To: San Jose Animal Care and Services Leadership, the City Manager, Mayor Matt Mahan, and Members of the San Jose City Council

We, the undersigned, call on the City of San Jose and San Jose Animal Care and Services (SJACS) to reinstate terminated senior shelter volunteer leads Chris Chiappari and Amie Jan, and to revise the recently introduced April 2026 Volunteer Agreement and Volunteer Handbook.

Chris Chiappari and Amie Jan are experienced, long-serving shelter volunteer leaders whose work has directly supported animal care, volunteer training, dog handling safety, playgroups, enrichment, adoption visibility, rescue placement, and improved outcomes for shelter animals.

Their sudden removal raises serious concerns about fairness, transparency, volunteer morale, and the impact on animals who depend on experienced handling, advocacy, enrichment, and lifesaving support.

We recognize that shelters need clear rules, safety standards, confidentiality protections, and professional conduct expectations. But policies must not be used in a way that punishes experienced volunteers for good-faith animal advocacy, documentation of animal behavior, rescue coordination, or raising concerns.

The removal of senior volunteers with years of service damages public trust, weakens the volunteer program, disrupts lifesaving work, and harms the animals who rely on consistent support from trained and experienced people.

We are especially concerned that the NEW April 2026 Volunteer Agreement and Handbook grant Shelter Management broad discretion to terminate volunteers without cause or meaningful appeal, while also restricting photography, recording, communication with rescue partners, and communication with the media.

This is particularly troubling during a growing animal welfare crisis. As the animal shelter increasingly restricts intake due to overcrowding, volunteers often serve as a critical lifeline for shelter animals—providing enrichment, exercise, socialization, behavioral observations, and public visibility.

For many euthanasia-listed animals, volunteer photos, videos, and networking efforts are their only lifeline. These efforts have saved countless lives.

Unlike many shelters that routinely distribute euthanasia alerts to rescue organizations, San Jose Animal Care & Services does not broadly notify rescues or the public about many animals facing euthanasia. As a result, volunteers have often been the primary—and sometimes only—mechanism through which these animals are seen before it is too late.

Equally important, volunteers provide videos and real-world observations of dogs interacting with people, other dogs, and their environment. For foster-based rescues, this information is critical. Placement decisions depend on understanding a dog's temperament, social skills, handling needs, energy level, and compatibility with other animals. Without these observations and videos, rescues are effectively operating blindfolded when evaluating whether they can safely and successfully place a dog.

Removing this lifeline will not improve outcomes. It will simply make vulnerable animals less visible, reduce access to critical behavioral information, and make it more difficult for rescues to step forward and save lives.

At a time when more animals need help, reducing transparency and removing experienced volunteers risks limiting one of the few pathways many animals have to rescue and adoption. Transparency and collaboration should be strengthened during a crisis—not reduced.

We therefore call on the City of San Jose and SJACS to take the following actions:

1. Reinstate Chris Chiappari and Amie Jan to their volunteer roles and leadership functions.
2. Review any recent volunteer dismissals, suspensions, or removals involving volunteers who raised good-faith animal welfare, safety, transparency, rescue, or policy concerns.
3. Revise the April 2026 Volunteer Agreement and Volunteer Handbook to include a clear, fair, and written process before volunteer dismissal, including notice of the concern, an opportunity to respond, and review by someone outside the immediate chain of conflict.
4. Add explicit anti-retaliation language protecting volunteers who raise good-faith concerns about animal welfare, safety, policy compliance, public records, data transparency, or possible violations of law or City policy.
5. Clarify that volunteers may speak publicly, contact elected officials, communicate with media, and participate in public advocacy in their personal capacity, as long as they do not claim to speak on behalf of SJACS or disclose legally confidential information.
6. Revise the photography and recording rules to allow responsible documentation of available, rescue-needed, and at-risk animals for adoption, foster, rescue placement, behavior observation, playgroup assessment, enrichment, and lifesaving advocacy, while still protecting confidential records, staff workspaces, adopters, private individuals, investigations, medical procedures, and legally protected information.
7. Create a transparent and standardized process for volunteers to submit behavioral observations, videos, photos, enrichment notes, safety concerns, and rescue-placement information so those materials are considered in animal pathway decisions.
8. Clarify when volunteers may communicate with rescue partners, especially when sharing animal behavior, enrichment, handling, or placement information that may help animals leave the shelter safely and alive.
9. Establish objective criteria for selecting, disciplining, suspending, or removing lead volunteers, mentors, playgroup leads, and other experienced volunteer roles.

This petition is not asking SJACS to ignore safety, privacy, confidentiality, or operational needs. It is asking for balance, fairness, transparency, and respect for the volunteers whose unpaid labor supports the shelter every day.

Experienced volunteers are not disposable. They are part of the shelter’s lifesaving infrastructure.

We urge the City of San Jose and SJACS to reinstate Chris Chiappari and Amie Jan, revise the April 2026 Volunteer Agreement and Handbook, and work with volunteers instead of silencing them.