Here is the letter from the President, Social Compassion in Legislation (SCIL).
Dear Supporters:
Success!
AB 241, Assemblymember Pedro Nava’s anti puppy mill legislation, won its vote in the Senate Public Safety Committee this morning!
Senators Mark Leno, Gil Cedillo, Loni Hancock and Darrell Steinberg all voted YES. The Senators listened to the hundreds of animal lovers who called and faxed in support of this good bill.
And congratulations Assemblymember Nava! Thank you for representing the vast majority of Californians who see pets as friends, not products. AB 241 will next be heard in August in the Senate Appropriations Committee. We will alert you when the time comes.
Now, a more personal note. This has been a crazy week in Sacramento. AB 241 has passed Committee, while Senator Florez decided to wait until August to move SB 250 forward. Thanks so much to everyone who has called, faxed and traveled to help our pets live better lives.
Once AB 241 becomes law, no one in California will be able to keep more than 50 unaltered dogs. While that may seem like a lot, in reality many puppy mills keep 500 or more unaltered dogs at one time. All too often the puppy mill breeder dogs spend their life in tiny cages, and sometimes never touch the ground for their entire life.
The awful treatment of dogs in puppy mills is a direct result of the profit mentality of underground animal breeders, whether they have 5 breeder dogs or 500. They believe it is their right to breed and sell animals without any government oversight. And ironically, backyard breeders (and the groups representing them) complained all through 2007 and 2008 that legislation targeting underground breeding was misplaced and should focus only on puppy mills… but now it’s those same people loudly complaining about AB 241! They now oppose ANY legislation designed to help pets, a knee-jerk reaction based on a collective paranoia that sees a conspiracy to take away breeding rights and pets behind every piece of pet legislation.
If this all sounds like hyperbole just for effect, I wish it was. The number of people living off the income of their underground, backyard breeding in California is truly staggering. Before we started doing research into this a few years ago, the scope of this problem, and the millions of tax dollars stolen from our state by these people, just wasn’t understood. But now, thankfully, our Legislators are starting to notice.
In fact, the California Board of Equalization is now also starting to take an interest in underground breeding. The BOE is beginning to contact breeders to determine their status and see if they are paying their taxes. That’s GOOD NEWS! And the breeder response? Are they stepping up, being honest citizens by finally following current breeding laws and paying taxes? Nope. They are instead frantically pulling all references to individual breeders down from breeder websites and AKC lists, in an attempt to go further underground. Shameless.
The honest truth is that backyard breeders, and the hypocritical organized groups making money from their donations while pretending to care about pets, see animals as a tax-free paycheck. It’s income that is easily hidden from the Government, even though current law states that anyone selling animals needs to pay sales tax and claim the income. This week Sacramento was overrun with hundreds of backyard breeders, gathering to oppose SB 250 and AB 241. It was quite a sight. Unlike you, they have plenty of time to travel to the Capital, because their day job is sitting in their house tending to puppies while waiting for the females to come into heat again. Those puppies sell for hundreds (or thousands) of dollars each, tax-free. This is a career, their tax-free livelihood, period, and they will never support truly pet-friendly legislation, because they fear that it will cost them money. It’s just that simple, and it was in full display this week in Sacramento.
Thank you for keeping up the fight to help pets. They need our voice! Thank you for being honest taxpayers. Thank you for treating your pets with respect, and rescuing pets instead of purchasing them. And thank you for helping stop cruel puppy mills in California!
We are making a difference together in our great state.
Warm regards,
Judie Mancuso
President, Social Compassion In Legislation (SCIL)
A 501(c)(4) non-profit organization focused on reducing pet overpopulation through legislation.
www.YESonAB241.com
www.YESonSB250.com