The No Kill Advocacy Center reported on their Facebook page that Austen’s animal shelter had enacted a new rescue policy which banned rescuers making public statements about the shelter management which they deemed were inappropriate, negative or offensive. To me that looks like a gagging clause in their contract. The policy also allowed the management of this rescue organisation to deny the rescue of an animal at any time for any reason.
The No Kill Advocacy Center objected to the policy for the following reasons:
- It violated the First Amendment rights of rescuers and;
- It put the animals at risk of being killed and;
- It conflicted with a law that was passed two years ago and which required the shelter to give rescue organisations ‘possession of the animal to avoid the animal’s death if the rescue organization or person requests it.’
The No Kill Advocacy Center won that argument and the policy was withdrawn.
The Facebook post:
In May, we reported that Austin’s animal shelter enacted a new rescue policy which prohibited rescuers from making…
Posted by The No Kill Advocacy Center on Tuesday, August 3, 2021
Note: This is an embedded post from Facebook. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.
I think they did a great job in arguing their case and they concluded as you can see from the Facebook post that rescuers should not have to sacrifice their constitutional and legal rights when they are already sacrificing their time energy and resources to improve animal welfare.
The story comes from the world’s foremost advocate of rescue animals: Nathan J. Winograd who summarised the story in an email to me as follows:
“The Austin, TX, animal shelter was forced to rescind its policy prohibiting rescuers from criticizing inhumane practices at the animal shelter and allowing the shelter to deny rescue of an animal “at any time for any reason.”
TWO ASSOCIATED PAGES:
- Animal Shelters: When I Spoke Out I was Thrown Out!
- Executive director of large animal shelter network tried to gag workers and now faces multiple criminal charges
The internet tells me that Austin’s animal center is “an open-intake facility where lost and surrendered animals in need of shelter are accepted regardless of age, health, …”
The address is: A, 7201 Levander Loop, Austin, TX 78702, United States.
Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.
SOME MORE ON RESCUE CENTERS:
