Animal rescuers, street protesters, undercover abuse investigators, tree sitters, hunt saboteurs, defenders of women, sanctuary operators, and others taking direct action for earth, animal, or human liberation often run the risk of physical or emotional injury in the course of their activism, either by being violated themselves or by witnessing extreme suffering that they are helpless to relieve. By anticipating and mitigating the effects of such trauma, we can keep ourselves and each other more happy and healthy, thereby increasing movement efficacy.

For a book expanding an article about trauma and recovery in the animal liberation movement -- visit www.satyamag.com/jun05/jones_fear.html to read that article -- I am looking for stories from animal, environmental, and social justice activists who have encountered traumatic experiences in the course of their work.

If you would like to share your story with me, please tell me:

(1) What happened?

(2) How did you feel afterward?

(3) What did you do to cope?

(4) Did other people help or hurt? How?

(5) How do you feel now?

(6) Looking back, is there anything you would do differently or anything you wish you had known in advance?

(7) What would you like people to know about experiences like this?

(8) May I write about what you have told me? If so, should I use your name, keep it anonymous, or actively disguise your identity?

(9) May I contact you if I have further questions? How?

You may send your answers by email to pattrice-AT-bravebirds.org or by mail c/o Eastern Shore Sanctuary, 13981 Reading Ferry, Princess Anne, MD 21853. If you do want me to use your real name, I will need to know how to contact you to verify that I am accurately representing what you have told me.

I am writing the book right now and do have a deadline from the publisher, so please respond promptly if you are interested in sharing your ideas and experiences for this project.

Unless you give me permission, I will keep what you tell me confidential, using it only as background information to guide my own thinking. If you allow me to use your story in my writing, I will abide by your wishes concerning whether to use your name, keep it anonymous, or actively disguise your identity.

Either way, you should not disclose to me (or anyone else you don't know!) anything that could get you or anyone else in trouble with the law. Of course, you should never use email or other insecure means to say anything that you don't want the authorities to overhear.

Do you need to know more about me or my ideas before sharing your story with me? Follow the links below for articles, interviews, etc. Google me for more articles or just write and ask if you want to know something specific.

Fear of Feeling
www.satyamag.com/jun05/jones_fear.html

Attack of the Terrorist Fax
www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/jones06152004/

Their Bodies, Our Selves
www.satyamag.com/jan05/jones.html

Insurgent Ideas
www.animalliberationfront.com/ALFront/AgainstALF/insurgent_ideas.htm

Linking Feminist, Queer, and Animal Liberation
www.satyamag.com/jun05/jones_bridges.html

Violation and Liberation
earthfirstjournal.org/modules/AMS/article.php

The Power of Grassroots Movements (speech)
www.bravebirds.org/GARC1.html

Interview in Vegan Voice
www.animal-lib.org.au/more_interviews/pattricejones/

Eastern Shore Sanctuary archive (more speeches and interviews)
www.bravebirds.org/archive.html