A Homer cat rescue group has filed a lawsuit against the Homer Animal Shelter, the shelter manager and the Homer Police Chief. Judy Price alleges the shelter manager started blocking her attempts to rescue cats for Clear Creek Cat Rescue after she commented on how the city-run facility could be improved. Price believes her constitutional rights are being violated.
Right after she gave constructive criticism at a public meeting about the city-run animal shelter in Homer this past January, Price says she was banned from rescuing cats there. She says she was just throwing out ideas.
“Suggestions for ways to improve the shelter – to use more volunteers, to have a more open adoption policy, to have a rescue agreement with the rescue groups. Just general ways to make a shelter work better and to get the animals adopted more quickly,” said Price.
The next day shelter manager Cheryl Bess, who runs the shelter as a contractor through Coastal Animal Care, wrote an email to a city clerk saying that Price was harsh on shelter management.
“I certainly have no intention of working with this individual, and just wanted to be clear on that,” Bess wrote.
Price has worked with Clear Creek Cat Rescue to find adoptive homes for cats in Homer for seven years. She’s been working as the rescue coordinator in Homer to find foster homes for cats for two years.
Clear Creek is a network of volunteers across the state that matches stray cats with foster homes and finds them adoptive homes. The non-profit group rescues cats from places as far away as Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian chain. They have foster homes in Anchorage, Eagle River, Wasilla, Kenai, Soldotna and Homer. Price says Clear Creek adopted out about 500 cats in 2015.
Price says she hasn’t been able to pick up rescue cats from the shelter to place into foster homes ever since the incident.
“Clear Creek Cat Rescue was denied the right to rescue at the Homer Shelter anymore, even though we have been rescuing there for a couple of years because I made comments at a public meeting,” said Price.
And that’s a violation of her constitutional right to free speech, argues Price – and to use public facilities. Price says rescue groups around the country are dealing with similar problems.
“This kind of thing has been going on across the country for years now. Rescue groups have been suing shelters. There was even the Hayden Act in California that was passed for this exact reason, saying that shelters cannot deny certified 501(c)(3) rescues the right to rescue because they spoke out about a problem at the shelter or for any reason,” said Price.
Price alleges in the lawsuit that a shelter volunteer used the city shelter Facebook page to defame her and Clear Creek Cat Rescue. Price also alleges that a cause of the lawsuit was that her written public testimony was removed from public meeting minutes at the request of the shelter manager. Price and the rescue are being represented by Price’s husband attorney Paul H. Bratton.
Price says she’s hopeful her case will be resolved quickly so that Clear Creek can begin helping cats again. She says the shelter needs new guidelines to improve their operations. One of her concerns is that animals are being euthanized at higher numbers than they would be if the shelter worked more closely with rescue groups.
“I think that Homer shelter could be a no-kill shelter. I think if we had a more open adoption policy and if the Homer Shelter manager could work with the rescue groups more freely, there would be five cats in that shelter right now instead of 30 or 40, or whatever is there,” said Price.
But she says if the situation is not resolved through the lawsuit, she’ll push for something like California’s Hayden Act in Alaska.
“I don’t think that we should have to pass a law that people can have free speech and still have access to public facilities, but if that’s what it takes, then that’s what we should have,” said Price.
The City of Homer was contacted for this story along with Police Chief Mark Robl who is ultimately responsible for the shelter – they’re both named in the lawsuit. They declined to comment for this story.
Cheryl Bess, who manages the shelter through Coastal Animal Care and is also named in the suit, returned an email saying she was surprised that KBBI was pursuing a story about the lawsuit and that she would not be commenting either. The city has until February 29th to file a response.
