Join our CACH team
Campaign Against Canned Hunting (CACH)
CACH STARTER GUIDE
1. First, congratulations on accepting the challenge to improve the treatment of lions in SA. Animal work is emotionally charged, un-glamorous and demanding, but if you commit to it whole heartedly it will change your life forever.
2. Support: Once you are a part of the CACH group you will get support from everyone else. All our contacts, knowledge and experience is at your disposal. Being part of a team has many benefits.
3. How to start:
a)
email us a photo of yourself of reasonable quality, not a selfie taken at arm's length with your cellphone. It should be landscape shape i.e. not tall and narrow, but broader.
b)
give us a summary of your CV, not too much here please, just two or three paragraphs about relevant skills and experience which will tell people how you came to commit yourself to campaigning against canned hunting.
c)
set up your own campaign page on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Instagram too if you use a smartphone, so that you can build up a following of your own and engage with them constructively.
The CACH website will prominently display the links to your social media.
d) we will also create for you a Campaign email account linked to the website so that your email presents a professional look rather than just a general gmail or hotmail account.
4. Fund raising:
Most of our work is Internet based and we all bear our own internet expenses. Remember we are all volunteers. Nobody draws a salary and so there is no hierarchy.
If you want to organise an event, such as a rally or a march, then you should look to local sponsors for the costs of banners, placards, posters etc. When you find yourself having to travel to workshops or conferences etc, then you may have to think about fundraising. CACH can help but to a limited extent, because when sending money out of SA in to Euros or dollars, the SA Rand has a low exchange rate, and SA bank charges are a rip-off.
You may eventually have to consider creating a formal structure such as a registered charity or non-profit organisation (NPO) The reason for incorporating is strictly financial: if you want donations, especially corporate donations, then you will have to make them tax deductible by incorporating yourself in to a registered non-profit org. CACH is a registered wildlife charity in SA but unfortunately donations to foreign NPO's are not tax deductible. In USA you need to be a Sec 501 charity.
HOW TO USE THE CANNEDLION WEBSITE.
Golden Rule 1:
Everything we do must revolve around the website.
Golden Rule 2:
Social media is used to drive traffic to the CACH website.
Remember - it is the website that educates visitors and raises awareness. So, every comment or post on social media, every report, rally, march and event must be aimed at driving people to the website.
Why?
Because the value of social media cannot be overstated. In fact, the ability to reach millions at the touch of a computer button is a democratic power unprecedented in human history. Big Business - including Big Hunting - knows this - and it terrifies them. It should!
Until recently, before we learned how to use Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, our campaign website was lucky if it got 30-40 visits a day. Google Search did not even list us on the first page for relevant keywords. Now, with the power of social media, we get an average of 2000 hits a day on our website and that figure spikes to 8000 hits a day when we feature in mainstream media such as the CBS News show 60 Minutes.
Result: Google search now lists us as number one at the top of the first page on relevant key words like canned lion hunting - above Wikipedia and even other long-established conservation NGO's. That gives us credibility.
So:
* Any news you have, such as a snippet of local news relevant to the campaign, or a forthcoming event that you are going to attend, or organise, should be sent to Bev to be posted to the Home page of our website.
* Every report of an event, or other item suitable for a blog post, will be posted on our blog page, with pictures. You can write the blog yourself (we'll edit) or give us the content and we'll do the blog for you.
* We then use social media tools like Hootsuite to blast your blog around cyberspace, where it is picked up and shared by thousands of other people, who then visit the website to read the blog. This drives up the hits, which impresses the Google algo, which keeps us at the top of Google Search, which drives more people to the site, which raises more awareness, etc etc.
You can see how the system works. So use it. Engage actively on social media, using every opportunity to drive traffic to the website. Our website gets an average of 2000 hits a day. You can help to increase that.
HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA (FACEBOOK ETC)
First, you have to qualify yourself to be useful.
Raising awareness about the cruelty of captive lion breeding and canned hunting is not enough.
The hunting industry spends millions persuading conservation officials at all levels, that hunting is conservation. Slick PR by in-house public relations firms pump out a never-ending stream of pro-hunting propaganda, arguing that hunting brings in huge amounts of forex, that it provides hundreds of thousands of jobs for workers, that there are many political, economic, social, fiscal and practical reasons to promote hunting as a land use. Clever mantras like "if it pays, it stays", and "give it a value and it will be preserved" and "every captive bred lion shot is a wild lion saved": are used as if they were religious truths.
If you do your homework, you will learn how to counter this hunting propaganda. You will be able to debate hunting issues on social media (or any other forum) with authority and conviction. By exposing hunting claims to be false and misleading, you will sway more and more doubters. See Resources listed below.
Keep the links to the pertinent CACH website articles, FAQ;s, blogs etc handy and use them all the time in debate on social media. When a journalist or hunter publishes extravagant claims, contradict them concisely and include a link to the article/blog on the CACH website, where the reader can get a fuller picture of the true situation.
WARNING!
