One major focus of Legislative Rights for Parrots is educating legislators about the potential real-life consequences of laws and regulations proposed at the Federal and State level. Petitions and letter-writing campaigns are effective tools for the public to inform their representatives. If you are interested in joining our letter-writing campaigns, Volunteer with Us!

The Will of the People

The United States government operates under the concept known as Popular Sovereignty, meaning that all governmental authority is created and sustained by the consent of the people being governed. This means that if a law does not serve us, the people, we need to make our representatives aware of that fact. Submitting a complaint or petitioning the government to change laws or policies is a right guaranteed by the First Amendment. This applies to all levels of government: Federal, State, and Local. Drafting and delivering a petition is an excellent way to make elected officials aware of where their constituents stand on important issues.

There are a few steps to creating an effective petition:

1. Choose your audience carefully.

It is important to address your petition to the correct person or group, namely the one who has the power to make the change you’re requesting. This usually means creating separate petitions addressed to specfic elected officials if the issue in question affects a larger population such as an entire state or the United States as a whole.

2. Make a specific request.

Keep the message short and to the point, with a two- to three-sentence overview of the issue backed up by a similar number of supporting facts and evidence, then ask for a clear action such as voting for or against a certain bill, support or oppose specific legislation, or to encourage their colleagues to do the same.

3. Provide space for signatures.

The power of a petition is in demonstrating that your request matters to a large number of people. With paper petitions, create lines with enough room for both a signature and an address or zip code so signers can show that they’re all constituents of the elected official being addressed. Electronic petitions should also include this information, and it’s important to direct supporters to the correct petition for their own elected official.

4. Delivery matters.

Handing over a stack of paper to someone in your elected official’s office may not make the impression you hoped for. Creating an impactful visual such as delivering the many pages of your petition in boxes, bringing a group of like-minded people to deliver it, or contacting the media to cover the delivery of your petition may help emphasize how many people are invested in the issue and how serious they are about being heard.

Finding Your Senators

You can find contact information for your Senators with a few simple steps:

• Go to this link: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm

• Choose your State.

• Click “Contact” under a Senator’s name.

• You will be referred to your Senator’s individual website, which may simply list contact information or present you with a contact form of some kind.

• Repeat for your second Senator.

Finding Your Representative

You can find contact information for your Representative with the following steps: 

• Go to this link: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

• Enter your zip code.

• Your Representative will appear, OR you will be asked for an address to identify your district.

• Click the     below your Representative’s picture to email them.

Letter Writing

Of course, petitioning is only one way to help. Contacting legislators to make your voice heard is critical to ensuring that our laws protect the welfare of parrots. This can take the form of phone calls, personal visits, and the time-honored tradition of letter writing campaigns. Though they may be submitted electronically these days, a well-written letter encouraging adoption of a new law or discouraging harmful amendments to existing statutes makes certain that your legislator is familiar with what their constituents want and need.Letters to elected officials share many points with petitions. They need a brief overview of the issue at hand, evidence to support your viewpoint, and a clear call to action.

It is also worth noting that simply copying and pasting the contents of someone else’s letter is not sufficient when making a complaint or request to government officials. Identical letters are disregarded when considering how many people are concerned about a certain issue.

While we encourage you to read through our example letters and use them for inspiration, any letter sent to your local Senator or Representative must vary from these examples in order to be taken seriously.

Here is an example of a letter written to discourage passing Senate Bill 1614, “Amendments to the Lacey Act 2023”:

Sample Letter - House Lacey Amendments 24

Addressing the correct person or group is just as important when writing letters as it is when sending petitions. For example, there are two identical bills currently proposed to amend the Lacey Act, one in the Senate and one in the House of Representatives. To protest the latter, you would need to locate contact information for your local Representatives and make the following changes so that your letter references House Rule 4922 instead of its companion in the Senate:

Sample Letter - House Lacey Amendments 24

Letter-writing campaigns can be extremely effective, especially when coordinated to show that many citizens share the same concerns. Legislative Rights for Parrots strives to keep all parrot owners and other interested parties up to date on the laws that affect parrot welfare via our education programs, social media, and rescue partnerships, but the best way to get involved is by joining us as a Volunteer. This way, we can present a united front and make it clear to our representatives that we support sensible, well-considered laws and regulations that promote the wellbeing of parrots, parrot owners, rescues, and ethical parrot breeders and pet dealers.