I'll see what I can put together re the dots. On 9/21/10, Patricia Blau wrote:

Maybe so. Can we connect the dots of several of these & do an article about mass dumpings? (I haven't been keeping track.) - do we have intelligence on several, where we can see a pattern or specific causes? It would also seem to be an opportunity to note the legislation issue, as a comment (I don't see that as the main thrust, but we could connect it, I suspect).

On Sep 21, 2010, at 3:17 PM, Martha Kudlacik wrote:

...

We have yet another mass surrender of cockatiels (33 in Palo Alto). Is there any way we can use this madness for a little PR?

The common thread is people moving and can't/won't take these birds with them. So far: Felton (Santa Cruz) 19 - these birds were kept by breeders who were simply going to let them go when they sold their house and moved. They were surrendered to the Santa Cruz shelter with malnutrition and multiple infections (yeast, spirochetes). One died despite veterinary care. Mountain View/Palo Alto 33 - aviary birds kept for years and allowed to breed. When the man was moving, he re-homed 4 of them and surrendered the rest to Palo Alto Animal Services. (Potential: Daly City 30 - man needs to move, can't take the birds with him. Being kept in cages in the backyard) It's not a "poor me - I'm losing my home" kind of story. It's an "I've let the birds go crazy and now somebody else has to take care of it" story. On Sep 21, 2010, at 3:25 PM, Patricia Blau wrote:

Maybe so. Can we connect the dots of several of these & do an article about mass dumpings? (I haven't been keeping track.) - do we have intelligence on several, where we can see a pattern or specific causes? It would also seem to be an opportunity to note the legislation issue, as a comment (I don't see that as the main thrust, but we could connect it, I suspect).

On Sep 21, 2010, at 3:17 PM, Martha Kudlacik wrote:

...

We have yet another mass surrender of cockatiels (33 in Palo Alto). Is there any way we can use this madness for a little PR?

That seems like a very timely idea. Who was writing our press release(s) for the SF pet store ban? Writing press releases that newspapers will use is a talent, but I seem to recall that we have folks who do it. (This is also different than writing material for a columnist/op-ed piece.) I'm sure we can get the info together in an accessible form. On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 10:58 PM, Vincent J. Hrovat (P) <1217@vhrovat.org>wrote:

Hi again,

We never seem to get this press release thing off of the ground; however, I have an idea that I would like you to consider. How about an end-of-year press release with some numbers for 2010? How many birds did we take in, how many got adopted, how much did we spend on vet bills, how much did we take in donations, how many veterinary hospital visits did we pay for, et al.

We need to be judicious about what statistical information we give out, obviously, but we want it to have as much oomph as possible. If we want to release this promptly on 01 Jan 2011, the numbers might be preliminary estimates (most corporations take a few weeks to close out their books before releasing quarterly or annual numbers) but a New Year's Day release might also have the most impact. I think that such a press release should be summarized and linked to front and center on our web page to be sure that people who follow us will see it.

I have been following this . . . stuff about James Spaid and one of the topics that is currently going around with his livejournal coterie is how Mickaboo rarely provides medical care, even to very needy birds. As a few of us have learned, engaging that group directly to rebut their claims is like mud-wrestling with a pig (you get covered in slop and the pig enjoys himself). Instead, I think that it would be a better idea to post our results for 2010 in a very visible place so that people could clearly see the gap between their perceptions and our reality.

Thoughts?

--VH

-----Original Message----- From: media-advisors-bounces@mickaboo.org [mailto:media-advisors-bounces@mickaboo.org] On Behalf Of Martha Kudlacik Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2010 3:17 PM To: Mickaboo media advisor team Subject: [Media-advisors] can we use this INSANITY for a press release/story?

We have yet another mass surrender of cockatiels (33 in Palo Alto). Is there any way we can use this madness for a little PR?

I wonder if we want to expand the press release to be a snapshot about companion birds in general (in California). I guess we only really have numbers for our own birds, but I wonder if we can include, say, the increase in surrendered birds across the state of California? This sounds rather ambitious & would require research with other bird rescues, plus their cooperation in giving us numbers. We can leave out finances for the others, as they probably won't want to talk about that anyway, and give a sense of finances just from our point of view (and serving our purpose). What I'm trying to figure out here is what might make the press release most appealing for publishers, especially if we don't want to give out our exact monetary numbers. p On Dec 5, 2010, at 10:58 PM, Vincent J. Hrovat ((P)) wrote:

Hi again,

We never seem to get this press release thing off of the ground; however, I have an idea that I would like you to consider. How about an end-of- year press release with some numbers for 2010? How many birds did we take in, how many got adopted, how much did we spend on vet bills, how much did we take in donations, how many veterinary hospital visits did we pay for, et al.

