Last month I sent out an alert asking people to express disappointment with NY1, New York's 24-hour news channel, for airing a fluff piece on the Ringling Bros circus. Today we have better coverage: the station aired undercover video of Ringling Bros elephants being whipped and hit in the face by numerous trainers. The video was taken this year, mostly at Madison Square Garden. Please check out the story at
http://www.ny1.com/Default.aspx?ArID=102726
Please send NY1 a huge thank you for the coverage. We complained when they messed up; let's encourage them by sending thanks when they do a great job.
The station takes comments at
http://www.ny1.com/content/contact_us/
I send thanks to Nile Butta for making sure we knew about the NY1 story.
New York's CBS station also did a strong story on the circus cruelty video. Check it out at
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/ringling.brothers.animal.2.1096925.html
And please send a huge thank you to reporter Kirsten Cole.
Go to http://wcbstv.com/contact, scroll down the page to the comment form, choose Kirsten's name from the pull-down menu, and comment. And ask her to follow up.
Positive feedback for animal coverage is so important -- it encourages more of it!
The New York Daily News printed a thorough article, by Christina Boyle, titled, "Circus in Giant Abuse Case." You'll find it on line at:
http://tinyurl.com/mvrhj5
The online story includes a quick poll about the elephant cruelty, which I urge you to answer. The undercover video is right there at the top of the page. It starts with footage taken from a distance so it is hard to see what is happening, but moves on to shocking close-up shots of abuse of animals waiting to perform.
Please read the article and send a letter to the editor appreciative of the coverage and commenting on the circus. The NY Daily News takes letters at voicers@edit.nydailynews.com and asks, "Please include your full name, address and phone number. (This information will be used for verification purposes only)."
You can also post a comment right there underneath the story on the web page.
The Associated Press has picked up the story so it should appear in many more papers and media outlets tomorrow. Please keep an eye out for the story in your local media and respond with a comment to your station or a letter to your editor. Some small papers publish close to 100 percent of letters they receive so the five minutes you take to send one out is likely to have a real impact.
Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn
(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)
Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com for a fun celeb-studded promo video and information on Karen Dawn's book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals," which was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the "Best Books of 2008." And check out Karen's new blog at www.ThankingtheMonkey.com/blog !
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Date: Wed Jul 22 18:29:33 2009
