City the Kitty nonprofit Press Release
January 13, 2021
The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) says they are strongly opposed to declawing but they allow this inhumane amputation procedure in their accredited animal hospitals.
Please sign City the Kitty’s Petition to AAHA. (No need to donate to Change. org to sign the petition.)
Here’s more about AAHA’s hypocrisy and lies. AAHA Puts Profits over the welfare of cats
City the Kitty nonprofit is one of the leading animal welfare organizations in the world that is helping to end declawing and is shining light on how veterinary organizations and veterinarians address declawing.
Declawing is an inhumane amputation procedure that always harms the long term health and well being of a cat in varying degrees.
On October 30, 2020, GoDaddy, City the Kitty nonprofit’s website hosting company, sent them a DMCA complaint alleging that copyright infringement is taking place on CitytheKitty.org.
The complaint was from the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) who alleged that the use of their declawing information and logo was an infringement of AAHA’s rights.
City the Kitty received this take down notice 10 days after they published this story about the AAHA 2020 Accredited Practice of the Year Winner, Manheim Pike Veterinary Hospital of Lancaster, PA.AAHA 2020 Accredited Practice of the Year Winner
GoDaddy issued a warning that if City the Kitty nonprofit doesn’t remove the AAHA info, they will suspend their website.
City the Kitty nonprofit decided to protect themselves from losing their website and from legal repercussions–valid or not–and removed the material containing AAHA’s content.
City the Kitty nonprofit publishes investigative stories about declawing and always uses facts and information under the Fair Use Doctrine.
Fair use is a doctrine in the law of the United States that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder.
Fair Use is a tricky doctrine where there’s no legal guarantee, and even if some of the copyrighted information is used in a Fair Use criticism/reporting context, the cost of defending that right may easily eclipse the benefit of fighting it in court.
It’s CitytheKitty.org’s opinion that AAHA used this take down tactic to try to intimidate and stop City the Kitty’s efforts of shining light on the fact that AAHA allows declawing in their accredited animal hospitals.
To safeguard City the Kitty nonprofit’s advocacy going forward, a team of lawyers, who are experts in this type of legal issue, were consulted and made a plan for all of City the Kitty’s content and advocacy work going forward.
With our newly obtained legal advice and strategies, City the Kitty nonprofit will continue to shed light on how AAHA says they strongly oppose declawing yet they allow this inhumane, cruel, and unnecessary amputation procedure in their accredited animal hospitals, without becoming an easy target for AAHA to claim copyright violations.
City the Kitty’s work going forward now has an added protection against the tactics AAHA would otherwise use to try to stop and censor us.
The remaining money in the City the Kitty vs AAHA fundraiser will be used for advertising campaigns get the word out about AAHA and declawing and this serious issue.
Thank you so much for your support.
These are our stories that they forced us to take out some of their declawing information.
- https://citythekitty.org/the-american-animal-hospital-associations-aaha-hospital-of-the-year-declaws-cats/
- https://citythekitty.org/aahas-declaw-communications-toolkit/
- https://citythekitty.org/aaha-double-standard-no-accountability-for-declawing/
- https://citythekitty.org/an-american-animal-hospital-association-aaha-that-declaws-bobcats-and-lynx-cats/
- https://citythekitty.org/aaha-aafp-cat-friendly-practice-and-fear-free-veterinary-clinics
Here are some of the items that they forced us to take down.
Screenshots of these pages that are public on AAHA.org.
- AAHA’s Sample declawing staff training guide.
2. AAHA’s Sample Declawing social media responses.
3) AAHA’s Press Release about their revised declawing position.
4) AAHA’s Declawing page. https://www.aaha.org/about-aaha/aaha-position-statements/declawing/
5) AAHA’s New Mandatory Dental Standard. https://www.aaha.org/publications/newstat/articles/2013-08/aaha-announces-new-mandatory-dental-standard-requiring-anesthesia-intubation/
6) AAHA’s 2015 revised position on declawing cats. https://www.aaha.org/publications/newstat/articles/2015-09/aaha-revises-position-on-domestic-cat-declawing/
7) A screenshot of AAHA’s twitter page showing that they blocked us.
8) A screenshot of AAHA’s Facebook page.
9) They forced us to take down TWO SENTENCES in their standard setters section that says they set the standard in vet medicine and have 940 standards. https://www.aaha.org/your-pet/why-accreditation-matters/
10) They forced us to take down an email about declawing that one of their senior managers sent to one of our supporters.