• By DEBRA LEMOINE
• Advocate Florida parishes bureau
• Published: Mar 4, 2010 - Page: 1B

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HAMMOND — A state judge ordered a Web site to pull a story about a fictional giraffe attack at Global Wildlife Center in Folsom.

District Judge Brenda Bedsole Ricks signed the temporary restraining order Tuesday and scheduled a hearing for March 15 in 21st Judicial District Court in Amite on whether to make the injunction permanent, court records show.

The case has been assigned to state District Judge Beth Wolfe.

The Web site, Hammond Action News, posted a story Feb. 25 reporting a giraffe attacked and killed a tour guide, the lawsuit said.

Global Wildlife Center is a nonprofit wildlife sanctuary that offers tours of its preserve in Tangipahoa Parish where patrons can feed and pet exotic animals, such as kangaroos, giraffes and camels.

The story is “malicious and untrue,” asserted Christina Cooper, Global’s education and development director, in a written statement.

“I have received calls from concerned friends and citizens who took the story to be truth,” she said.

Global Wildlife officials maintain the Hammond Action News site does not label itself as a source of satire, and its readers can mistake its content for genuine news, court records show.

Hammond Action News also used a copyrighted photograph from Global Wildlife, lending the story credibility, the lawsuit said.

Global Wildlife asked Nicholas Brilleaux, the owner of the site, to remove the story and filed suit when Brilleaux refused.

Alleging the story defames Global Wildlife’s reputation as a safe, family-friendly destination, the center seeks only to have the story permanently removed from the site and to prevent Hammond Action News from ever distributing it, said Robert McComiskey, Global Widlife’s attorney.

Brilleaux’s attorney, Parker Layrisson, said his client’s work is satire and is considered protected speech.

“Very few rights are important to Americans as freedom of speech,” Layrisson said in a written statement.

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