—
Someone else is taking care of it?
True story: A state dog club had a legislative liaison who for
years claimed that the animal rights advocates were just too powerful
for dog owners to defeat. Bad law after bad law was passed and
she’d say, “We had to compromise. This was the best
I could do.” Eventually a bill so bad was proposed that others
became involved and it was discovered that the club’s liaison
had been working with the AR advocates. They had become great
friends and she put that friendship ahead of her loyalty to the
club.
Moral: No one person should be “taking care of it.”
You need to know how it is being taken care of. Even if
that person is trustworthy, capable, and articulate, she can’t
do it alone. Legislators work for votes, and the animal rights
people turn out in droves. They are not a majority, but they certainly
appear to be when we sit back and say someone else is “taking
care of it.”
—
You just aren’t the political type?
Who
is? There is no classification of Legislative Expert Dog Fancier
(or cat or rabbit or reptile or bird or...) None of us started
out planning to get involved in fighting anti-owner legislation
or knowing anything about it. We’re breeders and rescuers
and fanciers just like you. Though victories in this war can be
very rewarding and we’ve met some great people we now count
as friends, the fight itself is not especially fun. We’d
rather be showing, planning a litter, or going for a walk in the
woods with the dogs. But if we plan to have those options ten
years from now, someone has to do this. And those of us already
involved need your help. Don’t worry about whether you know
enough to help. If you know how to write a letter or make a phone
call, you know enough. We’ll help you interpret the laws
and figure out what’s wrong with them...and what’s right.
—
It won’t happen in your town/county/state?
Yes,
it will. Seriously bad laws are being proposed from California
to North Carolina, from New York to Texas. One of the worst proposals
this year came from Oklahoma.
In
Denver it is illegal to breed pets. No exceptions.
In Dallas, they’re enforcing zoning laws against home businesses
to prevent breeders from selling their puppies and kittens.
Fauquier
County, Virginia - (Where??) Yup. They've passed a county-wide
dog limits thatis forcing some owners to get rid of pets or move.
In
Louisville, KY, and Albuquerque, NM, the worst pet laws in the
nation have just been passed. In a matter of months or years,
there will be no home breeding in those cities. The governor of
New Mexico is attempting to make the Albuquerque law a state law.
PETA
or HSUS members don’t have to be a visible presence in your
town for this to happen. Those organizations have websites,
conferences, and literature teaching people how to get animal
rights bills and laws passed.
All
it takes is one burned out shelter worker who decides that all
the problems of the world can be blamed on breeders.
Or
one distraught mother who thinks that all (fill in the breed)
should be banned because her child was bitten.
Or
one applicant for a rescue animal who is turned down and decides
rescuers ought to be regulated and licensed.
It’s
not the big AR organizations who start these things. It’s
your neighbors who see a perceived or actual problem and decide
that the solution is in regulation of everyone rather than in
enforcement of current laws...which nearly always would solve
the problem. Once the action starts, the national organizations
may well offer help and support to the people pushing these laws,
but the main impetus is from local people.
So
yes, it can happen in your neighborhood!
—
You don’t know what to do, where to start, or even how to
find out what’s going on.
That
one’s easy. Here’s all the stuff you need to do. If
you can’t do it all, do what you can. Everything counts.
Join
the Pet-Law email list.
Find
out what’s going on where you live. Join your state
email list, attend city council meetings, get involved!.
Write
letters.
Make
phone calls.
Inform
other people. Your vet, your groomer, your puppy (or kitten or
bunny or bird or reptile) buyers, your rescue adopters, your other
email lists, your neighbors, anyone who might possibly
have an interest in preserving the right to own pets.
Meet
with government representatives.
Vote.
And
start reading here: What to Do When
Activists Want to Pass a Law in Your Area
