The Most Effective Thing Activists Can Do to Help Animals

Specific strategies are important, but there is something bigger we can do.

Nearly every animal activist I’ve met asks at some point “What is the most effective thing I can do to help animals?”

This is a noble question worth spending some time on. If we truly care for the animals locked in sheds and cages waiting for their turn on the truck to the slaughterhouse, then we owe it to them to do what is most effective to save them.

Some activists think it’s most effective to take the measurements approach and analyze how to reduce suffering as much as possible. Others look at how they can most affect the industry by going after the “easy” targets of fur and foie gras. Some use their careers, becoming lawyers or alternative protein scientists. A handful of us think of activism solely as vegan outreach, and the question becomes how to best do vegan outreach.

Until recently, I told activists the most effective activism they can do is the activism that they are most excited to do. Being excited to do something means you will more likely do it. Alternatively, If you hate talking to strangers yet are convinced that vegan education is the most effective path forward, you will burn out quickly, or worse, not do a good job at outreach. Maybe you reason that becoming a lawyer or cultivated meat scientist will secure the most positive results for animals, but you are 40 years old and deep into a completely different career path.

However, I now think doing the type of activism that excites you most is the second most effective thing you can do for the animals. What is now first? Get others involved in the movement. Why? All the paths toward animal liberation require people working on them. The more people working on them, the faster we can go. The more pressure we can mount. The more minds we can change.

The recent No Kings protests in the US gained media attention not by having a novel message but due to the sheer numbers of protesters involved. If ten people came out, we would easily dismiss the protest. However, millions of people held signs and marched through the streets across hundreds of cities, a sizable force on a mission. Clearly, the number of people involved amplifies the message and creates urgency in the cause. We can learn from this.

How do we get more activists involved? Here are some strategies that I’ve seen work:

• Lead by example. Raise the minimum levels of commitment by proving exactly what that looks like. Show others what is possible. If you do a lot of pressure campaign protests and want to inspire others to do speakouts, then do them first yourself. If you want to raise the bar of expectations at your alternative protein company, work longer, harder, and smarter. Want an animal rights organization in your area but don’t have one? Start it. Create blueprints for others to follow. Be the model activist within your chosen area of activism.

• Learn influence. If you want someone to take action for the animals, you have to first ask them to either directly or indirectly. Directly asking someone requires you to be likeable and trustworthy. Indirectly asking could be inspiring someone by leading by example or showing new activists what is possible on a social media video. Both require influence. How do you have influence on others? How do you get someone to come to the next event? How do you win that big grant? What makes people want to join your efforts?

• Focus on one-on-one invites. Making Facebook events or dropping invites into a group chat will only get those most intrinsically motivated to come. Reaching out to individuals and personally inviting them makes a huge difference. Which would motivate you more: A text invite in a group chat of 50 people or the organizer reaching out to you individually, saying “Hey! Last protest you really killed it on the megaphone! We are having a follow-up protest this Friday. Want to come and let the fur store have it again?” One-on-one invites can be annoying because they take more time, but you will get consistent responses more. Because this approach is so effective, I encourage all my organizers to reach out one-on-one to invite folks to events.

• Host skill-building workshops. This could include how to do outreach, video editing, undercover investigations, understand your rights, run a pressure campaign, write letters to the editor, and/or practice anything and everything you are an expert in to train new activists. Want to learn something new? Reach out to someone you know that has those skills and offer to help set up a workshop. Get a room at the library and invite everyone you know. Host an online meeting. Growing the movement involves growing and refining our skills.

• Always be recruiting. When someone you meet at a vegan outreach event tells you they are vegan, ask them if they want to get involved with activism. I volunteer as a tour guide at a farm animal sanctuary, and once I find out someone on the tour is a vegan, I speak more about volunteering or donating instead of issues with animal agriculture. If I was in a chemistry class with the intent of becoming an alternative protein scientist, I’d talk to my classmates about pursuing that career path or ask the professor if I could do a 10-minute presentation on the subject to the class with the intention of recruiting.

• Become an official mentor. Many of my suggestions in this article are informal, but Animal Activism Collective has a formal mentorship program where an experienced activist is teamed up with someone interested in activism. The program guides the mentee through a more formal process to help them grow their skills, knowledge, and experience.

• Host social events with the purpose of recruiting. New activists can find it scary to sign up with strangers. How do you know if the group will have your back? Are they knowledgeable? How welcoming are they to new people? Maybe you worry since you are new you won’t do something correctly, and you will embarrass yourself or make them annoyed at you. These are questions new activists have. Setting up social events (potlucks, restaurant meetups, etc.) allows people to meet each other as people first, so trust and relationships can build. We have had several new activists join us for demonstrations after first meeting us at a social event.

• Retain existing activists. Unfortunately, not everyone who becomes an activist stays an activist. While some might have legitimate reasons they cannot be active, most drift away and often without good reason. Building community, encouragement, and lasting relationships with people is important to keep them coming out. We have to be genuine, true friends to our fellow activists. Haven’t seen someone at an event or action in awhile? Shoot them a text. Letting a person know they are valued might give them the bump they need. Activists who come to an event once a month may come out more with a gentle and encouraging push.

The bottom line: Take recruiting as seriously as you do your activism. We cannot simply act in our silos of activism waiting for only those intrinsically motivated to join us. We need to be actively recruiting, inviting others to join us in the most important moral cause of our time.

Anyone can recruit. You do not need a job title or leadership role to recruit. Everyone involved has the ability to take part in at least one method of recruitment listed above. Take time out of your day to contemplate your recruitment plan, strategy, and execution. I cannot stress enough that thought and care needs to be put into community building and recruiting.

Consider all the activism you do in a month. Say it is 50 hours. Now imagine inspiring three others to get active at 20 hours per month for a total of 60 hours. Due to your efforts, you contribute 110 hours a month! Now imagine they each recruit another activist. This is called the multiplier effect. Getting new activists involved increases the total amount of work done. What event do you have coming up next month where you can unleash the multiplier effect? What strategies of recruitment and retention will you use?

Animal activists accomplish an impressive amount with so few people. Imagine what we could do with double or triple the numbers. That’s why the most effective thing you can do as an activist is to help grow the movement.