It is legislative season again in Tallahassee, Florida and time once again to be a voice for animals with your elected officials. On Tuesday, April 5, 2011 Florida Humane Lobby Day will be held.
Co-sponsored by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and GREY2K USA, this is an opportunity to be a voice for animals and provide in-person support for animal-friendly state bills. Important topics to be discussed include proposed bans on animal sexual abuse and dog racing.
Lobbyists will help prepare you to meet your elected officials and their staffs with an overview of pending animal-related legislation and tips for lobbying. Participants will also be provided with the materials you need to be an effective animal advocate. This is a chance to meet with both your state senator and representative on behalf of the animals you care about and respect.
The event is scheduled from 9:30 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. at the Challenger Learning Center on 200 South Duval Street in Tallahassee, Florida. Although participation in Lobby Day is free, you are asked to register in advance.
Tell your friends and family about the importance of this event. We must be a voice for animals to our elected officials on legislation that can significantly impact their well-being and survival.
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Sexual abuse of any sentient being is always wrong, but for animals an omission in Florida law allows this violent and degrading action to be legal. According to the ASPCA Advocacy Center, "Florida Senate Bill 344 and its House companion, House Bill 125, define sexual 'conduct' and 'contact' with animals and prohibit such acts. They also make it illegal to: 'Knowingly organize, promote, conduct, advertise, aid, abet, participate in as an observer, or perform any service in the furtherance of an act involving any sexual conduct or sexual contact with an animal for a commercial or recreational purpose.'”
This is not the first time legislation addressing this form of abuse has been brought to lawmakers in Tallahassee, but it has never succeeded in enacting a new law in the past. While some may argue that existing animal cruelty statutes already ". . . cover this type of abuse, it is difficult to enforce and often applies only if the animal dies from the abuse."
Urge your state senator and representative in the Florida Legislature to enact legislation prohibiting the sexual abuse of companion, livestock and wild animals.
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Greyhound racing has long been a blight on the Florida sporting landscape. Any sport that exploits animals and allows them to suffer has no place in a civilized society and should be banned.
Many states have already banned this form of so-called "entertainment", but Florida has yet to see the light. As if we didn't need another reminder of the cruelty inherent in this sport, the ASPCA reported, "Thirty-two dead Greyhounds were found recently at Florida's Ebro Greyhound Park, and an additional five dogs were found just barely alive with their throats and mouths wrapped with duct tape."
The ASPCA advises to tell your legislators the following:
- Dogs are confined for many hours each day in small cages, fed substandard food, receive little veterinary care, and are often seriously injured when racing.
- It costs more to regulate dog racing in Florida than the tracks contribute to the state in revenue.
- Other forms of gambling are more popular and produce revenue for the state, and these businesses do not subject our canine friends to cruelty.
- Racing is a dying sport. In the last decade, it has been reduced by half nationwide, with only seven states now operating 23 tracks (compared to 15 states and 50 tracks in 2001). How many more dogs must suffer before it ends in Florida?
- The state can continue to prosecute acts of animal cruelty when they are discovered, but that is expensive and can negatively impact local community budgets. It would be better to prevent suffering than handle it after it has occurred.
The ASPCA is also urging support for Florida SB 1594 and HB 1145 that would remove the requirement from the state gambling law mandating ". . . that gambling facilities that have dog tracks actively use them for races—even if the facility's owner doesn't want to! This mandatory racing requirement forces dogs to endure the inhumane conditions common at so many tracks while it wastes taxpayer dollars to regulate a dying industry."
There is no entertainment value or financial gain to the state of Florida that can justify the suffering of these dogs. Instead of passing economic measures to prop up the failing Greyhound racing industry, as the Florida Legislature has a history of doing, elected officials should be working hard to close this industry down now!
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Farm Sanctuary is supporting Florida Bill SB 1636 that ". . . would require that calves raised for veal and hens raised for eggs be given at least enough space to turn around, lie down and fully extend their limbs. Currently, millions of animals in Florida are denied the ability to engage in this range of motion."
Imagine the basic tenet of movement we experience every day, but is denied to many animals of the "food animal" industry. Said Gene Baur, president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, "Florida's new bill is an important step towards granting farm animals the consideration all animals deserve. Farm animals, just like cats and dogs, are sensitive, intelligent beings, and we have an ethical obligation to treat them with respect. But on today’s factory farms, animals are treated like unfeeling commodities and denied basic humane considerations. Legislation is necessary to prevent this inexcusable cruelty.”
If passed, SB 1636 would enable Florida to join California and Michigan as more enlightened states ". . . to have legal restrictions on the use of three of the factory farming industry’s cruelest confinement systems: veal crates for calves, battery cages for egg-laying hens, and gestation crates for breeding sows. Florida was the first state to ban gestation crates when voters approved an initiative in 2002."
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The horrors of puppy mills have been well documented over the years so the question lingers why do they still exist? We continue to allow an injustice to continue that, according to a United States Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General Audit Report 33002-4-SF (USDA/OIG) last year, has ". . . stirred the interest of the public, Congress, animal rights groups, and others."
In their audit, USDA/OIG identified the following major deficiencies with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's (APHIS) administration of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA):
- Animal Care (AC) Unit's Enforcement Process Was Ineffective Against Problematic Dealers;
- AC Inspectors Did Not Cite or Document Violations Properly To Support Enforcement Actions;
- APHIS' New Penalty Worksheet Calculated Minimal Penalties;
- APHIS Misused Guidelines to Lower Penalties for AWA Violators; and
- Some Large Breeders Circumvented AWA by Selling Animals Over the Internet.
