via Zoom meeting

ANIMAL JUSTICE ACADEMY PANEL:
Getting Animal Issues into Mainstream Media
with Wayne Hsuing, Jessica Scott-Reid, Jenny Splitter, & Kezia Jauron.

With the love affair for cute animal videos on social media at an all-time high, you'd think stories of widespread animal cruelty and suffering would be front-page news.

But the sad reality is… Even though the animal agriculture industry abuses and kills billions of land animals a year and is one of the largest contributors to the climate crisis, it's still a fight to get animal issues into mainstream media.

Is this due to media bias? Public apathy? Or are we, as a movement, missing the mark on telling compelling stories and getting the right people to pay attention?

In this panel of media experts from a variety of backgrounds, we explore why animal stories aren't getting enough airtime and what can be done to change that.

We'll discuss:

  • what animal issues and stories HAVE been successful in getting good media coverage and why
  • tips for writing press releases and pitching stories to media
  • why vegan stories are hot, but animal issues are not
  • if we need to change our narrative and language to melt the media chill
  • why undercover investigations aren't getting as much attention as they once did, and how to adapt
  • looking to the environmental movement for clues to mobilize media

We'll also talk about ways individual animal advocates can help in the quest to make animal rights a fixture in mainstream media.

Following the workshop, you’ll have the opportunity to join fellow animal advocates in breakout rooms, if you like, to do some discussing and strategizing on the topic of media.

*We invite folks to have their video on during this event to enhance the sense of community, but it’s not mandatory

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About Our Panelists: 

Wayne Hsiung
Lawyer & Co-Founder of The Simple Heart Initiative

Wayne Hsiung is a lawyer, former faculty member at Northwestern School of Law, co-founder of The Simple Heart Initiative. He has led teams that have rescued dozens of animals from factory farms, and has organized successful campaigns to ban fur in San Francisco and California. He faces decades in prison for challenging so-called “ag gag” laws across the nation and removing animals from labs, slaughterhouses, and farms for veterinary care. His most recent trial, involving an open rescue at the largest pig farm in the nation, led to his acquittal in October of 2022.

His work as an open rescue activist with the grassroots network Direct Action Everywhere has been reported on in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and ABC’s Nightline. Wayne published research (with Cass Sunstein) on climate change’s impact on animals, practiced law at two national firms, and had an active pro bono practice defending victims of domestic violence.

Kezia Jauron 
Principal, Evolotus PR

Kezia Jauron works with vegan companies, nonprofits and campaigns, documentaries, and other clients as co-founder of the public relations agency Evolotus. Evolotus serves a unique niche in the animal rights and vegan movement by providing professional media relations, communications, strategic planning, and public advocacy. Since 2006 she has helped nearly a hundred organizations gain visibility, increase their audiences, and generate revenues through positive mainstream media coverage, and the result is far greater awareness, understanding, and support for our cause.

Jessica Scott-Reid
Writer

Jessica is Canada’s most prolific journalist covering animal protection issues. Her work can be found regularly in The Globe and Mail, Toronto star, Winnipeg Free Press, and for Sentient Media and Planet Friendly News. She was the recipient of the Animal Justice Media Award in 2018, and The Fur Bearers' Clements Award in Outstanding Media in 2020.

She's an animal advocate based out of Winnipeg, former co-host of Canadian animal law podcast "Paw and Order", and a sessional instructor at the University of Winnipeg teaching the Rhetoric of Animality.

Jenny Splitter
Managing Editor, Sentient Media

Jenny is the managing editor of Sentient Media and an award-winning journalist covering food, agriculture, science, climate and health for outlets including The Guardian, Vox, Everyday Health, Undark, Popular Mechanics, The Washington Post and New York Magazine.

Kimberly Carroll
Director, Animal Justice Academy
Coach for Changemakers

Kimberly Carroll is a coach for changemakers, a campaigns strategist with Animal Justice and director of the Animal Justice Academy, as well as a director with the Toronto Vegetarian Food Bank.

Kimberly brings her background as a television host and producer, as well as her diplomatic and strategic skills as a coach to animal advocacy. Besides her current roles, she co-created the original “Why love one but eat the other?” transit ad campaign in Canada and was one of the founders of Mercy For Animals Canada -- helping bring the first undercover farmed animal investigations to television.

As a coach, Kimberly helps activists, social entrepreneurs, and mission-driven leaders who want to make a bigger difference in the world with the inner shifts, high-performance habits, and strategies to take their important work to the next level. She’s helped empower thousands of animal advocates and counselled those in high-stress activist positions like undercover investigators.

Kimberly also endeavours to use her privilege and platform for environmental activism, democratic reform, and to amplify Indigenous voices and those of other underrepresented groups.