Maria, our experince with trying to place ads of this nature is that a paper's lawyers won't allow it. From the paper's point of view, there is no way of being certain that the photos are actually of animals in an SPCA: they could be of animals in someone's basement. And the intent of the ad is to harm the SPCA's reputation which could result in a loss of income from donations, etc. The possibility of defamation is too strong for a paper.

AAS is unafraid to publish photos such as the one Brigitta sent us (see below) because we believe absolutely that the photos are exactly what Brigitta says they are.

AAS has photos of dogs in SPCA pound cells and photos of new, expensive SPCA vehicles that employees take home. We have wanted to build a page that puts the two together for some time. We would like to have pictures of some of the renovated staff rooms to include too.

So if you send us the photos you have we will put them to good use, showing that nothing is too good for the staff and nothing too bad for the animals. We want to show that there are no standards lower than what the SPCA has set. We would tie this idea in with how the SPCA's low standards has prevented it from being able to criticize people who neglect animals, pet stores that keep animals in tiny, dirty cages, and breeders. The SPCA would hardly want to invite comparisons with its own grim, lonely, disease-filled, cold, dirty "shelters".

http://www.animaladvocates.com/spca-mr-cat-cages.htm

Nothing too good for itself, nothing too bad for the animals. See our comparison of the way the SPCA treats itself and the way it treats animals....

Judy Stone