I don't always write stories that go viral, but when I do they're about autism and pit bulls.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tom’s Farms faces backlash from discrimination against autism service dog

Shorty Rossi, of Animal Planet’s Pit Boss and non-profit, Shorty’s Charities, requests a formal apology to family of autistic daughter whose service dog was asked to “leave the premises”

Corona, California, US September 16, 2013

It started off as any other day in the life of a parent raising a child with autism.  This particular woman, wife to guerrilla marketing strategist adviser and a weblebrity, Rock da Mullet, and mother to two, works daily as her daughter’s guardian, protector, therapist, diligent parent, and simply wants to go about her day without apologizing for a developmental disability that affects one (1) out of  88  children.  Autism Spectrum Disorders are only as disabling as the limits set upon them by society.  Compound this by their chosen trained and certified service dog being the most discriminated against breed of dog in America; the pit bull terrier.  As Mrs. Ed Santos states, more often than a mother with a child who requires having a service animal should have to: "This is a service animal. It is allowed anywhere my daughter goes as she needs it…

When an animal becomes an animal of service the breed is no longer recognized, rather the service they provide. So this is not a pit bull this is an autism service dog."

Tom’s Farms’ website states:

“Today, the property … include(s) a variety of shops, restaurants, and attractions for family entertainment. Staying true to Tom's original core values,… visitors are always welcome. Tom wouldn't like it any other way.”

But Tom would not come when requested as his staff subjected the Santos family when they were repeatedly asked to step outside.  These visitors in August, 2013, were not welcome; in fact, they were asked, repeatedly, to leave.  The following is a recounting of the day, in their own words:

This is my 2nd post to Tom's Farms FB page. I am still waiting for a reply from anyone from Tom's Farms regarding this matter:

“This correspondence is a follow up in regards to an injustice that took place in the sweet shop on Saturday August 3rd. While my family and I were shopping we were approached by a woman who stated she was the assistant manager and told (not asked) us to leave. When I inquired as to why, she stated that dogs were not allowed in the store. We informed her that the vested dog was a service animal, offered appropriate identification for the service animal and offered to answer any

questions she may have had. Due to my willingness to clear up any lack of understanding that she may have had, I am at a loss as to why she then decided to call security on us all while yelling at my family and repeating "leave".

“I cannot even begin to express to you how hard it is for a mentally handicap child to be aggressively cornered in the way we were, you see, not only is my daughter mentally handicap she has various other issues as well. Issues that we tried to explain to the assistant manager, however I assumed she could not hear us over her yelling. I would like to assume that any employee of Tom's Farms would have the basic understanding that if a person has the need for a service animal their lives are hard enough already without being placed in position to feel as if they are less than anybody else.

“We try our best to provide our daughter with the independent freedom she deserves all while not bothering the world around us and the situation that I speak off took that opportunity away from her. While I could continue with "he said she said" I am choosing a different path in regards to this scenario. There are an excessive amount of laws that pertain to service animals and the disabled. It is painfully apparent that Tom's Farms is not aware of them and I would like to assist with rectifying that.

“So at this time I come to you and offer my assistance in regards to the proper training of ALL employees. I can assist you in the training of service animal identification as well as sensitivity training to ensure that my family is the only family that is discriminated against on your property. I sincerely hope you take the above situation seriously and strive to not only set but reach a new standard of equality not only for your patrons but for your employees as well. I look forward to hearing from you.”

Shorty Rossi faces similar discrimination throughout his travels on the Shorty Rossi and Hercules’ tours. One of his primary goals with Shorty’s Charities Inc., a newly approved 501(c)(3) charity in the state of California, is to keep pit bulls in their homes where they belong, as well as to educate, enlighten and inform individuals, and companies, about responsible Bully Breed Guardianship.

Tom’s Farms owes the Santos family a public apology and to be informed enough to improve their business’ practices in regards to service dog rights. We are simply asking for the opportunity to enlighten them, because discrimination bites.

