Animal Law Podcast #30: The Case of the Missing Bus Ad

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Welcome to the 30th episode of the Animal Law Podcast! Mariann is joined by Matthew Strugar of the Law Office of Matthew Strugar, who returns to the Animal Law Podcast to discuss a suit recently filed on behalf of the White Coat Waste Project against the Greater Richmond Transit Company for refusing to run White Coat Waste’s advertisement criticizing deadly and invasive dog experiments at the Richmond-based Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Researchers at the McGuire VAMC have induced heart attacks in dogs, surgically implanted pacemakers in dogs and forced them to run on treadmills, and killed dogs in botched surgeries. The McGuire VAMC is the only federal laboratory conducting maximum pain experiments on dogs in which pain relief is intentionally withheld. Because the McGuire VA’s dog experiments are funded by taxpayers, White Coat Waste Project attempted to run ads on Richmond buses in conjunction with Tax Week this past April. The transit company rejected the ad citing its vague policy against “political ads.” Matthew will explain why this refusal is, in his view, in violation of the First Amendment.

Matthew began his career at the Center for Constitutional Rights in NYC, where he supported the SHAC 7—animal rights activists who faced charges under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. In 2011, he joined the PETA Foundation as Director of Litigation, where he oversaw and litigated matters involving the First Amendment and animal law. More recently, Matthew founded the Law Office of Matthew Strugar to return to civil rights, prisoners’ rights, police misconduct, and protester defense, in addition to animal law.

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