Published: November 13, 2026
Cotton Branch Refuge Project shares stories to build understanding and support for its mission. We represent people and animals with dignity, accuracy, and care. This policy applies to staff, volunteers, contractors, and others creating or sharing material on our behalf, including photographs, video, audio, interviews, appeals, and AI-assisted content.
Permission that means something
Obtain clear, informed permission before featuring an identifiable person's story, image, or voice in organizational publicity. Explain the intended use, channels, audience, any fundraising purpose, and reasonable limits on later withdrawal. Participation must be voluntary; employment, help, access, or an opportunity must not depend on agreeing to publicity.
Separate consent for publicity from participation in a visit or program. Do not assume that attendance, a donation, a tagged social post, or a previous release authorizes every future use. For children and people needing a legally authorized representative, obtain the appropriate permission and respect the individual's willingness to participate.
Privacy, power, and dignity
Do not pressure anyone to describe trauma, disclose a diagnosis, reveal their gender history, or share personal hardship to make a story more compelling. Ask what name, identifying details, and context they are comfortable sharing. Limit location, school, contact, and other information that could expose someone to harm.
People may review their direct quotation or sensitive personal account for accuracy and consent before publication. Avoid stereotypes, savior narratives, degrading descriptions, and claims that erase a person's agency or the work of others. Credit collaborators, creators, and sources appropriately, with required permissions and licenses.
Animals are individuals
Describe residents' histories accurately and distinguish confirmed facts from uncertainty. Do not stage fear or injury, provoke a reaction, interrupt necessary care, or force contact for a photograph. Respect retreat, rest, health restrictions, and caregiver instructions.
Use graphic or distressing material only for a clear, proportionate purpose. Consider less intrusive alternatives, provide an appropriate content notice, and protect identifying information. Do not repeat distressing imagery merely to increase engagement.
Editing and generated media
Editing must not materially misrepresent an event, a person's words, an animal's condition, or our impact. Stock images, reenactments, composites, illustrations, and substantially generated material must be identified when a reasonable audience could mistake them for documentary evidence.
Do not fabricate a rescue, testimonial, veterinary statement, donation, endorsement, or outcome. AI tools may support our work under the Ethical Use of Artificial Intelligence Policy; people remain responsible for accuracy, rights, privacy, and appropriate disclosure. Do not clone a person's voice or likeness for organizational use without explicit authorization for that use.
Storage, withdrawal, and corrections
Keep releases and relevant permission records securely and link them to the material they authorize. Give access only to people who need it. Check consent and licensing when reusing material in a substantially different context.
For a permission change, removal request, credit issue, or correction, contact info@cottonbranch.org. We review requests promptly and stop or revise future uses where appropriate. We explain practical limits, such as material already distributed in print, lawful records retention, cached pages, and copies shared by others; we cannot promise to retrieve every copy from the internet.
Concerns involving exploitation, coercion, or retaliation may use the independent reporting route. Leadership reviews significant complaints and updates guidance as needed.