END###

If you would like more information or to schedule an interview, please call Julie Hernandez at 818.850.2310 or email julie@shortyscharities.org

Julie Marie Miller-Hernandez

Director of Marketing & Public Relations

Secretary, Shorty's Charities Inc., a nonprofit corporation
www.shortyscharities.org

To show support for my personal friends and family subjected to this set of circumstances, please like
www.facebook.com/PupcakePitBullServiceDog

Downloadable versions of our press release on behalf of our client, Shorty's Charities

To donate to Shorty's Charities, visit www.shortyscharities.org/help-us-help-them

BLOG POST AUTHORED BY: Julie Miller, President of Lady Luck Consulting
 

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#smallbusiness #charity #nonprofit #success #patience #shortyrossi #pitboss #autism #advocacy #discrimination #servicedog #pitbull

Facebooking for the greater good; how to raise thousands of dollars online

Do you Facebook for the greater good? Or just for fun?

If you happen to be one of my followers or friends, no one is spared from seeing pleas for funds, donation requests for support, or dogs in need of homes. I support the causes I believe in wholeheartedly. I figure there's an unfriend button and an unfollow option.

But let's be frank for a moment, my clients aren't interested in seeing my sometimes expletive-filled, usually emotionally-loaded, VagueBooking ecards that I write when I'm having a rough day.  You may have dozens of friends from grade, middle or high school that you're not really in close touch with whom you don't really want to share your "complicated" relationship status updates. Nor do you want your teenage son or daughter, nor their teachers, seeing your post on the six best sex positions.


Think about it:

1. Are the images you post constantly being reported for content?
2. Has your profile been banned from commenting?
3. Are you trying to raise funds, urgently, but are frustrated by the effort?
4. Do you know how to use the "ban" feature on your pages?
5. Do you monitor comments?
6. Do you study your insights?
7. Are you on social networking to network? To be social?  Or because everybody else is doing it?

This is where we leave your profile and decide how interested you are in each of your friends on your friends' list.

This is a lot of work if you have 941 friends but if you do this as you realize that you might not want to see that your cousin really loves the Back Street Boys, just uncheck the "Music and Videos" option. Or if you just can't stomach graphic images of dogs that need donations but you don't want to delete that friend because your heart tells you to contribute, uncheck "Photos."  Easy.


Nothing like an election year to find out your friends' opinions. I have admittedly unchecked a whole lot of friends "types of updates" and posts on my news feed cause, well, you know.... I am fascinated by the massive, never-before-seen social experiment called Facebook and the psychology behind our fears which lead to chain-letter like status updates burdening your friends with the responsibility of your privacy. If you don't know how to manage your own privacy, you don't get to determine that, they do.

You are more limited in your options for fan pages, but you do have the ability to "like" a page without seeing their updates. 

Perhaps you want the group to know you support them but don't necessarily want to see how many homeless pit bulls will die today throughout your feed wall when you really want just to see the photos of your newest, baby niece of your brother in Nebraska, just uncheck "Show in News Feed." Voila!  Isn't baby Grace just darling and growing SOO fast?!

If YOU have something to hide from a select group of people, there are many options for postings and I utilize nearly all of them on my personal profile but I already covered that that in "Post sexually explicit status updates and graphic images without getting banned" which has nothing to do with sex, just so you're not disappointed when you get there.

Frankly, I use Facebook for networking purposes as I am a firm believer in the 80s Faberge Organics Shampoo commercial "And they'll tell two friends- and so on, and so on..."  

If you're a celebrity, sure this might work. Otherwise...

I watch carefully what others do and how they engage their followers.  Beating them up cause they're not forking over ten bucks is not a successful attempt.  Posting frustrated, expletive filled rants about how the graphic images are putting their account on lock-down is not the correct approach.  Posting graphic images directly to your pages because "that's the only photo you have" to show your potential supports will only get you banned, unfollowed or unliked, because it IS offensive.  

