03/18/2022
Dear Friends
I am here with another update on my legal battle for freedom of speech and animal welfare. You may recall in the last update I mentioned the Plaintiffs filed an amended claim. In addition to the approximately 2 minutes and 24 seconds Plaintiffs have selected from the 82-minute audiovisual works in question and which they allege are defamatory, the amended claim names my GoFundMe campaign and my posts updating my supporters as additional defamation. Plaintiffs also seek an injunction against statements they consider to be defamatory in the future.
On March 8, 2022, my legal team filed an amended Motion to Dismiss and an Affidavit in Support of the Motion to Dismiss with Supporting Exhibits. The following are some excerpts from the Motion:
“Plaintiffs and Defendant have engaged publicly in this scholarly debate in several ways over decades as discussed in detail below. Id. This is not, as Plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint states, a smear campaign by a disgruntled former employee against her former employer, but rather a long-standing and continuing debate among many leaders of the animal training industry about best practices for achieving desired training results while enhancing animal welfare. Id. Defendant has frequently challenged Plaintiffs for their weight management practices and beliefs as training and compliance tools. Id. In response, Plaintiffs have taken steps to undermine Defendant’s credibility in the industry, to squelch her opportunities to be heard, and have ultimately filed this lawsuit, which, in addition to having no merit, is an attempt to silence Defendant from further speaking publicly against Plaintiffs’ reliance on weight management as a training and compliance tool.”
Here is an excerpt from our motion regarding Plaintiffs’ allegations that my GoFundMe post and updates are defamatory:
“Plaintiffs’ new allegations are incomplete, and when viewed in their full context, they are: a) expressions of pure opinion, b) and/or they are subject to the absolute protection of the litigation privilege; and c) are incapable of defamatory meaning and cannot be defamatory per se.”
Here is an excerpt from our response regarding an injunction against statements they consider to be defamatory in the future:
“Plaintiffs seek an injunction against defamatory statements in the future. What they request is unconstitutional. ‘An injunction in this case would also violate First Amendment principles. [A] temporary injunction directed to speech is a classic example of prior restraint on speech triggering First Amendment concerns.' Vrasic v. Leibel, 106 So.3d 485, 486 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013). An injunction may not be directed to prevent defamatory speech. Id at 487; Chevaldina, 133 So.3d at 1090. " [P]rior restraints on speech and publication are the most serious and the least tolerable infringement on First Amendment rights."
The filed documents contain much more detail and I encourage you to read them to get a more complete understanding of the depth of our responses. You can read the amended Motion to Dismiss here. https://animaltrainingfundamentals.com/uncategorized/amended-motion-to-dismiss/ And the associated Affidavit and Exhibits here. https://animaltrainingfundamentals.com/affidavit-in-support-of-motion-to-dismiss/
You all have been wonderful about being supportive and positive with your comments. As evidenced by the amended claim this has been extremely important. I appreciate so very much that we have created a strong supportive community and have refrained from posting negative comments about the Plaintiffs as I have requested from the beginning. Please continue to do so. We can continue to show support without discussing the Plaintiffs. Let’s focus on winning this legal battle based on its merits.
My legal team and I have worked many hours collecting information and preparing these documents. I so very much appreciate the support as my legal fees have far exceeded what I have been able to raise to date. Even sharing this information helps so very much. There are several options to show your support. They are as follows:
Donate to the GoFundMe Campaign www.LetHerSpeakforAnimals.com
Join the virtual learning program www.AnimalTrainingFundamentals.com
Participate in the Global Online Animal Training Series educational opportunities www.ATFGOATS.com
Donate via Venmo -Heidenreich
Donate via PayPal [email protected]
Share this post and/or the GoFundMe Campaign
If you have information that may be relevant to my defense, please contact me directly, offline at [email protected]
~ Barbara Heidenreich
