April 19, 2010
Subject: Support Austrian activists

Dear friends,

As many of you will have heard, we have launched a big international campaign against the persecution of animal protection activists in Austria. The campaign has a website, in which the background of the human rights scandal is exposed in 22 different languages and readers are encouraged to send a protest letter to the Austrian politicians. We have also launched a chain campaign, as part of which there is at least one public protest in one country taking place every week.

There are two ways in which you can support the campaign:

1. Please spread the website www.shameonaustria. org (or your language version which you will get by selecting your language in the top menu) wherever you can - emails, blogs, websites, social network sites etc. Please help us achieve the target of 100,000 visitors and 10,000 emails sent!

2. If you can, take part in the chain campaign by organising a creative protest action in your country. Write an email to english@shameonaust ria.org so that we can work out the details.

This campaign is extremely important not only for the persecuted activists but also for the future of the animal protection movement. We need to be able to defend our colleagues against illegitimate state attacks, otherwise it will be a signal for other states that we are weak and that they can do whatever they want.

Thanks for your support

Marek Vorsilka
Campaign co-ordinator