We need to be judicious about what statistical information we give out, obviously, but we want it to have as much oomph as possible. If we want to release this promptly on 01 Jan 2011, the numbers might be preliminary estimates (most corporations take a few weeks to close out their books before releasing quarterly or annual numbers) but a New Year's Day release might also have the most impact. I think that such a press release should be summarized and linked to front and center on our web page to be sure that people who follow us will see it.

I have been following this . . . stuff about James Spaid and one of the topics that is currently going around with his livejournal coterie is how Mickaboo rarely provides medical care, even to very needy birds. As a few of us have learned, engaging that group directly to rebut their claims is like mud-wrestling with a pig (you get covered in slop and the pig enjoys himself). Instead, I think that it would be a better idea to post our results for 2010 in a very visible place so that people could clearly see the gap between their perceptions and our reality.

Thoughts?

--VH

-----Original Message----- From: media-advisors-bounces@mickaboo.org [mailto:media-advisors-bounces@mickaboo.org] On Behalf Of Martha Kudlacik Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2010 3:17 PM To: Mickaboo media advisor team Subject: [Media-advisors] can we use this INSANITY for a press release/story?

We have yet another mass surrender of cockatiels (33 in Palo Alto). Is there any way we can use this madness for a little PR?

This is fine. It's a lot of work, yes, and I'm sure none of us have spare time for it. I was, indeed, thinking about more traditional media. If we are just doing a release for internet sites, it's much easier to limit it to our group alone. On Dec 7, 2010, at 11:23 AM, Vincent J. Hrovat ((P)) wrote:

I think this constitutes a decision point. Do we want this to be more broad and thus picked up more by mainstream media, or do we want it to be more succinct and specific about Mickaboo and, thus, more self- published? I am strongly inclined to think that the latter is very preferable for a few reasons. First, a state-of-bird-rescue will require a lot more research and we don't have much time. Second, a large portion of our intended audience, in my opinion, is the people who are attacking our organization.

As I have said, we can still get a LOT of distribution by posting on our own web page, linking to it prominently there, posting and linking on facebook and even twitter (I.E., post a factoid a day on twitter along with a link to the main press release on Mickaboo's web page).

In other words, I am strongly inclined to think that Mickaboo specific and new-media are the best way to go here.

--VH

-----Original Message----- From: media-advisors-bounces@mickaboo.org [mailto:media-advisors-bounces@mickaboo.org] On Behalf Of Patricia Blau Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2010 11:15 AM To: Mickaboo media advisor team Subject: Re: [Media-advisors] can we use this INSANITY for a press release/story?

I wonder if we want to expand the press release to be a snapshot about companion birds in general (in California). I guess we only really have numbers for our own birds, but I wonder if we can include, say, the increase in surrendered birds across the state of California? This sounds rather ambitious & would require research with other bird rescues, plus their cooperation in giving us numbers. We can leave out finances for the others, as they probably won't want to talk about that anyway, and give a sense of finances just from our point of view (and serving our purpose).

What I'm trying to figure out here is what might make the press release most appealing for publishers, especially if we don't want to give out our exact monetary numbers.

p

On Dec 5, 2010, at 10:58 PM, Vincent J. Hrovat ((P)) wrote:

...

Hi again,

We never seem to get this press release thing off of the ground; however, I have an idea that I would like you to consider. How about an end-of- year press release with some numbers for 2010? How many birds did we take in, how many got adopted, how much did we spend on vet bills, how much did we take in donations, how many veterinary hospital visits did we pay for, et al.

We need to be judicious about what statistical information we give out, obviously, but we want it to have as much oomph as possible. If we want to release this promptly on 01 Jan 2011, the numbers might be preliminary estimates (most corporations take a few weeks to close out their books before releasing quarterly or annual numbers) but a New Year's Day release might also have the most impact. I think that such a press release should be summarized and linked to front and center on our web page to be sure that people who follow us will see it.

I have been following this . . . stuff about James Spaid and one of the topics that is currently going around with his livejournal coterie is how Mickaboo rarely provides medical care, even to very needy birds. As a few of us have learned, engaging that group directly to rebut their claims is like mud-wrestling with a pig (you get covered in slop and the pig enjoys himself). Instead, I think that it would be a better idea to post our results for 2010 in a very visible place so that people could clearly see the gap between their perceptions and our reality.

Thoughts?

--VH

-----Original Message----- From: media-advisors-bounces@mickaboo.org [mailto:media-advisors-bounces@mickaboo.org] On Behalf Of Martha Kudlacik Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2010 3:17 PM To: Mickaboo media advisor team Subject: [Media-advisors] can we use this INSANITY for a press release/story?

We have yet another mass surrender of cockatiels (33 in Palo Alto). Is there any way we can use this madness for a little PR?