[ SHOWGSD-L ] (Fwd) General Assembly Lobbying Postmortem and Outlook
- From: RihadinK9@xxxxxxx
- To: showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 00:59:36 EST
(From VHDOA)
Dear Virginia Sportsmen and Dog Owners,
Most of this week's legislative action was in yesterday's House Agriculture
Committee meeting, the focus of many of your emails and phone calls.
Both HB339 (Animal License Fees) and HB340 (Dangerous Dog Owner
Criminal Penalties) were further amended and reported (passed) at that
meeting. The amended (substitute) bills are now available online. See the
updates and hot links at http://vhdoa.uplandbirddog.com/staterk.html
Here's a capsule summary.
HB339
$10/$5 statewide fees stripped. Lines 47-57 of the introduced and 2/26
subcommittee reported bill in pdf. Public monies for public-private spay-
neuter programs stripped. Lines 119-120 of the introduced and 2/26
subcommittee reported bill in pdf.
What's left in HB339 is the Vet rabies, spay-neuter information-owner
reporting requirement to county treasurers for their direct license billing
purposes, (to increase tag sales - a pipe dream). No one who spoke before
the five member AG subcommittee on HB339 was permitted to address the
full 22-member committee. I was the only HB339 opponent at either meeting
and wasn't permitted to testify, but VHDOA's post subcommittee press
releases identifying the 99 counties and cities that would have had to
increase fees under HB339's $10/$5 mandates caused that and the spay-
neuter provision's deletion, as did your many emails and phone calls. It's
unfortunate that the AKC's show dog federation supported this ill-advised
bill, but positive changes were made in it, despite the patron's
misstatements
about VHDOA's spreading false rumors about the bill, cats not being
licensed in Virginia (eight counties license cats) and other matters.
Please make a note of the six delegates that voted against the amended
HB339. They deserve your thanks.
Lee Ware (804) 698-1065
Kathy Byron (804) 698-1022
Chris Saxman (804) 698-1020
Clarke Hogan (804) 698-1060
Ben Cline (804) 698-1024
Ed Scott (804) 698-1030
HB340 (Dangerous Dog Owner Criminal Penalties) was a very heavily
lobbied bill. Not only did many of you contact full AG committee members
objecting to this bill's features, so did the bill's supporters. For the
first
time in recent memory, HSUS corporate had a professional lobbyist present
to support HB340, as did the various HSUS clones, including the VFHS,
VACA, et al. Also supporting this dreadful bill was Tom Evans, representing
the Virginia Federation of Dog Clubs and Breeders (VFDCB). Our efforts
made a very small dent in HB340. The patron offered a change to lines 23-
24 of the reported pdf bill, i.e. However, when a dog attacks or bites a
companion animal, the attacking or biting dog shall not be deemed dangerous
(i) if no serious physical injury as determined by a licensed veterinarian
has
occurred to the companion animal as a result of the attack or bite, or (ii)
if
the animals are owned by the same person, or (iii) if such attack occurs on
the dog owner's property.
That, rather limited exemption was clearly in direct response to VHDOA's
widely circulated example of a dog injuring an intruder cat in its own back
yard and the dog owner and dog both suffering as a result. More significant
for hunting dog owners was an "unfriendly" amendment offered by
Victoria's Tommy Wright. This change clearly disturbed the patron. Teresa
Dockery of VFHS-VACA objected to it. I spoke in its favor. No one else
spoke on the change. The accepted amendment to lines 24-26 protects dogs
that might injure pets or feral cats while hunting. It reads
No dog shall be found to be a dangerous dog as a result of biting,
attacking, or inflicting injury on a companion animal while engaged with an
owner or custodian as part of lawful hunting or participating in an
organized, lawful dog handling event.
In the final analysis, very few legislators wanted to vote against HB340, no
matter how dreadful a bill it is (presuming they understood that), for fear
of being labeled supportive of vicious dogs and their irresponsible owners,
or unfeeling of the Sullivan family's tragedy. Two solid legislators
resisted
the emotional ground swell and voted against reporting HB340, Lee Ware
and Clarke Hogan.
Action Item: Please contact Delegate Tommy Wright (804) 698-1061 to
thank him for his valuable HB340 amendment and to urge that he resist the
almost certain effort to remove his amendment before a House floor vote.
Also make that same call to your individual House representative.
Looking ahead.
There are four active General Assembly Dangerous Dog Owner Criminal
Penalty bills, SB200, SB491, HB340 and HB1039. At this point, SB200 and
SB491 have both passed the Senate and are awaiting House action. SB491
and HB1039 contain identical, well-crafted Crime Commission language
creating class 6 felony punishments for truly irresponsible dog owner
behavior that results in severe injury to a human. Neither Crime Commission
bill includes criminal penalties for dog injuries to pets or feral cats, as
SB200 and HB340 do. The animal rightists, ADOA and VFDCB strongly
support SB200 and HB340. I see these bills as unnecessary overkill and
harmful advancement of the AR agenda.
There is a possibility that the few, limited positive features of HB340
might
be incorporated into HB1039 tomorrow afternoon at a House Courts of
Justice Committee meeting. Should that effort fail, as it did in Senate AG,
the two chambers will work on each other's conflicting bills and probably
required a House-Senate conference to reconcile further differences.
Action Item: Please take the opportunity first thing tomorrow to contact
Courts members and urge that they report (pass) HB1039 and also consider
incorporating just two HB340 provisions, its Dangerous Dog Registry and
the elimination of animal control officer self-determinations of which dogs
are dangerous, leaving that decision to the courts.
In other news, five DGIF bills that reorganized, reformed and otherwise
tried to improve governance after last year's scandal have in consolidated
into a single, non-controversial bill, HB362. Maybe next year the needed
process and procedural reforms will find more support. Partisan politics
prevented such considerations this year. The bear parts sale bill, HB1061
was predictably buried.
SB 55 - Companion animal dealers, the VVAW bill introduced By Sen.
Reynolds and not resolved by the Senate AG Committee on January 23,
2006, remains in limbo. It wasn't on the committee's agenda this week and
isn't there for next Monday. Rumors of two or more substitutes have
circulated this past week, but nothing's official. Unless the bill is
reported
and passed by a floor vote before February 14th, it dies on its own.
There are a few bills of modest concern pending before House Rules and
Finance Committees. More on those later. Thank you for your magnificent
support these last very trying weeks.
Sincerely,
Bob Kane, President
Virginia Hunting Dog Owners' Association
http://vhdoa.uplandbirddog.com/
Ginger Cleary, Rome, GA
"You should not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will
convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do
and
the harm it would cause if improperly administered." Lyndon Johnson, 36th
President of the U.S.
http://www.rihadin.com
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