Category Archives: Legislation

HSUS leader Wayne Pacelle reviews results for 2014

Posted on by
No Gravatar

In his A Humane Nation blog this week, Humane Society of the United States leader Wayne Pacelle reviewed the organization’s “Top Transformational Results of 2014.”

The list features:

South Dakota becoming the 5oth US state to adopt a felony animal-cruelty law.

It is now a federal crime to attend or bring a child to a dogfight or cockfight.

The truly idiotic and evil “King Amendment” was tossed out of the Farm Bill.

A federal appellate court rightfully overturned a horrible ruling from a lower that might have tossed out the animal crush video law. If I recall, the lower court tried to claim that torturing and brutally killing animals was protected free speech. That’s one for the Moronic Court Ruling Hall of Fame.

So arguably the current leader for the Moronic Court Ruling Hall of Fame is Citizens United.

A number of countries have agreed to end the use of gestation crates for pigs.

Three horse-slaughter plants were blocked from opening this year.

A new U.S. Department of Agriculture rule blocks the importation of puppies for sale. This means at least foreign puppy mills can’t sell here.

Internet sellers of puppy now have to follow USDA guidelines. The HSUS helped to block a legal challenge to this ruling.

Better protections are in place for animals suffering through experiments in labs.

The World Trade Organization is thankfully supporting European Union’s ban on products resulting from the horrific Canadian seal hunts.

The wolf hunts were stopped in Michigan.

New York and New Jersey became the first states to banned the sale of Ivory. This one should become a federal ban.

And Pacelle states the “…  International Court of Justice ruled that Japan’s Southern Ocean whaling program violates the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling’s ban on commercial hunting.”

Read Pacelle’s full rundown at the link above.

PACK MENTALITY BLOG: Compassion - teamed with Science and Logic

NJ Gov. Christie’s veto of bill to free pigs from gestation crates is misguided

Posted on by
No Gravatar

Maybe misguided isn’t the right word for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s veto today of a popular bill that would ban gestation crates at pig farms.

Polling indicates New Jersey residents overwhelmingly support a ban on these crates and the bill passed with solid support from Republicans and Democrats in the State House and Senate. Gestation crates are cruel on an extreme level.

Yet, the Associated Press quotes Christie as saying the bill is a “solution in search of a problem.”

So I amend my headline. Christie’s veto and his stated reasoning for issuing the veto fall under the category of uneducated, wrongheaded, heartless and pure, blind politics.

I wrongly considered Christie could be an independent thinker at times and might be one to brush off political pressure, especially in cases where the citizens of his state clearly and overwhelmingly supported an issue. In this case, the governor has caved to corporate puppet masters. He put the will of the power brokers above the will of the people and the side of compassion.

PACK MENTALITY BLOG: Compassion - teamed with Science and Logic

Ohio House tries to back-door provision to weaken protections for puppy mill dogs

Posted on by
No Gravatar

How anyone, in 2014, could still support cruelty is beyond belief. But while we continue to see positive steps forward, some elected officials are trying to gut even the most basic protections for animals.

Some members of the Ohio House are supporting a bill that includes provisions to scale back the state’s anti-puppy mill law, as the Columbus dispatch reports this morning.

The publication notes three significant changes in the bill: “… cutting the bonding requirement by more than half for large-volume dog breeders, and eliminating the need for criminal-background checks and kennel photos with breeder renewal applications.”

The goal is to make it easier to abuse animals. I wonder if these people go home and tell their kids what they’re doing.

“Hey kids, guess what dad did today? He made it easier for people with a history of animal cruelty to work at puppy mills. These are the morals I want to pass on to you.”

PACK MENTALITY BLOG: Compassion - teamed with Science and Logic

Breaking: Legislative bill filed in Florida to protect racing greyhounds

Posted on by
No Gravatar

File this story under the heading – Really good news – But not really good enough.

