Bill Is Fast-Tracked To Gut Puppy Mill Anti-Cruelty Law

[catgirl]

Kinship Circle alert:


Nearly 1 million Missouri voters passed Prop B, the Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act. Shockingly, the Missouri Senate has since approved a bill to gut Prop B. Ignoring voters' will, lawmakers are fast-tracking legislation to undo Prop B.

Missouri, a.k.a. Puppy Mill Capitol, produces over half a million dogs annually. Mills typically fail to provide adequate vet care, diet, water, exercise or shelter. Hundreds to thousands of dogs live in stacked wire-bottom cages. Urine and feces seep into lower cages. Cruelty investigators have found dogs with parasite infestation, oozing eye/ear infection, and fur so matted it forms a hard shell over sores. A dog’s teeth may rot as young as 1 or 2 years of age. Sometimes their jaws dissolve. Dogs are rescued balding, blind, emaciated. They suffer abscessed feet and leg deformities from trauma inside overcrowded cages. Mills breed females from 6 months of age to every heat cycle thereafter. When spent, dogs as young as 2 to 5 years are shot or clubbed. Other throwaways are sold to research labs or just discarded. Public records show that Missouri mass breeders kill "flawed" puppies by the hundreds each month.


ACTION STEPS YOU CAN TAKE:

1) MISSOURI RESIDENTS ONLY:
Ask your Senators to oppose SB-113.

Others can help too- see link.

Link here: http://www.kinshipcircle.org/letter_library/letter_new3.asp?LetterID=1923

This is outrageous!

[Angry Dragon]

1. Why should the elected officials listen to the people

They are Kings now with the wisdom of gods

[catgirl]

3. I hope we see another recall

People have to stop going to pet stores that sell animals for starters.

[chill_wind]

2. Ugh!! K & R.

[MadHound]

4. I've been on this for a couple of months,

Our wingnut legislature has been hell bent to overturn the will of the people since they were sworn into office.

This is the second time in recent memory that the legislature has set out to overturn the will of the people. Back in '99 it was another Prop B, that one which turned down a conceal carry law. As soon as the NRA got a compliant governor in office, they put on a full court press to overturn that Prop. B and allow conceal carry in this state.

I think that the next initiative petition that gets passed should be one that disallows the legislature from overturning the will of the people.

[WatsonT]

5. Really we need to stop buying from puppy mills

that's the best solution.

There are plenty of great dogs being put down every day in this country. Why produce more?

[highplainsdem]

6. This article lists the four MO state senators who voted to repeal Prop B even though their

constituents had supported it:

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_8a404eaf-754c-5213-a8f2-55ac7260a466.html

The key votes were cast by four senators who voted to repeal Prop B even though their constituents had backed it. They were Republican Sens. Scott Rupp of Wentzville, Rob Schaaf of St. Joseph and Bob Dixon of Springfield, and Democrat Victor Callahan of Independence.

At least two of those four, Dixon and Schaaf, are members of the rightwing pro-business American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which I've been posting about here. It's basically a gigantic lobbying organization in the guise of a "charity" (since its "model legislation" is supposedly "educational") that brings together corporations that write legislation and compliant legislators who take it back to their own states.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x591230

I'm not sure the bill to repeal Prop B was drafted by ALEC, and I haven't been able to find out whether Mike Parson, the bill's sponsor, is also a member of ALEC. But I'm not at all surprised to find two ALEC members among the four senators who disregarded their own consitutents' wishes on this proposition and are trying to repeal it.

[superduperfarleft]

7. Quit buying from breeders and adopt an animal from a shelter.

Then we won't need laws like this. But as long as people look at animals as an accessory to match the couch as opposed to a lifelong companion, breeder scum will always be there to supply.