There are solutions to all of these problems. I know them, I use them. You can too.

Between the days of MySpace and Facebook, I can comfortably estimate that I have personally raised (with help of volunteers, friends, followers and supporters) hundreds of thousands of dollars for animals in need in the past seven-eight years. How do I do it?  Well, I can't give away ALL of my trade secrets. But with options like events, polls, crowd-funding, and interest groups, I have no doubt that people can raise the funds they need for their cause.

Only individuals who sign up, login, post, "like" and "share" can answer the questions above for themselves. If you find yourself not being sure how to answer these or you can answer but have no idea where to begin, we can help.

You should be engaging, not offensive.  You should inspire, not insult.  You should be positive, not pessimistic. You should be inviting, not accusatory.

"I said 'Somebody should so something about that...' Then I realized I am that somebody."~ Lilly Tomlin

What's YOUR purpose on social media?

Post sexually explicit status updates and graphic images without getting banned

Facebook 101: personal privacy settings

Just kidding but now that I have your attention, let's discuss privacy settings. Since Twitter, InstaGram and Pinterest (other than secret boards) are public, this blog today is specific to Facebook Privacy settings and the new, improved (that's debatable by some) Timeline.

I thought about making this a video blog but since my favorite place to work is behind the scenes (ask Shorty Rossi how many times I've turned down being on an episode of Pit Boss) I'll go with my comfort zone and post screenshots of this Facebook tutorial.

To begin, I'm sure you're really good at one thing, maybe two (if more, then come work for me), and consider yourself an expert and offer sound advice in that particular area of knowledge. I feel that way about Facebook. When I see others posting privacy warnings as their statuses, or requiring others change their settings under threat of being deleted for not "liking" a status or simply "liking" things that their spouse might not appreciate, I simply cringe. I really do.

I personally had to deal with a matter late into the night recently regarding a therapeutic venting session and rant that almost cost her a regular buyer of her products. I won't go into details but I beg of people: KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. Let's take that a step further: LIMIT YOUR AUDIENCE.  You may feel close to some people you've met online through some bonding experiences. I certainly have and count those people as, albeit long-distance, real friends.

When you have young children underfoot or work from home, often social media is your only social experience. And that's okay...well it is for me at least. I swear I can think of many times where I might have lost my sanity if not for a "friend" to reach out to but I don't necessarily want my children (whom I require to be friends with me online) to read every venting rant I post either, especially when it's in regards to their father.  Do I want my clients necessarily seeing every photo of me in a bikini with my kids at the beach?  Do I think that my animal rescue folk are interested in my son's latest magazine editorial photos or do my momager friends really want to  hear about the latest pit bull I'm raising funds for?  I'm known in the animal rescue world, but I don't enjoy getting back to my office after a quick pick-up run to gather up my kids from school to find 19 photos tagged of me, spamming my wall of a dog that's going to die at 5pm.

We use social media to be SOCIAL, for the most part but there is a time and a place for everything and you may want to take a walk through your own friends' list to determine what information you want the people on your list to see...

Nonetheless, on to the personal privacy, friends' groups and interest lists tutoring session. 

Before I delve into this, most of the following only applies to being at a computer, not via Facebook mobile. I'll admit, I'm not the girl to ask about Facebook Mobile and if I even attempted to do so, I'm sure one of my friends would be happy to remind me of the time 64 mobile uploads captured the interior of my purse. *waves, smiles and blushes*

The first screenshot is how to access your privacy settings. I'm not trying to insult anyone here, just making an attempt to be thorough so bear with me please.

Now that you're in (that's what she said) look around to see what your options are and which choice suits you best. I won't advise you as to what your personal default setting should be but will point out that if you're an animal rescue cross-poster don't make your default setting "friends only."  If you've just launched a KickStarter campaign, don't limit your audience.  You want people to share and network, correct?  Right.