The Miami Herald reports two elected officials – Sen. Chris Smith (D-Fort Lauderdale) and Rep. Kevin Rader (D-Boca Raton) of Floria – have introduced the the Greyhound Safety Act, a state bill that should strengthen protections for racing greyhounds.

It is a solid step forward, but what the dogs need is a complete ban on greyhound racing – or at least a decoupling bill that will end the requirement that the racinos hold races. With a decoupling, the facilities can completely drop greyhound racing.

Currently, one of the most idiotic laws on the United States requires the gambling sites to hold so many races per year. Did I say it was idiotic? No – it’s more than idiotic.

The article notes the bill includes a provision that would ban those “convicted of a felony for animal cruelty, child abuse, aggravated assault or battery from obtaining a license or permit from the Division of Parimutuel Wagering …”

The bill also contains requirements for safety upgrades and reporting injuries to the dogs.
Again, it’s all good. But banning the horrible industry altogether or at least allowing the tracks to drop it, is a far better solution.
With this bill, dogs will still suffer and die on a regular basis, as we’ve seen in the reports of deaths over the last year at Florida tracks.
PACK MENTALITY BLOG: Compassion - teamed with Science and Logic

How is it possible that a few state senators blocked puppy mill legislation in NC?

Posted on by
No Gravatar

We should not have state or federal legislative systems where a few elected officials with an ax to grind or a special-interest group to support can block extremely reasonable legislation that has the overwhelming support of the public.

Despite what some members of the US Supreme Court would have us falsely believe, people have the rights, not the special interests.

In North Carolina, Republicans hold super majorities in the House and Senate. The House voted in overwhelming numbers to pass a previous anti-puppy mill bill. A very small number of senators blocked the Senate version from moving out of committee.

Now, with the breeding previsions inserted into a budget bill, the same few individuals have managed to make sure the protections never come to a full vote. In negotiations over two overall versions of the budget, they managed to get the animal-welfare text removed – again.

As I’ve noted before, the arguments against the proposed legislation to protect puppy mill dogs and cats have no basis in reality. I can’t even imagine an alternate reality where these arguments might work.

PACK MENTALITY BLOG: Compassion - teamed with Science and Logic

NC Senate blocks puppy mill regulations at the 1-yard line

Posted on by
No Gravatar

With the short session of the North General Assembly winding down this week, key members of the state Senate and House were debating a number of contentious provisions in the proposed budget bill.

Teacher pay and Medicaid and film-industry incentives were all up for debate and were the main areas of focus for the media. As the days and weeks wore on, animal-welfare advocates were hoping the new regulations on puppy mills would hang on with the House version of the budget – including inspections, new standards and enforcement of puppy mill laws moving from the agriculture department to law enforcement.

But a few members of the Senate managed to once again block the puppy mill regulations from remaining in the bill. It would be a very long shot at this point, but there could be a slight hope remaining that the measures could be reinstalled.

WRAL out of Raleigh, NC reported groups such as the American Kennel Club and hunting and agricultural organizations were against the measure. The article included the following –

They argue that requiring kennel inspections violates breeders’ property rights and say setting standards for companion animals could trigger similar requirements for livestock breeding operations.

Far-fetched is too light a phrase for how misguided these baseless arguments really are. The USDA engages in safety inspections at facilities, to protect public safety and for the same reason restaurants are inspected frequently. Suggesting inspections should be banned in these cases to somehow protect property rights, is nothing short of dangerous.
And protecting people who abuse dogs because protecting the dogs from suffering might lead to regulations on factory farms is both lame and extremely callous.
PACK MENTALITY BLOG: Compassion - teamed with Science and Logic

Pack of greyhound racing news

Posted on by
No Gravatar

The needle is moving in the positive direction in greyhound racing, as more news about the odds of shutting down the horrible industry in Iowa comes out. And hopefully, the Florida legislature will follow suit. The Herald-Tribune out of Florida ran an editorial yesterday about the decoupling effort, a move that could drop the requirement to hold dog races at casinos in the state. The next legislative session begins March 4. The editorial notes 12 of the 21 greyhound tracks in the country are in Florida. And then there’s the following tidbit about gambling dollars on dog racing, which have dropped:

… by 72 percent in Florida between 1990 and 2013. During the same period, taxes and fees paid by tracks and collected by the state dropped by 98 percent.

