Legislation
Dogs and their owners today face numerous challenges from overzealous lawmakers and from Animal Rights (AR) activists. Lawmakers sometimes want to restrict our rights, for often questionable reasons. AR zealots want to totally eliminate pet animals. Their goal is to end pet ownership, dog shows and the use of animals by humans for any purpose.
Breed Specific Legislation (BSL) has been passed in several jurisdictions. These BSL laws have varied from severe restrictions (mandatory muzzling, mandatory sterilization, liability insurance requirements, etc.) to outright bans on ownership of certain breeds of dogs. In 2005 California passed SB861, a law that allows local jurisdictions to implement BSL. While SB861 does not allow absolute bans on specific breeds, it does allow mandatory sterilization of specific breeds as a backdoor way of eliminating a chosen breed of dog.
In California we successfully fought AB 1634 for a year and a half until its final defeat in the California Senate in August, 2008. AB 1634 was a draconian mandatory sterilization bill that would have eliminated the breeding of dogs and cats in California. Thanks to the grassroots efforts of many animal lovers, including our entire ARF membership, we not only defeated this legislation but we also succeeded in ending the state political career of its author, Ex-Assemblyman Lloyd Levine. We sent a strong message that pet owners will not sit quietly while politicians attack our rights and our animals.
SB 250 - The Current Threat
Unfortunately, the Animal Rights freaks never rest and due to their efforts and money, they bought yet another California Democrat politician, State Senator Dean Florez. He resurrected AB 1634, this time as a Senate bill, SB 250. SB 250 is another mandatory sterilization proposal. The legislation was approved by the California Senate on June 2, 2009 on a party line vote wherein all the "Yes" votes were from Democrats. Since that time, SB 250 has been marching through the California Assembly, sheparded along by Assembly Democrats. On June 22, 2009 the Democrat members of the Assembly Business and Professions Committee approved the bill. SB 250 was passed by the Assembly Committee on Appropriations on August 27, 2009. SB 250 was amended and submitted to the full Assembly on August 31, 2009. SB 250 now moves to the full Assembly for a final vote. We must stop SB 250 now.
California Department of Finance Opposes SB 250. This non-partisan state agency issued a report stating that SB 250 would add at least $24 million to the state budget annually. The report also states that Mandatory Sterilization plans have failed in Los Angeles and Santa Cruz. In spite of this report, your Democratic legislators continue to support the proposal. You can read the Department of Finance report here.
Take Action Now - SB 250 could be voted on any day the California Assembly meets. We need to send a mountain of opposition letters to every member of the Assembly and also make telephone calls to every member. Please FAX your opposition letters immediately to every member of the Assembly. Below, we've provided a list of Assembly members with their addresses and telephone and FAX numbers. We've also provided a sample letter. You are certainly encouraged to write a letter in your own words. However, it is perfectly acceptable to simply print out our letter, add your personal information and FAX the letter to each Assembly member. What counts is the shear volume of letters sent. Sadly, we don't actually expect the Assembly members to read many of our letters so the actual arguements we make are less important than the simple fact that we sent a letter stating our Opposition to this terrible proposal.
It is easy to make the telephone calls too. You don't have to speak to the Assemblymember but can simply ask to speak to whomever is responsible for hearing from constituents about their opinions regarding SB 250. Then tell that person your name and state that "you are a California voter and pet owner and that you oppose SB 250 and you encourage the Assemblymember to vote "No" when the legislation is on the Assembly floor." Each call need not take more than about one minute.
2009 California Assembly Members
Sample Letter to Assembly Members
2009 California Senate Members
Ask The Governor to Veto SB250
It is not too early to start writing letters to Governor Schwarzenegger asking that he Veto SB250 should it reach his desk.Address letters to the Governor to: |
Here are several other sources you can look at to better understand the details of this Draconian proposal:
