2010 Animal Trends: Power Play

As the year winds down, I'm taking a look at five top trends that I predict will continue to grow in importance and become major influences on animal issues throughout 2010. Here's number 3.

The animal welfare movement has long had a lot of alpha dogs, but often lacked a pack mentality of working together. In a recent USA Today article on cooperative efforts between the "big dogs" of animal welfare (ASPCA, HSUS, Best Friends, and others), ASPCA's Ed Sayres admitted, "We've been embarrassingly fractious with one another in our history."

That's starting to change. These groups learned to work with each other -- and with smaller, on-the-ground humane organizations -- in dog fighting busts over the past few years, as well as in lower profile hoarding and puppy-mill cases. There's been awakening to the fact that they're stronger together. No one denies that there will still be scraps between the groups; it's not like their policies and philosophies have suddenly fallen in line overnight. But when there's a situation where collaboration makes sense, they're setting aside their differences for the sake of the animals.

This collaboration trend has been rippling through every nonprofit sector, and it's about time that the animal world caught up. Groups can more effectively use their resources, including limited funds, when they work together. But the power shift isn't just happening among the big guys. They're relying on the local organizations to provide the manpower that makes rescue stories a success. The national advocacy groups are in a position to do high-level investigations that lead to large raids, but once the animals are rescued, they need help taking care of them.

There were a lot of stories circulating after Hurricane Katrina about chaos in the temporary shelters as groups jockeyed for control. With the new culture of cooperation, we're moving toward better conditions and fewer politics when it comes to the care of the rescued animals. But the logistics still have a ways to go before they're ironed out. For instance, when a national organization orchestrates a raid of a puppy mill or dog fighting ring and then pulls out of the state, they could be dropping hundreds of dogs on a local organization that's not equipped for that kind of scale. While the bigger groups shouldn't micromanage the community caring for the animals, they should continue to provide support, financial and otherwise. A rescue operation isn't done until the animals are out of the shelter system.

Animal welfare nonprofits are also being held accountable by individuals across the internet. Organizations can't hide from their mistakes in a world of social media and blogs, and because they're supposed to be doing good in the world, they're held to higher standards than corporations that slip up. Public opinion isn't always a fair judge, but it does demand transparency.

In the next year, we'll continue to see more of these coalition efforts, and more campaigns being dictated from the grassroots level. It's a good thing for the animals, because saving lives depends on action, not human politics and power.

Photo credit: Beverly & Pack