Changing Cultural Norms and Attitudes: Our Recent Outreach Efforts

The topics on WYCAP’s banners elicit reactions and generate discussion.

“You know, looking at your pull-up posters really makes me uneasy. When I asked myself why, I realized it was because I had no idea about any of these awful animal cruelty cases. Thanks for educating me and for what you do”. It was one of many similar comments I received recently while staffing a booth at the annual meeting of The Wildlife Society in Sheridan, Wyoming. The booth, co-sponsored by WYCAP and Wyoming Untrapped (WU), drew many of the 177 conference participants.

The puppy mill, pet hoarding, and horse neglect issues were instantly recognized as abuse, but the others (yote whacking, prairie dog misting, killing contests) were met with initial resistance. More than one person claimed that our efforts to change attitudes in Wyoming are doomed to fail because “Wyoming is not ready to ban these”. 

But what are these? Explaining why these activities are cruel and asking people if they would be willing to engage in them slowly changed the conversation. “Me? Of course I wouldn’t do that!” “Why not?” “Because it’s… cruel”. So once people realize what is happening around them, they start changing their attitudes. This is one of our main missions! But how?

The first step is to expose as many people as possible to the issues. In March 2026, we twice set up our booth at the University of Wyoming (UW) Student Union. From 8 AM to 4 PM we manned the booth in shifts and engaged more than 200 people with conversations about cruelty cases, our activities to mitigate them, and our efforts to change the laws in the state. Across both events, 75 people signed up to receive our newsletter and 22 indicated they are interested in volunteering. We handed out close to 120 information cards covering topics such as yote whacking, killing contests, technology and its impact on fair chase, puppy mills, and more. People also took our WYCAP  logo stickers, bumper stickers, and (of course) nearly all the chocolate bars with educational stickers.

We also contacted 22 of the UW student organizations with an affinity to natural resources or animal husbandry (e.g., the Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society, Student Chapter of the Society of Range Management, Wyoming Collegiate Cattle Association, Wyoming Pre-Veterinary Club, and more).

Students in the University of Wyoming’s Environment and Natural Resources Student Club develop mock legislative testimony.

On April 6, 2026, we met for an hour with 14 students from the Environment and Natural Resources Student Club at the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources. After a short presentation about WYCAP, we engaged the students in an activity simulating testimony in front of the Wyoming legislature. We gave students a copy of the bill calling for the removal of river otters from the state protected list (HB045, 2025), played the recording of some of the testimonies we gave, and then asked them to find information on other protected species (such as wolverines, pikas, and fishers). The students then “testified” in front of the “Travel, Recreation and Wildlife Committee” on why these species should not be removed from the protected list. The students found the activity engaging and readily participated. They left the meeting with stickers and information cards, after consuming the pizza we provided. Four of them signed up to receive our newsletter.

In Sheridan, we reached many of the participants of The Wildlife Society conference. Nine people signed up to receive the newsletter, and 3 to volunteer. All the books, hats, bags, and WU stickers were snatched. We ran out of the “Protect Beavers” information cards, most of our logo stickers, and will likely need to print many of our other informational items. Again, most people thanked us for what we do. It felt good.

For me, our recent outreach activities crystallized two issues: people are unaware of animal abuse cases (some had never heard of the highly publicized Cody Roberts wolf torture case), but once they learn about these cases, most become supportive of WYCAP’s mission. So, we need to continue with our efforts and expand them statewide. We need to table at all community colleges, speak with student groups across Wyoming, attend various public events (farmer markets, 4th of July, Frontier Days, etc.), engage through social media, write op-eds, and create more visual materials.

In some places, we may experience opposition, but we’ll never be able to change cultural norms and attitudes if we don’t share our position and beliefs.