Again, I can’t say this enough: How could any taxpayer support the massive way a few of states have specifically supported this industry, with huge handouts and a requirement that it exist. What other business in the country gets this sort state backing – with a handouts and a guarantee they won’t be shut down, no matter how incredibly deep the losses go.

More good news is coming out of Australia, where the headline on the Young Witness website actually plays the news of greyhound racing’s decline as a bad thing. It’s seems there are ongoing funding cuts and talk of “now it’s all falling down around us” and “alleged mismanagement of the sport by GRNSW.” We can only hope the whole industry falls down – soon.

In some disgusting news out of Great Britain, a trainer is supporting a track in Wimbledon through a “Show of Passion” campaign. How about a show of “compassion” for the dogs by shutting down the industry for good.

And a great headline from Iowa ran Wednesday on TH Online website – “Negotiations would immediately end dog racing in Dubuque.”

Hopefully, an agreement is on the way that will allow both casinos in the state to end racing – with an end to the state mandates there.

PACK MENTALITY BLOG: Compassion - teamed with Science and Logic

Wellington, Fla. bans dog and cat sales in stores

Posted on by
No Gravatar

Another community has banned the sale of dogs and cats in stores. We really need this trend to spread much faster, to every state in the nation.

No stores in Wellington, Fla. reportedly sell dogs or cats at this time, but the city council chose to act proactively this week to ban the practice. There is one correction – for the following sentence from the Palm Beach Post story from Wednesday.

Any pet stores in the future could still sell animals from animal shelters and rescue organizations.

We definitely don’t want stores “selling” any dogs or cats. It should be a process where homeless pets are adopted at these stores through the rescue groups and shelters.

The article reports the council also set standards for breeding operations, to combat puppy mills:

Village Attorney Laurie Cohen said the changes ban having more than 20 puppies or 20 kittens on a property, breeding a female more than five cycles in a row and sets limits on how small a cage animals can be kept in.

Sounds like a forward-thinking town.

PACK MENTALITY BLOG: Compassion - teamed with Science and Logic

Legislation to ban shelter gas chambers and a proposed ban on in-store pet sales

Posted on by
No Gravatar

Two important bills are in the works in Michigan and Virginia and we can only hope the movement spreads.

In Michigan, the legislation could shut down gas chambers at animals shelters. It is a cruel practice that does not take into account the emotional and physical pain the animals suffer.

While it is a tragedy each time a homeless pet loses their live in a shelter, the only acceptable method should be injection.

Over in Virginia, the state legislature is considering a ban on the sale of pets from puppy mills in stores. Bailey’s Law – named for a puppy mill survivor – made it through a Senate committee on Thursday.

Of course, any such legislation should involve an outright ban on the sale of dogs and cats in stores.

Ohio close to passing new animal-cruelty law

Posted on by
No Gravatar

The Ohio House voted Wednesday to approve new legislation to increase the penalty for acts of animal cruelty, specifically making the act of “abusing or torturing a pet to death” a felony – as reported by Cleveland.com. The measure will now move to the State Senate before hopefully being signed into law by the governor.

Those guilty of the fifth-degree felony could get six months to one year in jail.

I wish the penalty involved a longer sentence. And in reading over the text of the HB274, it seems a ban on possessing animals can be left up to the court:

The court also may prohibit or place limitations on the person’s ability to own or care for any companion animals for a specified or indefinite period of time.

It should be a lifetime ban for anyone who abuses or tortures an animal.

PACK MENTALITY BLOG: Compassion - teamed with Science and Logic