In response to the rising number of websites that promote, glamorize
or trivialize cruelty to animals, this information is to help you to do something to stop it. Much of what you see on the Internet is created for the purpose of drawing attention to the author's website. They are so disassociated with society that it doesn't matter to them if what they are displaying has any moral value. All they are concerned with is the attention -- whether good or bad -- motivates them to continue their effort to increase their hit count or reputation. To those types of sites, please ignore them. Hopefully, without the attention that they crave for, and the lack of interest in their site from others, they will go away.

In the past, we provided petitions and worked to have the sites removed. Even though this process was successful, it has also helped to draw attention to those sites. This has indirectly given support to those sites to make it eventually come back or encouraged others who thought alike to start one of their own cruelty websites. Now, we have several more, and efforts to remove them gets harder and harder everytime. That's why it is in the best interest of all concerned that we handle these things in another manner.

Should you find a site that is promoting animal cruelty, here is what you can do:

• Do not contact the website. The author isn't interested in how you feel about him/her and what he/she is doing.
• Do not provide website links and/or send emails to all of your friends and associates telling them about the site. Doing so would be promoting the site and, thusly, giving them what they want -- attention. It is what they crave and you would only be fueling their fire. Don't give them any satisfaction. If you have concerns about a web site, contact your elected officials but please do not contact friends and neighbors. Many well-intentioned individuals believe that the best course of action is to tell all of their friends and relatives about such web sites. Sometimes online petitions against a site will be generated. Ultimately, such petitions or mass emails will only increase the number of visitors to a website, encouraging the site's creator.
• Contact the ISP who hosts the website to let them know about the abusive content. The administrative and technical contacts are who you should be sending your complaints to. The registrant is most likely the website author. To find out who is the ISP and other relevant information, you can use any one of the WHOIS tools available on the internet such as this one here: http://whois.domaintools.com

  However, sometimes the origin of the site, the name and address under the site is registered could be inaccurate, incomplete or false. So far, it has been an uphill battle, as the only law that even remotely covers issues like this is a law that covers e-mailed obscenities; therefore, if the site is not in violation of the host's user agreement, no law is being violated, and the site can remain up. Some other sites similar to this one has been closed down several times before but continues to reappear with different Web addresses. Thus, in addition, you can also file a complaint at the reporting center website set up by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) for Internet fraud and other forms of Internet crime here: http://www.ic3.govKnow the Laws in your Area

• If you know of a real animal abuse in your community, contact your local authorities. Provide as much evidence to support your complaint as possible.

Animal cruelty hurts everyone, and it most certainly it is not funny.

"I have always held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring some portion of misery to an end." ~ Albert Schweitzer

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Great information!!!!

Thanks

DebbieL

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Nick....

Excellent advise. Green star for you!

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