We Need Your Help to Defeat SB 610

Senator Dick Black is sponsoring a terrible bill, SB 610, to put hunting dogs, working dogs and show dogs into a category which can be regulated ONLY by the Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services. This means that humane societies, AC officers and humane investigators will have no power to help these animals if they are being neglected and/or treated in a cruel manner.

If you have been exposed to the vast neglect of hunting dogs in this state, as has everyone who works with Beagles to the Rescue, you know what a horror it is. Just yesterday one of our transport volunteers near Richmond picked up a beagle who had been near death when rescued by the Essex Co. shelter. Many hunters treat their dogs just horribly, and if they won't hunt, they either dump them or shoot them. A number of dogs we've received since opening our doors have come from hunters as heartworm positive and/or emaciated little souls. There ARE responsible hunters, but those who are NOT responsible or humane need to be subject to investigation by animal control officers (just like puppy mill breeders).

PLEASE call and or email your senator as soon as possible and ask him or her NOT to support this bill and PLEASE get everyone you know who loves animals to do the same. The breeders and hunters are supporting this thing in mass!!!  Click on the following link to identify and contact your senator:  http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform . 


PLEASE, PLEASE get this out to Virginians and urge them to make these calls. The animals need your help!!!


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YOU CAN ALSO CONTACT SENATOR BLACK AND TELL HIM YOU DO ***NOT*** SUPPORT HIS BILL... THAT YOU OPPOSE IT:

Call (804) 698-751 3 and ask to speak to his legislative assistant, Chris Lore. If you can't get him, ask the secretary if you can leave a message.
Give her your full name, phone number, and address if she wants, so they know you are a real person and not someone making a lot of calls. If you don't want to give them your home or cell number give them your work's main # or something. We cann't let this bill pass -- as a prosecutor (not just through rescue) -- I've seen the horrible outcome for some of these dogs... we need to protect them. It's hard enough for animal control to catch losers who abuse animals, for us to lose that tool will mean misery in life and death for many dogs.

More Info:

SB 610 (Senator Dick Black): "DOGS TO BE AGRICULTURAL ANIMALS"

SB 610 is the handiwork of Senator "Dick" Black, best known for sending plastic fetuses to his legislative colleagues in connection with a pro-life bill then pending in the House where he had served before being defeated. "Dick" is back, this time as a senator and this time with SB 610, which would make hunting dogs, working dogs and show dogs "agricultural animals" regulated only by the VA Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

There are several points to be made about this bill:

(1) this is the legislation you get when there are backward and backwoods influences afoot, and animal welfare groups that don't elect their own or keep the pressure on those that are elected - baby steps as strategic policy means legislators like "Dick" Black will produce holes forever to be plugged because the opposition has no heart and never sleeps;

(2) make no mistake that this bill was written in the expectation that it would be amended and a first version, barbaric and stupid as it is, is likely little more than stalking horse or trial balloon - it must be defeated whatever the case, and if you need a clarion call to illustrate the importance of being active politically and mobilized against retrograde thinking, this should be it;

(3) HB1541/SB1026 from the 2011 session emboldened the breed for greeders, hunting dog abandoners and "animals as property" apologists, and was accompanied by a similar diversion patroned by Del. H. Lee Ware, apparently spiritual advisor to "Dick" Black. This bill, trial balloon or not, must be defeated roundly and soundly, whatever it takes to do so.

(4) SB610, among other things, establishes sporting practices as the standard of care, which means that fighting dogs will be bred to fight, breed for greeders will dump excess litters with impunity, and hunting dogs can be starved offseason or abandoned without penalty, removing any accountability from our more mindless citizens, thanks to "Dick" Black and his ilk.

My sainted mother always suggested honey as better bait for flies so moderate the language of this Alert in whatever way you choose to suit your palate. But Paul Revere was less interested in style than substance and so am I. If you don't think these people are dangerous, insensitive and to be met headon before they chip away at what you've worked hard to achieve, you're mistaken.

Make this go away. And the Senator it came in on.

The bill follows, below.

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12104068D

SENATE BILL NO. 610
Offered January 19, 2012

A BILL to amend and reenact § 3.2-300 of the Code of Virginia and to amend the Code of Virginia by adding a section numbered 3.2-6503.2, relating to the regulation of animal agriculture.
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Patron-- Black
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Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources
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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 3.2-300 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted and that the Code of Virginia is amended by adding a section numbered 3.2-6503.2 as follows:

§ 3.2-300. Definitions.

As used in this chapter, unless the context requires a different meaning:

"Agricultural animal" or "livestock" means any domestic animal raised, herded, or farmed as an agricultural product or associated with agriculture, including equids, cows, calves, yearlings, bulls, oxen, sheep, goats, lambs, kids, hogs, pigs, poultry, gamefowl, fowl, hunting dogs, working dogs, and show dogs.

"Agricultural operation" means any owned or leased operation, facility, or land devoted to the bona fide production or processing of crops, agricultural products, animals, or fowl including the production of fruits and vegetables of all kinds; meat, dairy, and poultry products; nuts, tobacco, nursery, and floral products; and the production and harvest of products from silviculture activity. "Agricultural operation" includes the use of farm machinery, equipment, devices, chemicals, medications or devices used for administering medications, products for agricultural use, and materials or structures designed for agricultural use or housing and used in accordance with generally accepted or traditional farm or sporting practices.

"Production agriculture and silviculture" means the bona fide production or harvesting of agricultural or silvicultural products but shall not include the processing of agricultural or silvicultural products or the above ground application or storage of sewage sludge.
"Traditional farm practice" means an accepted and customary standard established by similar agricultural operations under similar circumstances, including notching, docking, tagging, dehorning, debeaking, shoeing, trimming, dubbing, castrating, penning, cooping, caging, tethering, herding, hauling, training, showing, and culling.

§ 3.2-6503.2. Regulation of care and handling of agricultural animals.

The Department occupies the entire field of regulation of the care, control, and handling of agricultural animals. No political subdivision, locality, or humane society shall regulate the care and handling of agricultural animals.