When you post or tweet in your capacity as CACH representative, please avoid defamatory statements and bad language. Be polite even when provoked and let us not waste donor funds on legal assistance to defend CACH against a libel lawsuit. If you find yourself being trolled, just ask the team for help. Be factual. If you don't know an answer - ask.
APPENDIX:
What does CACH actually do?
CACH is an animal advocacy organisation. The rescue of the two Spanish lion cubs was outside our normal activities and only made possible by the extraordinary commitment of CJ and Luis in Spain. Animal advocacy is activism at the policy level. We work to promote change in the legislation and policies that allow canned lion hunting to exist.
What does that mean? It means:
a)
Raising awareness of the cruelty involved all the time and by all means available: social media and main stream media, TV documentaries and radio talks, rallies and marches, visiting festivals and travel expos etc.
b)
In a material world, it is important to counter pro-hunting arguments based upon commercial interests, and to show that, contrary to hunting propaganda, hunting actually causes rural unemployment and damage to agriculture. Hunters pull in political, economic, social, fiscal, and cultural arguments to justify their cruelty. We have to explode those arguments as myths, and then pull in our own agricultural, food security, forex and other factors to show how toxic the hunting fraternity really is. Realise that when we get this awful industry closed down, it will only be for reasons that have nothing to do with animal welfare.
c)
We have to keep up with regulatory changes, and give input to policy makers at all levels and in all regions of the world. So, in 2014, we gave comprehensive input to USFW (US Fish and Wildlife) on why the status of lions should be raised to endangered (which would effectively prevent US trophy hunters from killing lions).
The same research was used to give input to the EU Commission to advocate for a ban on the import of lion trophies in to the EU. And, based upon the same research, we gave input to the Australian Parliament, urging it to pass legislation to ban the import of lion trophies in to Australia.
d)
It also means understanding how the hunting industry works, and how we can best cut off the flow of money from spin-offs of captive lion breeding, such as cub petting and walking with lions, and the lion bone trade.
RESOURCES:
All the resources you need are on our website but to save you having to plough through all the blog archives, here is a list of essential reading material. It would also broaden your background knowledge to watch all the videos on the Video page.
http://www.cannedlion.org/hunting---a-threat-to-our-national-interests.html
http://www.cannedlion.org/articles.html
http://www.cannedlion.org/blog/forget-sustainable-use
Regulatory Capture
http://www.cannedlion.org/blog/invade-and-occupy
Cub Petting
http://www.cannedlion.org/blog/cub-petting-part-one-the-cruelty
http://www.cannedlion.org/blog/the-economics-of-cub-petting
Lion Bone trade
http://www.cannedlion.org/blog/millions-of-dollars-for-old-bones
CACH STARTER GUIDE
1. First, congratulations on accepting the challenge to improve the treatment of lions in SA. Animal work is emotionally charged, un-glamorous and demanding, but if you commit to it whole heartedly it will change your life forever.
2. Support: Once you are a part of the CACH group you will get support from everyone else. All our contacts, knowledge and experience is at your disposal. Being part of a team has many benefits.
3. How to start:
a)
email us a photo of yourself of reasonable quality, not a selfie taken at arm's length with your cellphone. It should be landscape shape i.e. not tall and narrow, but broader.
b)
give us a summary of your CV, not too much here please, just two or three paragraphs about relevant skills and experience which will tell people how you came to commit yourself to campaigning against canned hunting.
c)
set up your own campaign page on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Instagram too if you use a smartphone, so that you can build up a following of your own and engage with them constructively.
The CACH website will prominently display the links to your social media.
d) we will also create for you a Campaign email account linked to the website so that your email presents a professional look rather than just a general gmail or hotmail account.
4. Fund raising:
Most of our work is Internet based and we all bear our own internet expenses. Remember we are all volunteers. Nobody draws a salary and so there is no hierarchy.
If you want to organise an event, such as a rally or a march, then you should look to local sponsors for the costs of banners, placards, posters etc. When you find yourself having to travel to workshops or conferences etc, then you may have to think about fundraising. CACH can help but to a limited extent, because when sending money out of SA in to Euros or dollars, the SA Rand has a low exchange rate, and SA bank charges are a rip-off.
You may eventually have to consider creating a formal structure such as a registered charity or non-profit organisation (NPO) The reason for incorporating is strictly financial: if you want donations, especially corporate donations, then you will have to make them tax deductible by incorporating yourself in to a registered non-profit org. CACH is a registered wildlife charity in SA but unfortunately donations to foreign NPO's are not tax deductible. In USA you need to be a Sec 501 charity.
HOW TO USE THE CANNEDLION WEBSITE.
Golden Rule 1:
Everything we do must revolve around the website.
Golden Rule 2:
Social media is used to drive traffic to the CACH website.
Remember - it is the website that educates visitors and raises awareness. So, every comment or post on social media, every report, rally, march and event must be aimed at driving people to the website.
Why?
Because the value of social media cannot be overstated. In fact, the ability to reach millions at the touch of a computer button is a democratic power unprecedented in human history. Big Business - including Big Hunting - knows this - and it terrifies them. It should!
