Thursday, August 13, 2009

Keeping up the Good Fight

As you can probably imagine, morale within the animal protection community can get pretty low. The endless streams of requests to make calls, sign petitions, and write letters, all accompanied by heart-breaking details of ongoing cruelty and sickening pictures of the atrocities we all fight to stop, can wear us all down, understandably. Sometimes it seems like the stream won't ever end, and given Pennsylvania's abysmal record on animal cruelty (puppy mills, factory farming, lethal wildlife "management", etc...), it's often quite a challenge for activists and others who work to protect animals to not succumb to feelings of helplessness and futility.

SO... when a bill that will help animals is passed in the PA House or Senate, it's a cause for rejoicing, or at least a smile and a renewed sense of purpose - and that smile appeared on our faces here when PA HB 39 passed the PA Senate this week, with a 47-0 vote. If you're not familiar with the bill, it requires that various surgical procedures, including docking of tails, caesarian-sections, spaying and neutering, debarking (which should never be allowed at all, but that's another goal for another piece of legislation) etc... be done only by veterinarians. The bill, which was amended by the Senate, now has to go back to the House for a final vote. Because the House approved it unanimously when they had it the first time, it is expected to pass and then go to Governor Rendell to be signed into law.

Please contact your PA Senators and Representatives and thank them for supporting this bill. HB 39, while not perfect, will go a long way toward ending a lot of the butchering that currently goes on in puppy mills, in attempts to save money and avoid scrutiny of the horrendous conditions going on in these breeding factories. Use the links below to find your legislators:

PA Senate (click here and then enter your zip code into the upper-right corner box)

PA House (click here and then enter your zip code into the upper-right corner box)

There is SO MUCH MORE work to be done - we need stronger laws to protect dogs from all sorts of abuse (24/7 chaining, dog fighting, and all the things puppy millers are STILL allowed to do, thanks to the weak laws and the suspect make-up of the "Dog Law Advisory Board"), and of course, the fight continues for all the laws we need to protect other companion animals, farm animals, animals used in "entertainment," and wildlife, but we'll keep fighting and keep asking you, the VOTERS, to make your voices heard and speak for the silent victims of animal cruelty.