In short, the protection provided for dogs from abusive large-scale, commercial breeding operations has raised serious concerns about its ineffectiveness. The bottom line is these dogs continue to suffer.
This concern prompted introduction of H.R. 835, better known as the "Puppy Uniform Protection and Safety Act (PUPS Act)", on February 28, 2011, into the United States House of Representatives. The Congressional Research Service summarized this legislation, as follows:
Puppy Uniform Protection and Safety Act - Amends the Animal Welfare Act to define a "high volume retail breeder" as a person who, in commerce, for compensation or profit: (1) has an ownership interest in or custody of one or more breeding female dogs; and (2) sells, via any means of conveyance, more than 50 of the offspring of such dogs for use as pets in any one-year period. Considers such a breeder of dogs to be a dealer. Requires dealers to include on licensing applications and annual renewals the total number of dogs exempted from exercise on the premises of the dealer in the preceding year by a licensed veterinarian. Requires the Secretary of Agriculture (USDA) to promulgate requirements for the exercise of dogs at facilities owned or operated by a dealer, including requiring daily access to exercise that: (1) allows the dogs to move sufficiently in a way that is not forced, repetitive, or restrictive; and (2) is in an area that is spacious, cleaned at least once a day, free of infestation by pests or vermin, and designed to prevent the dogs from escaping. Allows an exemption if: (1) a licensed veterinarian determines that a dog should not exercise because of the health, condition, or well-being of the dog; and (2) such determination is reviewed and updated at least once every 30 days by the veterinarian, unless the basis for the determination is a permanent condition. Subjects such a determination to review and approval by the Secretary.
According to The HSUS, the intent of this legislation is to close an existing ". . . loophole in the Animal Welfare Act that currently allows large, commercial breeders who sell puppies online or directly to the public to escape licensing and regulation."
Said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The HSUS, "Dogs shouldn't be treated like a cash crop. The federal law regarding the care of dogs at commercial dog-breeding operations is grossly overdue for reform, and this legislation will correct some of the worst gaps and deficiencies in current law."
According to the Care2 website, this is ". . . an opportunity to pass humane legislation that will protect dogs who are forced to spend their lives in tiny cages and live as breeding machines until they are no longer useful, at which point they are disposed of." One of the comments, in part, to this call for support finds this to be at least a temporary solution until a permanent ban can be enacted. "Shore up all loopholes in puppy mills until such time as they are banned permanently. Animals are not products to be supplied and shelved awaiting customers, with expiration dates attached for disposal when no longer profitable or productive and so cruelly eliminated."
However, not everyone agrees that the PUPS Act is everything it is advertised to be. In an earlier column this month, a fellow Examiner wrote the PUPS Act is one of those Bills that ". . . epitomize the battle between animal rights and animal welfare . . . Most people do not even realize that animal welfare (caring for animals) is any different from animal rights."
Furthermore, our fellow Examiner wrote, "Lobbyists will tell you that PUPS Act makes it easier for USDA to shut down puppy mills. This is not true. The Bush Administration's Inspector General found that the USDA has failed to sufficiently enforce the Animal Welfare Act for years. It's not as simple as understaffing but that's a big part of the problem. PUPS would add to the workload all owners or caretakers of dogs shared by rescues, shelters or breeders, but not necessarily hoarders and....get ready....specifically exempts pet stores who sell less than 50 puppies per year."
Fifty is apparently what has been chosen as a compromise number to make this a sellable Bill. This column believes all people responsible for the care of any puppy sold or offered for sale should not be exempt from this legislation, but if that won't fly we at least have the responsibility to help those puppies we can while continuing to fight for the rights of those left out by exemption. The 110th and 111th sessions of Congress had Bills with the same title as the PUPS Act, but each of those died in their session.
Our fellow examiner, a former animal control officer, is certainly right when stating, "Enforcement is the problem." There are never enough officers or inspectors to cover the broad territory they are assigned on the local, state or federal level to address animal concerns regardless of what laws may be in place.
Nonetheless, we still need to have the laws in place to support this enforcement if and when it comes to relieve animals from the burden of suffering they experience at the hands of so-called human caretakers.
As stated by Congressman Sam Farr, "The result of breeders' ability to bypass regulations has led to widespread abuses of dogs that are crammed into small cages with no exercise or social contact. We have a responsibility to close this loophole, because it is simply unconscionable to allow this abuse to continue."
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The ability to understand congressional, state or local legislation is often a difficult task. It is not written for the average person to understand and is often left for federal, state or local government staffers to interpret the intent of the Bill and apply specific regulations that will govern this intent in its real world use.
Before a Bill is passed, don't hesitate to question your elected officials about what it really means and any concerns you may have about the impact on your life and the animals you care about at home, your community or throughout the country and the world.
Once a Bill is passed, find out if there is an open comment period so you can help guide specific regulations to help animals in line with the original intent of the law presuming this is a favorable action for those animals you care about.
Speaking generally, remember that no legislation as written is going to be perfect. In the real world, it will probably be open to interpretation and possibly re-interpretation as it is applied. However, the animals need us to be their positive voice and we need to continually let our legislators know how important the protection and well-being of animals means to us all.
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