Animal Welfare Associates signs compliance pact

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

Animal Welfare Associates Inc., of
Stamford, Connecticut, on May 24 responded to a
warning from the State of Connecticut Commissioner
of Consumer Protection that “AWA’s
advertising, solicitations and other communications
are or may have been misleading in violation of the
Solicitation of Charitable Funds Act” by signing an
Assurance of Voluntary Compliance.
AWA admitted no fault, but pledged “to
cease representing to the public that it provides animal
placement or adoption services unless it shall:
maintain dated records of the identity/description of
each animal accepted, the manner in which each
animal is obtained, and the identity of the person
who accepts each animal or the eventual disposition
of each animal not adopted as a pet”; and “to cease
representing to the public that it in any way operates
an animal shelter.”

The agreement further stipulates that
“AWA shall make every effort to see to it that the
representations enumerated above are removed
from its telephone voice mail message, its listings
in all telephone directories, and any and all other
listings, indices, and data bases of which it is
aware or may become aware.”
Founded and headed by Dorothy Doan
McLean, of addresses in Connecticut and Florida,
AWA was recognized by Connecticut in 1986 as “a
charitable organization granted exemption from registration,”
meaning that it neither solicited funds
from the public, nor intended to do so.
At least three fundraising appeals issued
in recent years represented that AWA is a no-kill
animal rescue and adoption agency, but AWA was
apparently unable to document having ever operated
as a no-kill shelter or having arranged adoptions.