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Animal Care Volunteers Told To STFU By Officials
By
Jen Carlson
Published Sep 15, 2010
Modified Sep 15, 2010
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Sep 15, 2010
Modified Sep 15, 2010
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New York's Animal Care & Control is getting some bad PR after instructing volunteers to stop feeding their bad PR machine! According to the Daily News, the city's animal shelter volunteers are being told by officials that they have to stop posting photos and information about shelters on the internet, even on their personal Facebook pages. The agency doesn't want to be put in a "negative light," but it looks like their efforts are having a Streisand effect.
Assemblyman Micah Kellner heard about the new rules from some volunteers and has now written letters to Mayor Bloomberg, Health Commissioner Thomas Farley and City Controller John Liu to complain on their behalf. He says, "this policy violates the constitutional rights of volunteers."
The AC&C's request may have been spurred by budget cuts, which haven't helped with the poor quality of their shelters. One volunteer told the paper, "They really need us because the staff has been cut so much. They are asking people to jump through hoops. Most of them will suck it up because they want to help the animals."
The organization's spokesman Richard Gentles says they will listen to the volunteer's feedback, but that "some people were putting out false, misleading and inaccurate information that was not helping the animals."
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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