Until recently, before we learned how to use Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, our campaign website was lucky if it got 30-40 visits a day. Google Search did not even list us on the first page for relevant keywords. Now, with the power of social media, we get an average of 2000 hits a day on our website and that figure spikes to 8000 hits a day when we feature in mainstream media such as the CBS News show 60 Minutes.
Result: Google search now lists us as number one at the top of the first page on relevant key words like canned lion hunting - above Wikipedia and even other long-established conservation NGO's. That gives us credibility.
So:
* Any news you have, such as a snippet of local news relevant to the campaign, or a forthcoming event that you are going to attend, or organise, should be sent to Bev to be posted to the Home page of our website.
* Every report of an event, or other item suitable for a blog post, will be posted on our blog page, with pictures. You can write the blog yourself (we'll edit) or give us the content and we'll do the blog for you.
* We then use social media tools like Hootsuite to blast your blog around cyberspace, where it is picked up and shared by thousands of other people, who then visit the website to read the blog. This drives up the hits, which impresses the Google algo, which keeps us at the top of Google Search, which drives more people to the site, which raises more awareness, etc etc.
You can see how the system works. So use it. Engage actively on social media, using every opportunity to drive traffic to the website. Our website gets an average of 2000 hits a day. You can help to increase that.
HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA (FACEBOOK ETC)
First, you have to qualify yourself to be useful.
Raising awareness about the cruelty of captive lion breeding and canned hunting is not enough.
The hunting industry spends millions persuading conservation officials at all levels, that hunting is conservation. Slick PR by in-house public relations firms pump out a never-ending stream of pro-hunting propaganda, arguing that hunting brings in huge amounts of forex, that it provides hundreds of thousands of jobs for workers, that there are many political, economic, social, fiscal and practical reasons to promote hunting as a land use. Clever mantras like "if it pays, it stays", and "give it a value and it will be preserved" and "every captive bred lion shot is a wild lion saved": are used as if they were religious truths.
If you do your homework, you will learn how to counter this hunting propaganda. You will be able to debate hunting issues on social media (or any other forum) with authority and conviction. By exposing hunting claims to be false and misleading, you will sway more and more doubters. See Resources listed below.
Keep the links to the pertinent CACH website articles, FAQ;s, blogs etc handy and use them all the time in debate on social media. When a journalist or hunter publishes extravagant claims, contradict them concisely and include a link to the article/blog on the CACH website, where the reader can get a fuller picture of the true situation.
WARNING!
When you post or tweet in your capacity as CACH representative, please avoid defamatory statements and bad language. Be polite even when provoked and let us not waste donor funds on legal assistance to defend CACH against a libel lawsuit. If you find yourself being trolled, just ask the team for help. Be factual. If you don't know an answer - ask.
APPENDIX:
What does CACH actually do?
CACH is an animal advocacy organisation. The rescue of the two Spanish lion cubs was outside our normal activities and only made possible by the extraordinary commitment of CJ and Luis in Spain. Animal advocacy is activism at the policy level. We work to promote change in the legislation and policies that allow canned lion hunting to exist.
What does that mean? It means:
a)
Raising awareness of the cruelty involved all the time and by all means available: social media and main stream media, TV documentaries and radio talks, rallies and marches, visiting festivals and travel expos etc.
b)
In a material world, it is important to counter pro-hunting arguments based upon commercial interests, and to show that, contrary to hunting propaganda, hunting actually causes rural unemployment and damage to agriculture. Hunters pull in political, economic, social, fiscal, and cultural arguments to justify their cruelty. We have to explode those arguments as myths, and then pull in our own agricultural, food security, forex and other factors to show how toxic the hunting fraternity really is. Realise that when we get this awful industry closed down, it will only be for reasons that have nothing to do with animal welfare.
c)
We have to keep up with regulatory changes, and give input to policy makers at all levels and in all regions of the world. So, in 2014, we gave comprehensive input to USFW (US Fish and Wildlife) on why the status of lions should be raised to endangered (which would effectively prevent US trophy hunters from killing lions).
The same research was used to give input to the EU Commission to advocate for a ban on the import of lion trophies in to the EU. And, based upon the same research, we gave input to the Australian Parliament, urging it to pass legislation to ban the import of lion trophies in to Australia.
d)
It also means understanding how the hunting industry works, and how we can best cut off the flow of money from spin-offs of captive lion breeding, such as cub petting and walking with lions, and the lion bone trade.
RESOURCES:
All the resources you need are on our website but to save you having to plough through all the blog archives, here is a list of essential reading material. It would also broaden your background knowledge to watch all the videos on the Video page.
http://www.cannedlion.org/hunting---a-threat-to-our-national-interests.html
http://www.cannedlion.org/articles.html
http://www.cannedlion.org/blog/forget-sustainable-use
Regulatory Capture
http://www.cannedlion.org/blog/invade-and-occupy
Cub Petting
http://www.cannedlion.org/blog/cub-petting-part-one-the-cruelty
http://www.cannedlion.org/blog/the-economics-of-cub-petting
Lion Bone trade
http://www.cannedlion.org/blog/millions-of-dollars-for-old-bones