[ SHOWGSD-L ] FW: Va HB538 reported 7-1. We lose.
- From: Stormy435@xxxxxxx
- To: showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, GSDCALegislative@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2008 13:15:14 EST
Begin forwarded message:
FW: [RDOG-IA] Va HB538 reported 7-1. We lose.
Thu Feb 7, 2008 11:24 pm (PST)
CROSSPOSTED FROM DOG LEGISLATION
Dear Virginia Dog Owners,
The Humane Society of the United State (HSUS) is about to gain in Virginia
what it couldn't in years of Washington, DC lobbying, a hobby dog breeder
licensing and inspection regulation. HB538 was reported this morning by a
7-1 vote from House Appropriations Economic Development, Agriculture and
Natural Resources Subcommittee of Cox (Chairman), Morgan, Hogan, Abbitt,
O'Bannon, Phillips, Dance, Shannon. Only Delegate Abbitt voted against
HB538.
The subcommittee incredibly didn't review HB538's fiscal impacts, its raison
d'être (reason for being). Instead it permitted a replay of the emotional
puppy mill stories from the Agriculture Committee hearings and totally
ignored the bill's significant unfunded new regulatory requirements on
Virginia counties and cities. See the attached analysis. Also ignored were
expressions of concern and requests not to report filed this week by at
least one city and multiple counties.
A few cosmetic, non-substantive changes were made in today's subcommittee.
The commercial dog breeder definition was raised from 20 females to 30, and
the adult dog 50 limit now specifies one year, rather than four months. The
amended bill still deserved to die. HB538 duplicates the federal licensing
system that registers and inspects most dog breeders with four (4) or more
females about whom a legitimate complaint has been received or those
businesses that voluntarily self-register. USDA-APHIS has 5700+ Class A
breeders that it monitors and inspects at least once per year, including 14
in Virginia. The feds did 10,000 inspections last year, checking compliance
with 60 pages of detailed dog care standards.
Junior Horton in Carroll County, the HSUS puppy mill cause célèbre, was well
known to authorities and the ACO there for years. He had a business license,
a 500 dog kennel permit, five employees, bought dog food by the ton and
advertised puppies in newspapers and on the Internet. He should have been
federally licensed and inspection by law, but wasn't. Of that there's no
dispute. That situation was a local political problem, not a federal
enforcement shortfall. At any time, someone could have brought him to the
USDA's attention. Three months after the HSUS November 1st "raid," there
still hasn't been a formal complaint lodged, nor has the local ACO returned
to that facility, which is still selling puppies. The fourteen USDA licensed
and inspected VA dog breeders are listed on the USDA-APHIS website. This
isn't some mysterious, unknown or unaccountable animal welfare service, just
one the State Veterinarian's Office and ACOs need to learn about, rather
than being asked to supplant, or duplicate the federal program at great cost
to local taxpayers and risk to responsible dog owners.
They'll be time for more thorough and studied postmortems later, but my
personal gripes just now involve the only identified dog owner group to
support HB538, the Virginia Foxhound Club, and the Virginia Association of
Counties <http://www.vaco.org/> http://www.vaco.org/. VACO committed to
oppose HB538 this week, then reneged today. The Middleburg based Virginia
Foxhound Club and its Masters of Foxhounds Association affiliated members
should be dragged behind their horses for advancing HSUS's anti-dog owner
agenda.
Thank you for your individual efforts over these last trying weeks. We were
up against HSUS's five paid Richmond professional lobbyists, its DC
personnel and numerous very well coordinated local semi-pro activists.
Forward and cross post freely.
Sincerely,
Bob Kane, President
Virginia Hunting Dog Owners' Association
Chairman Emeritus, Sportsmen and Animal Owners' Voting Alliance
<http://vhdoa.uplandbirddog.com/> http://vhdoa.uplandbirddog.com
<http://saova.org/> http://saova.org,_._,___
**************
Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music.
(http://music.aol.com/grammys/pictures/never-won-a-grammy?NCID=aolcmp003000000025
48)
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