Memphis Threatens Pet Blogger Covering Pound Abuse

Pet blogger Shirley Thistlewaite of Yes Biscuit! put her best foot forward for the furry friends at Memphis Animal Shelter (MAS), by writing about the organization’s 70% kill rate and raising funds to help rescuers pay for the care of animals saved from MAS.

Shirley’s valiant effort was quickly halted when Memphis city attorney, Herman Morris Jr, issued her a legal threat, accusing her of soliciting donations on behalf of MAS without their permission (untrue since she was raising funds for the rescuers of pets from MAS, not MAS itself).

Check out the letter sent by the legal attorney and Shirley’s response here.

The worse part of all of this is that Shirley doesn’t even live in Memphis! So she was being threatened by a city attorney that doesn’t even work for her city. Christie Keith from Pet Connection stated, “Set aside the fact that Shirley wasn’t even doing what she was being accused of doing. Set aside the fact that the Memphis city attorney has no power to do one damn thing about a law in another state...” And ask the real question here, why would Memphis want to stop people who are trying to save animals from a poorly-run shelter?

Somehow, this issue doesn’t seem to be about the animals at all.

Share your thoughts in a comment.

Check out Petside’s article on animal abuse.