Signing Online Petitions Really Can Help Animals
Online petitions really do work! Signing online petitions is an easy, quick and effective way to advocate for animal rights and welfare and make an impact. There are countless victories and successes where online and paper petitions have worked primarily as an effective secondary method of animal advocacy—behind other more direct lobbying methods. Online petitions work to engage supporters, generate news media attention, exert pressure on decision makers and also help to raise awareness about animal issues and gain support. As an advocate, you can sign an online petition or launch one of your own.
There are many excellent online petition websites that focus on promoting animal rights and protection, including: Change (Animal Petitions), The Animal Rescue Site, Care2 (The Petition Site), Avaaz.org, and Causes.com. Some animal welfare organizations like PETA, Mercy For Animals and Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) launch their own action alerts or petitions to protect animals. These petition websites often partner with a number of different animal rights organizations to advocate for animal rights and promote animal welfare. You can visit any of these websites, review the petitions listed, and sign the ones that you care about. You can also request to be added to their mailing lists to get updates and action alerts. One of the keys to making the petition successful is by adding a personal comment in the “comment” section. Avoid clicking the “anonymous” checkbox and remaining anonymous, it’s better and more powerful to show your contact information to decision makers.
Be aware that some legislators will actually dismiss anonymous signatures or not count them. Sometimes petitions are tossed out altogether due to too many anonymous signatures. When signing a petition, check and make sure that the petition is being sent to a legitimate person of influence and that their name and position is designated on the petition. There are some petition websites that may be less legitimate or are in question, including: AnimalPetitions.org, Petitionhub, yousignanimals.org, yousign.org and several others.
By signing online petitions or by creating new petitions, you have the opportunity to bring about stronger protections for animals and fight animal exploitation and cruelty. Your support can create a better life for animals around the world.
To make your signature even more powerful and effective, share your signed petition with friends and family on social media. After you sign a petition, you will have the opportunity to “share” it on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Google+, and other social media sites to encourage more signatures. Be sure to take the opportunity to help spread awareness about the issue and ask your network to join you in signing the petition!
