, social, or economic vulnerability to obtain agreement from someone (e.g., humans and nonhuman animals) or something (e.g, land and water) that is unable to reasonably refuse an offer or demand. It is also characterized by excessive self gain at the expense of something or someone else’s labor, well-being, and/or existence. in order to strengthen our visitors’ understanding of these issues, give them practical recommendations and help them make their own better informed, more compassionate decisions regarding farmed animals.
Andie Springirth: So, in a nutshell, sanctuary education often involves encouraging others to take some kind of action on behalf of farmed animals, such as going veganAn individual that seeks to eliminate the exploitation of and cruelty to nonhuman animals as much as possible, including the abstention from elements of animal exploitation in non-food instances when possible and practicable as well. The term vegan can also be used as an adjective to describe a product, organization, or way of living that seeks to eliminate the exploitation of and cruelty to nonhuman animals as much as possible (e.g., vegan cheese, vegan restaurant, etc.)., speaking or writing in support of our causes, talking to the media and policy makers, and/or participating in other forms of revolution of the issue of animal exploitation, and this is advocacy.
Andie Springirth: So, in terms of our work as sanctuary educators, I really think it might be helpful to start thinking of sanctuary education as a critical form of animal advocacy and thus of ourselves as educational advocates.
Andie Springirth: And we also think it’s worth pointing out that there has been some analytical work done on the impact of farm animal sanctuaryAn animal sanctuary that primarily cares for rescued animals that were farmed by humans. tours on human intentions and on diet change after the fact. This work has been done by our friends at Fonolytics and it measures the impact of sanctuary education both quantitatively and qualitatively. We think it’s a must read. So, please check it out. It’ll be in our show notes, but especially if and when people are wondering what kinds of impact sanctuaries have beyond existing as caregiving spaces.
Julia Magnus: I love that study. So, thank you so much for pointing that out. It’s very important because I think that a lot of folks are like, “Oh, sanctuaries are just repositories for animals and they’re money pits. They just they won’t do anything to change people’s hearts and minds.” But I think that that study goes to show that that is fundamentally untrue. And in my view, honestly, the most effective way of changing people’s hearts and minds is, as you mentioned, having them see and meet with consent, of course, the animals that may be resident at a sanctuary.
Julia Magnus: I also want to point out that sanctuaries can also be and often are advocates beyond on-site visits and tours and even beyond community outreachAn activity or campaign to share information with the public or a specific group. Typically used in reference to an organization’s efforts to share their mission. events like tabling. If your mission and vision and your organizational capacity allows for it, sanctuaries can, and many already do, again, advocate for animals in ways that you might consider more typical of, let’s say, street advocates, street activists, or legal advocates.
Julia Magnus: So, one example of that, one thing that I’ve worked on, and I know a lot of other rooster advocates who have worked on this, is the question of educating about combating rooster bans. We all know it’s fundamentally inhumane to ban half of an entire species based on their sex and that these bans lead to terrible outcomes for roosters. So, I’ve spent a significant amount of time working on that issue to help roosters. And that is activism. That is advocacy as well. And it’s something that you can do beyond direct care. Not that you need to do anything beyond direct care, but you can.
Julia Magnus: This kind of advocacy can raise brows in the nonprofit world, however, just because there’s a common misconception that nonprofitsNon-governmental organizations whose primary purpose is something other than selling goods or services. cannot lobby. We’ll talk about that a little bit more, but I think it’s important to recognize that when it comes to restrictions on lobbying for nonprofits, it’s not in fact true that your organization cannot advocate for legal or specifically legislative change. Sanctuaries do this all the time without running afoul of legal restrictions.
Andie Springirth: Thank you for sharing that. And I’m just wondering if you can explain a little bit more about lobbying and what nonprofits can and cannot do in terms of lobbying because I do feel like there is this general sense that nonprofits simply cannot engage in any kind of activity that could be seen as political or lobbying. So what exactly do restrictions on lobbying mean?
Julia Magnus: To be super clear, I’m going to pull directly from IRS guidance on this to explain it, and we’re going to list that source in the notes as well. So, in terms of the rules, the IRS says that in general, no organization may qualify for a section 501c3 status if a substantial part of its activities is attempting to influence legislation.
Julia Magnus: This is commonly known as lobbying. So, you can engage in some lobbying, but too much such lobbying activity risks the loss of your tax-exempt status.
