Advocacy Pathfinder

A pathfinder is an organized body of material that identifies key resources and provides guidance in researching a particular question or discipline. Pathfinders are a good way to learn about a new area of law or learn about a topic in depth. They can also help organize an approach to legal research. ​ Seattle Animal Watch has created a Local Advocacy Pathfinder based on our research. This pathfinder may be useful for other advocates to use as a template or getting started guide to impact legislative change in their local area.

1. Understand and Define the Problem SAW read news articles, analyzed statutes, and looked at lawsuit outcomes before we asked ourselves if there was an animal cruelty problem in Seattle. This fundamental question is still driving our work.

2. Gather Data Interview professionals working on the problem. We interviewed our Animal Shelter Administrators, a local non-profit rescue operation, and staff from our City Attorney’s office. We asked how cruelty reports are handled, how they are referred for prosecution, and whether data was recorded and retained. Then we began making Public Disclosure Requests (PDRs). In our city, Seattle police are one of the two main recipients of cruelty allegations, so we asked for their complaints by year for the last 5 years. We also asked the Seattle Animal Shelter and the City Prosecutor’s office for their data. Caution: Consider how you word your PDR. A sweeping request for data may be rejected as too broad and a narrow request may not be useful. Additionally, PDRs can take months to be filled depending on the department and its resources

3. Analyze the Data You will start to see patterns or results that lead to more Public Disclosure Requests. In our case, we learned that there was a clear gap between the number of cruelty cases reported and the number of cases prosecuted. Much of the data we received was coded with identifiers specific to the profession (ie. DWP = Dismissed with Prejudice in the City Attorney cases) that you will need to decipher.

4. Understand Your Laws While we focus on our City Code and its requirements and limitations, we are also subject to our County, State and Federal Laws. You may conclude that your local code needs stronger penalties, updated definitions or other protections for animals. Bookmark your jurisdiction’s code and watch for amendments. Remember that Public Disclosure Request data will be directly related to your code and its prohibitions. See our separate Pathfinder on Codes for more info.

5. Review Court Cases for Outcomes: the Consequences We also asked ourselves if cruelty lawsuits resulted in meaningful penalties. SAW’s work has been motivated by a particularly egregious case involving cruelty and neglect to many animals that ended with minor penalties to the accused. We use media to identify new cases as we cannot search our lawsuit indexes by subject.

6. Compare Your Jurisdiction with Others In considering our Animal Shelter, we wondered whether staffing levels affected the number of cruelty cases investigated by field officers. We are in the process of making Public Disclosure Requests to animal shelters in cities we have identified as similar in population and geographic size to see if Seattle’s Animal Shelter is sufficiently staffed. In addition, we have looked at other cities’ codes, especially penalty structures, definitions of cruelty and exotic animals.

7. Identify Sympathetic Legislators This can be tricky and ongoing as elections bring changes. SAW identifies sympathetic legislators by looking for sponsor names attached to animal-friendly legislation. You may also consider asking your local shelter which legislator they use to get proposed legislation introduced.
   

8. Keep Going As SAW improves its understanding of how our local agencies name, treat and track data, we keep improving our Public Disclosure Requests. Our data will be useful in building coalitions and presenting evidence to the city council to bring about meaningful, positive change in protecting animals in our city.