HRC Happenings - June 2011

June was another productive and exciting month at the Humane Research Council. With just hours to go until the initial deadline for our new Grassroots Research Fund, I am pleased to report that we have some great applications. We look forward to giving away free research services to help inform the efforts of small groups and the animal protection movement overall. We will announce the winning applicants by the end of August. If you missed today’s deadline, don’t worry... you have another chance to submit an application before the next deadline on January 1, 2012.

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I’m also excited to report that HRC has been approved for the Google Grants program, which provides up to $10,000 in free Google advertising per month. With the help of a wonderful new volunteer, we hope to make the most of the grants program to make people aware of HumaneSpot.org and our many other free resources. If you have used Google Grants for your animal advocacy and want to share your experience in a guest blog or a brief case study, please let us know.

And speaking of volunteers... in addition to HRC’s wonderful team of volunteer directors and advisors, we have a growing number of top-notch volunteers assisting us with statistical analysis, visualizing research data, and promoting our discounted services and free resources. With a team of just two paid employees, HRC relies on these volunteers to achieve our mission of empowering animal advocates through research. To all past and present volunteers, THANK YOU for your time and energy and for helping make HRC the organization we are today. If you are interested in volunteering (got accounting or grantwriting experience?), please visit our support page.

One new item in the HRC research database captured our readers’ attention more than most. “The Conceptual Separation of Food and Animals in Childhood” is a fascinating study by Kate Stewart and Matthew Cole that explores how children are socialized to eschew emotional bonds with farmed animals and distance themselves from the animals they eat. Our coverage of the study resulted in two great write-ups, including this one from Robert Grillo at FreeFromHarm.org and this guest post by Jill Howard Church of the Animals and Society Institute.

HRC’s Research Director, Carol, recently offered her thoughts on the need for scholars to incorporate animal perspectives into their research. Carol will be working to help make this happen over the next year by leading HRC’s efforts to open up access to our datasets so that scholars can use them in their research. To learn more about applying research to advocacy, be sure to catch Carol at her upcoming presentation at the AR2011 conference in Los Angeles, July 22. If you’re attending Taking Action for Animals a week earlier, don’t miss HRC’s Caryn Ginsberg and Anthony Bellotti and their workshop on July 16 regarding “Strategy and Message Development 101.”

As you can see, it will be a busy and exciting summer for the Humane Research Council! With the Grassroots Research Fund application deadline closing, the upcoming release of our Humane Trends study, and several other projects in the works, we’re just getting started! To make sure that you don't miss these announcements, please join HRC on Facebook and Twitter.