It's not just a midterm election, which people tend to get less excited about -- it's an off year entirely. But that doesn't mean it's not CRUCIAL that we all get out and vote. Here in PA, there are key elections happening for important judges, and for local officials.
Why is this particularly important to animal protection organizations and voters who care about animal protection? Because judges who take animal cruelty cases seriously make all the difference. You can have all sorts of laws and regulations in place, but if the judges who hand out sentences, or in the case of the Supreme Court, decide if they're legitimate, aren't on board with making animal cruelty a serious offense that results in serious penalties, all the laws and regulations don't do any good. We need people who are willing to put some teeth into the laws we have.
Local officials are also important to animal protection advocates. They decide on things like supporting spay & neuter programs, zoning issues, and regulation of kennels, shelters, and even residents' in terms of the way they treat the animals in their care. They even make decisions about wildlife issues, as we learned here in Lancaster just a few years ago -- it took a long time, but humane solutions won out in our "management" of migratory crows, and poisoning was ended in favor of non-lethal tactics to move crow roosts. So local politics are VERY important, too. And don't forget -- lots of politicians who end up in the House and Senate start out in local roles, as commissioners, supervisors, etc... -- so getting to know them now, and getting them on board for animals, allows us to keep them on our side once they're bigger fish in bigger ponds.
That said, get to the polls tomorrow. Don't put it off and risk forgetting. And please check our endorsements before you head out -- we're endorsing several judges, and two candidates in local races for Mayor of Lancaster City and a supervisor in East Hempfield Township. While, coincidentally, all of our endorsed candidates are Democrats, this is not usually the case -- so PLEASE don't just blindly vote for one party -- as neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have great records, party-wide, on animal protection. A candidate, as an individual, either cares and is sympathetic to our issues, or he/she isn't. That's why we're non-partisan, and when it comes to the animals, that's why voters need to be, too. Vote for the candidate who'll do the best job on the issues you care about. If you're a subscriber to this blog, a key issue for you is animal protection, and our choices this time around are clear:
http://www.lohvpa.org/elections.html
Thank you! And PLEASE VOTE!!!!!
Showing posts with label animal protection. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animal protection. Show all posts
Monday, November 2, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Bottlenecks - WHY?
Animal cruelty legislation should be a no-brainer. Who would want to be known as the legislator who was in favor of performing painful medical procedures on dogs without anesthesia or antibiotics? Who'd want to be the person who looked the other way when the chance to stop real, tangible, proven suffering presented itself?
In the following article, "Anger Over Dog-Cruelty Bill Could Freeze Legislature", it seems that Dominic Pileggi, Republican and PA Senate majority leader is doing just that -- looking the other way on a chance to stop horrific medical procedures being performed by puppy millers looking to avoid scrutiny and save money. According to Thomas Caltagirone, Democrat, and head of the Judiciary Committee (and supporter of HB 39), the bill first waited way too long in the hands of the Senate's Agriculture Committee (chaired by Senator Mike Brubaker) and now it's being held up in the Judiciary. He considers it a stalling tactic.
Why would anyone want to stall or stop this bill? HB 39 requires that only a veterinarian can perform procedures such as caesarian sections (surgery to remove puppies from a pregnant dog), de-barking (which the LOHV favors outlawing entirely -- would you cut out a child's tongue if he or she was too noisy or kept making sounds that gave away the fact that you were running a sweatshop in your backyard? That's the reason so many millers de-bark their breeding dogs), and other procedures.
It's funny (not funny "ha ha") that when we're doing outreach events to the voters, they're often incredulous that things that should be illegal already are not. "You mean it's legal now to tie a dog outside 24/7 in PA?" Yep, it sure is, thanks to the same sort of delays on voting on the dog tethering bill, which has appeared in multple forms for the past few years. "You mean it's not illegal to sew up a dog with fishing line after cutting out her puppies, just to save money?" Nope, it's not illegal -- and it remains perfectly legal to do so, thanks to the sort of purposeful bottleneck currently being created in the PA Senate.
Contact your PA Senator today to ask that this bill be moved along and be voted on immediately. Here's a link to find your PA Senator's contact info -- all you'll need to do is insert your zip code in the box in the upper right of the resulting window, and you'll find out who your PA legislators are, and you can then click on the senators' name/s to obtain their phone numbers.
http://www.pasen.gov
Remember, calls work MUCH better than emails -- which are often deleted without being read, if the topic is one that the legislator and/or his staff would rather not deal with. Nice, huh? Taxpayers pay for the computers and software used to ignore the wishes of the voters.
In the following article, "Anger Over Dog-Cruelty Bill Could Freeze Legislature", it seems that Dominic Pileggi, Republican and PA Senate majority leader is doing just that -- looking the other way on a chance to stop horrific medical procedures being performed by puppy millers looking to avoid scrutiny and save money. According to Thomas Caltagirone, Democrat, and head of the Judiciary Committee (and supporter of HB 39), the bill first waited way too long in the hands of the Senate's Agriculture Committee (chaired by Senator Mike Brubaker) and now it's being held up in the Judiciary. He considers it a stalling tactic.
Why would anyone want to stall or stop this bill? HB 39 requires that only a veterinarian can perform procedures such as caesarian sections (surgery to remove puppies from a pregnant dog), de-barking (which the LOHV favors outlawing entirely -- would you cut out a child's tongue if he or she was too noisy or kept making sounds that gave away the fact that you were running a sweatshop in your backyard? That's the reason so many millers de-bark their breeding dogs), and other procedures.
It's funny (not funny "ha ha") that when we're doing outreach events to the voters, they're often incredulous that things that should be illegal already are not. "You mean it's legal now to tie a dog outside 24/7 in PA?" Yep, it sure is, thanks to the same sort of delays on voting on the dog tethering bill, which has appeared in multple forms for the past few years. "You mean it's not illegal to sew up a dog with fishing line after cutting out her puppies, just to save money?" Nope, it's not illegal -- and it remains perfectly legal to do so, thanks to the sort of purposeful bottleneck currently being created in the PA Senate.
Contact your PA Senator today to ask that this bill be moved along and be voted on immediately. Here's a link to find your PA Senator's contact info -- all you'll need to do is insert your zip code in the box in the upper right of the resulting window, and you'll find out who your PA legislators are, and you can then click on the senators' name/s to obtain their phone numbers.
http://www.pasen.gov
Remember, calls work MUCH better than emails -- which are often deleted without being read, if the topic is one that the legislator and/or his staff would rather not deal with. Nice, huh? Taxpayers pay for the computers and software used to ignore the wishes of the voters.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Welcome to the League of Humane Voters, Central PA Chapter, Blog!
This blog is intended to keep our members up-to-date -- about pending legislation, candidate endorsements, current court cases involving animals and the environment, and local politics as it pertains to factory farming, puppy mills, zoning, and other issues that affect animals and the planet.
More than one of our core members will be contributing here, so look for various perspectives and a variety of sources of news and information. And don't forget to visit our website:
www.lohvpa.org
Welcome, and please check back frequently for updates! I can't promise a daily entry, but we'll do our best to keep you informed and interested!!
-Laurie
More than one of our core members will be contributing here, so look for various perspectives and a variety of sources of news and information. And don't forget to visit our website:
www.lohvpa.org
Welcome, and please check back frequently for updates! I can't promise a daily entry, but we'll do our best to keep you informed and interested!!
-Laurie
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