Australian Law Students’ Association 2010 National Conference

This national conference has been running annually since 1979, and attracts law students from across Australia and overseas, including New Zealand, Singapore and England. ALSA was awarded a $5,000 grant to enable an animal law legal education forum to take place as part of the overall conference in 2010.The animal law forum attracted 150 participants, and speakers included Lesley Petrie, Flinders University; Katrina Sharman, Voiceless; Jed Goodfellow, RSPCA SA; Graeme McEwen, Barristers Animal Welfare Panel, Victoria; and Dr. Deborah Kelly, Manager of the Animal Welfare Unit, Department of Environmental Heritage.

Animal Liberation Can you Taste the Cruelty TV commercial

Animal Liberation received a $15,000 for an anti-battery hen TV ad campaign. The powerful ad was shown on prime time morning television around Christmas and again during peak rating periods in March 2010. The ad resulted in many members of the public contacting Animal Liberation with positive feedback; the ABC’s Midday Report ran a story about the ads featuring actual footage filmed inside a battery farm; and Release magazine wrote an article in response to the advertising.  The ad is due to feature on the 2011 series of the ABC’s Gruen Transfer.

Australian Society for Kangaroos Decimation of an Icon TV commercial

The Australian Society for Kangaroos’ TV commercial uses striking contrast between the image of a mother and her Joey, and text telling the horror of the commercial slaughter, to highlight the plight of kangaroos. ASK’s grant of $15,000 went towards administrative costs and a production team. The commercial was launched at Voiceless's 2010 Annual Awards Event at Sydney Town Hall and then aired hundreds of times on commercial and community television (including Channel Nine, Network Ten and WIN TV) across regional and metropolitan Australia in July and August 2011.   Watch this powerful CSA on the ASK website. 

Community Broadcasting Association of Australia The Cruelty Free Project

After winning the 2009 People’s Choice! $10,000 grant, the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia(CBAA) formed a Steering Committee (including members of Animals Australia, Animal Liberation Queensland, Brightside Farm Sanctuary and Compassion in World Farming) who developed a list of key issues to be promoted, and put together scripts for eight 60-second radio segments. These segments were scheduled to begin on the Community Radio Satellite Service from June 7 and run for six months. 500 information packages were developed and distributed to community radio stations, community organizations, educators and individuals. A website was also created allowing the public to listen to the audio segments, read relevant information on each key topic and take action through signing petitions, writing letters or making changes in their own lives.

Lawyers for Animals Before you eat that

Lawyers for Animals received a grant of $15,000 to produce a series of ads to run in MX encouraging consumers to consider animal welfare when consuming animal products. The project has since been revised to target consumers at the point of purchase rather than consumption, with the new theme of ‘before you buy that’. The ads are expected to run in MX by end September 2010.

Margaret Warner Kangaroo Footprints

Kangaroo Footprints is a 75 page activity book that encourages children to develop an understanding and appreciation of Australia's unique macropods. Each double page combines an information page with a fun activity page including word searches, poems, drawing, crosswords, origami, designing a poster and more. The book is designed for a child to use on their own, for teachers to use with a class as all page are photocopy masters or for wildlife carers doing school or community talks.  Kangaroo Footprints can be ordered from the Kangaroo Book page on the website www.kangaroofootprints.com.au 

RSPCA Queensland Chicken Rights Farming Wrongs

The RSPCA Queensland has developed a successful education campaign about broiler chickens with their $10,000 Voiceless grant. The campaign included a confronting image of chickens squashed together in a cube to represent their living conditions, and this image, together with text, was reproduced on outdoor campaign posters; bumper stickers; Avant cards; t-shirts; and a dedicated microsite (The campaign also featured radio advertisements, information packs and a petition of 3,500 signatures that was presented to state parliament calling for a review of the Codes of Practice for Animal Welfare.

Southern Cross University (SCU) and the Northern Rivers Community Legal Centre (NRCLC): Animal Law Education Project

The Animal Law Education Project is a partnership between the School of Law and Justice at Southern Cross University (SCU) and the Northern Rivers Community Legal Centre (NRCLC) which provides education to students, legal practitioners and the public about current practices, issues and strategies in animal

protection. This has been done through a community education and legal practitioner workshop held at NRCLC in June and the development of course material for a new animal law unit at SCU, which will be delivered for the first time in November 2010. 

University of Melbourne Animals and Society (Australia) Study Group (now Australian Animal Studies Group)

The group applied to Voiceless for $10,000 to fully fund this project.  The study group (A&S) was formed at the University of WA in 2004 and has since grown strongly. It has coordinated three trans-disciplinary conferences including the international Minding Animals conference in Newcastle in 2009, which had over 500 participants. The objective of this project is to facilitate the formal organization of animal studies scholars and advocates by creating a supportive environment, ensuring the continuation of the bi-annual conference series and facilitating the exchange of ideas.  This will be achieved through the group’s website, the establishment of a database to build on the momentum from the Minding Animals conference and the publishing of a quarterly newsletter.

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