Lead the Way

Lead The Way joined by Lord Mayor, Clover Moore MP and MySpace Australia to launch a new community campaign to support Animals (Regulation of Sale) Bill and help save 60,000+ lives.

Lead The Way, a public campaign in support of Lord Mayor, Clover Moore's Animals (Regulation of Sale) Bill was launched on Wednesday the 4^th of July outside Parliament House in Sydney. The campaign uses social networking and viral marketing to reach millions of Australian animal lovers and gain public support for the Bill.

The campaign encourages people to visit the MySpace profile, confirm their support, and use web software to 'virally' inform their friends about the initiative. So far, more than 17,000 people have lent their support to the campaign.

Animals in pet shops help promote impulse buying, which can lead to pets being abandoned due to unanticipated costs, behaviours and responsibilities. Impulse buying creates a demand that is often met by unscrupulous 'puppy farms' that mass-produce animals despite the oversupply. In an effort to educate Australians about the problem, Lead The Way is working with MySpace Australia to reach a wider audience.

Campaign Manager, Kristofer Rogers, says, "While informing the wider public about the horrendous treatment of cats and dogs associated with the pet industry, Lead The Way will provide an easy way for them to lend their support. We believe that as animal lovers, Australians will not stand for this and get behind the campaign."

"Australia has the highest rate of pet ownership in the world and pets play an important role in our society. Yet there can be a disturbing aspect to pet ownership. Over 60,000 unwanted dogs and cats are killed each year in NSW. This is an indictment on any civilised society," says Lord Mayor, Clover Moore MP.

"Under my Bill, people would only be able to buy cats and dogs from registered breeders, animal pounds and shelters, or from their local vet where they would be matched with an animal and provided with detailed information about its needs".

Rebekah Horne, Vice President MySpace.com, Australia says, "We're sure that the 2.5 million Australian MySpace users will be an effective community adding their considerable weight and voice to the 'Lead The Way' campaign, an important initiative for all Australians concerned about the welfare of animals. Interestingly, a recent study commissioned by MySpace in the UK identified six key personalities or types of social networker; ranging from the business minded, the uber creative to the more traditional user. One of the six segments were identified as "Collaborators", these MySpace users will be critical in this campaign as they inherently believe in 'people power' and use social networking sites to create momentum by collaborating with other people."

The Animals (Regulation of Sale) Bill regulates the sale of pets to reduce impulse buying and cruel mass breeding practices. It would ban the sale of dogs and cats in shops and markets, ban the display of other mammals in windows, and limit advertising mammal sales to recognised breeders, and shelters, rescuers, vets and pounds re-homing abandoned pets. The Bill would allow shelters to use pet shops to re-home cats and dogs. Consumers would need to be given specific written information about a pets costs and responsibilities before purchase and sales to persons under 16 years of age would be banned.

Lead the Way is the public campaign in support of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore's Animals (Regulation of Sale) Bill. Our aim is to reach a mass audience through social networking and public relations to gain support for the Bill amongst the general public, leverage this support (through public relations) to reach the key influencers in Parliament, and educate Australians about the facts surrounding the issue

www.myspace.com/leadthewaycampaign

www.leadtheway.org.au