Julia Magnus: Let’s go back to the term legislation which we underlined earlier. Let’s figure out exactly what that means because that does dictate to a certain extent what you can and cannot do. So legislation includes action by Congress, any state legislature, any local council or similar governing body with respect to acts, bills, resolutions, or similar items like a legislative confirmation of an appointative office or by the public in referendum, ballot initiative, constitutional amendment, or a similar procedure.
Julia Magnus: It does not include actions by executive, judicial, or administrative bodies. This is important because if you are, for example, going to court in support of, let’s imagine that there was a cruelty case and you have organized a group of folks to go to court to stand in solidarity with the survivors of cruelty, that is not lobbying. You are going to the courthouse. You are not impacting a legislative body. That’s fine.
Julia Magnus: But also, let’s go back to the question of substantial part of its activities. It does not say the guidance that you cannot lobby legislative bodies at all. It just says that you cannot have that be the substantial part of your activities.
Julia Magnus: So, let’s define it a little bit further. Attempting to influence legislation basically means contacting or urging the public to contact members or employees of a legislative body for the purpose of proposing, supporting, or opposing legislation, or if you’re advocating actively for the adoption or rejection of legislation.
Julia Magnus: Again, different from administrative action. So, again, another example, if you’re talking to the USDAThe United States Department of Agriculture, a government department that oversees agriculture and farmed animals., which is an administrative body, and you’re asking them to make certain administrative changes, that’s very different than talking to Congress. You can lobby to administrative bodies as much as you want. And again, some lobbying of legislative bodies is allowed.
Julia Magnus: However, this is where it’s really, really, really important that you consult with qualified local legal counsel and possibly your accountants who can look at your budget and figure out how much of it you can use for the purposes of lobbying legislative bodies so you can stay within legal constraints and maintain your nonprofit status.
Julia Magnus: You can also involve yourself in issues of public policy without that activity being considered as lobbying. So you can have your educational meetings, you can have your tours, prepare and distribute your educational materials or otherwise consider public policy issues in an educational manner without jeopardizing your tax-exempt status.
Julia Magnus: And keep in mind, allowable lobbying or advocacy can include things like lawsuits. There have been multiple occasions where organizations, including prominent sanctuaries, have joined in lawsuits to advocate for animals. For example, there was lawsuits over Freedom of Information Act documentation regarding USDA documentation of slaughterhouse violations. Multiple prominent sanctuaries joined in that lawsuit, which led to important discoveries for animal advocates.
Julia Magnus: So ultimately, we don’t have this now, but I do plan on creating a resource that’s going to explain these lobbying restrictions. So keep your eyes out on our site because I think it’s important people know that.
Andie Springirth: Thank you, Julia, so much. That honestly was very helpful as a reminder or multiple reminders for me as well because as a former humane educator and sanctuary educator, that line was always a little bit blurred for me too and there was always kind of that underlying fear a little bit. So that was it. Yeah, it. That was incredibly concise and clear. Thank you so much for our audience.
Julia Magnus: Yeah, educators are in the clear. You’re safe. You are not going to lose your tax-exempt status because you are holding a tour. That will not happen. That’s right. Thank you. Everybody can take a deep sigh of relief there.
Andie Springirth: Yeah, so it’s very clear that in spite of this, you know, general perception that sanctuaries are merely caregiving spaces, they are in fact critical incubators for animal advocacy, both from an educational and even a legal advocacy perspective.
Andie Springirth: And I think this is so important to keep in mind when it comes to framing our missions and visions at our sanctuaries and when we’re discussing our work with our funders and other kinds of organizations and in terms of fully realizing the impact that sanctuaries have in the world and can have in the world.
Julia Magnus: Friends, thank you so much for joining us in another episode of the Open Sanctuary Podcast. We really hope you found today’s discussion enjoyable and helpful, and especially when it comes to your work as sanctuary educators and animal advocates. Any resources that were mentioned this episode will be listed in the show notes, as well as some other relevant resources. So, please go check those out when you have time.
Julia Magnus: If there are other subjects that we can cover that could be useful to you or your sanctuary, please also feel free to contact us via our contact page at www.opensanctuary.org. We are always happy to hear our community’s feedback and warmly welcome suggestions for new resources. If you found this information valuable, please consider leaving us a five-star review.
Julia Magnus: And if you like what we do and would like to support our work, we always warmly welcome donations as well. We are a 501c3 organization, so your donations are tax-deductible and greatly help sustain us and our mission of providing freely accessible resources so that every sanctuary is a success story. Thanks again for tuning in and for your support. We look forward to talking to you next time. Bye-bye.