On my personal profile my friends and I joke that it's R-rated, so I utilize my privacy options not just daily but with each individual post. I am very thankful for the changeover to being able to edit your privacy settings AFTER the fact. I think that is my favorite feature of the Timeline. No more deleting comments and complete status updates with 187 comments {[(*thud*)]}

A reminder: these are YOUR personal privacy settings for your posts only. These tools allow you to choose the audience for YOUR posts only.

I can't tell you how many posts I see of privacy concerns about public fan pages, tagging and liking images that aren't necessarily on your own personal profile.  Let me make this clear: YOU MUST CHECK THE OPTIONS OF THE PICTURE, STATUS, LINK THAT YOU ARE INTERACTING WITH.  Those privacy settings are what determine its visibility to people on YOUR lists. So, if you like scantily clad women or are a closet homophobe be aware that anything you like or comment on MAY be seen by your friends. You have no control over other pages' settings. You only have control of how you choose to interact with them.
That being said, on to tagging. 

"Review posts friends tag you in before they appear on YOUR timeline."  Let me reiterate "YOUR" - these posts may not appear on your personal "wall" (or timeline) but they will appear on the feed wall of the person's friends' list who tagged you.  Again, you can only limit your privacy settings. If you don't want to be seen somewhere with someone who's active on social media, it's time to step away from the keyboard and have one of those "real life conversations."

Again, social networking's intent is to be SOCIAL and to NETWORK.  All of us have people we don't particularly care for, we also may have others who've just caused us trouble online in the past, or you simply do NOT want your M.I.L. or ex-husband's current girlfriend to see what you're up to or where you're working.  This is why I love the "blocking" feature and the "restricted" list.

No need to cover blocking, it's pretty simple and self-explanatory once you're on the correct landing page, but let's talk about the "Restricted List" for a moment. 

You may be very private when using social media and you may be one of those people who "only add people I know in real life."  You're activity online reflects your personal beliefs and privacy and that's good.  Now for those of us who utilize social media for networking, cross-promotion and meeting and interacting with new people, we find ourselves cautious about the latest friend request.  The Restricted List is your solution.  If I don't know someone and see no mutual friends in common, it's your choice whether to add them or not, simply "confirm" or "ignore."  I'll add any new "friends" that request it, but they go on this list.  It does not prohibit them from viewing information I post publicly but they cannot see anything more restrictive than that. So you're "friends" but not really.  I usually, eventually, move people off this list on to another one once I figure out why they found the need to be friends with me.

When I add people, EVERYONE goes on to a list:

• If they're under 18, "Adults only"
• If they're a momager, "Industry"
• If they're a work colleague or client, "Content" etc... 

These are my lists, folks. You can create your own, naming them whatever you want, for example: "Dog Peeps" "Trolls" "Freaks" or whatever tickles your fancy

This is where all this work in creating your lists comes into play

This doesn't have to do with privacy but it's somewhat relevant to the subject matter.
So next if you're not familiar with Interest Lists you should be if you're an online networker. Interest Lists have their own privacy settings that the creator of the list determines. I keep several lists, some public specifically my "pit bull rescue" list which by following, others, based on my privacy settings, can just cheat and grab all the effort I've put into making this list of rescue groups and resources across.

Bottom line, if you don't find this information important you may risk losing a client or a job or wondering why those graphic images you post keep getting you banned from trying to raise funds for an dog in urgent need.  

If you want your friends to continue recommending medication or to keep cussing out your friends via the mightly status update, go for it.  If you want to be able to be social the way you need to be social, if you want to network your cause without offending friends who love you (but not your cause) take the time to adjust your privacy settings and monitor your audience online. 

Or you can continue to VagueBook as to not offend anyone.

If you have any Facebook tutoring questions, please post them as comments!

Upcoming Facebook Tutoring Topics:

• If I deactivate my Facebook account, does it also disable my pages?
• Fundraise online WITHOUT offending or losing fans
• Social media for the greater good