SB1381: David and Goliath scenario to protect Virginia's dogs and cats

It is a David and Goliath scenario if there ever was one. We and other folks in Virginia who are sick and tired of PETA's massive slaughter of innocent animals in Norfolk are trying to get the General Assembly to pass a very simple bill, Senate Bill 1381. It would simply say that private animals shelters in our state should have a purpose of trying to get the homeless animals in their care adopted. This would seem to be self evident to most people and certainly to most donors. In fact it would seem to be the ethical thing for shelters to be doing. But to PETA it is anathema. And PETA is a huge, rich, mean bully.   

Wilbur Zarate holds a photo of his family's dog, Maya, on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014, on the porch of his home, where he says PETA workers stole her. He says the workers returned days later with a basket of fruit and told him the pet had been euthanized.
(Jay Diem | Eastern Shore News)
Full story from the Virginian Pilot

They are unwilling to have to make even the most minimal effort to get animals adopted. They take them into their facility in Norfolk by the thousands annually and kill about 90% of them. They make no effort to get them adopted, and they are wild now at the suggestion that maybe they should even try. They want no impediment to their killing.

So wild in fact that, once they got the hint that we might be succeeding a bit with our little bill, they hired a very expensive and very influential lobbyist. His name is Steve Haner and he is a very well connected Republican. In fact, he is the kind of Republican who would dislike and disparage PETA if it were not for the fact that they are now paying him a lot of money. Money, I might mention that comes from the donations that people make to them.  

Mr. Haner has been convincing his friends in state agencies and with local governments to write and call Delegates asking them to oppose SB 1381. These government officials, both state and local, are, at his behest, spreading utter falsehoods by claiming that this bill, which only relates to private shelters, will put great burdens on public shelters because it will cause the private shelters to start turning away more animals.  This claim has absolutely no basis in reality. Nothing about this bill would push private shelters to take in fewer animals.  In fact, nothing about this bill would even make private shelters other than PETA do anything differently than they are doing right now. That is because all of them, except for PETA, actually try to get animals adopted. They actually want to save animals' lives and make a sincere effort to get animals adopted.  PETA does not. And to insure that they never have to try to get animals adopted, they are fighting this bill with everything, and very dollar, they possibly can. And Haner is getting lots of government officials to do their bidding because they are rich and powerful.

We on the other hand are small. We cannot hire lobbyists. We cannot get our paid shill to pressure his buddies in state and local governments to pressure Delegates. The question is who will succeed. Many of these Delegates in the General Assembly are conservatives. They are elected by conservative voters. Their constituents to a very large extent do not like PETA and are appalled by PETA's behaviors in many ways  Are these Delegates going to stand by the feelings and wishes of their constituents? Or are they going to knuckle under to PETA's and Mr. Haner's pressure tactics. Are they going to believe the lies being spread at PETA's behest or are they going to listen to the very people who actually run private shelters. We shall see if David has a chance these days before our House of Delegates. Please help us by contacting your Delegate and asking that he or she not knuckle under to PETA, the Goliath, but rather vote to save the lives of our precious and defenseless animals by supporting SB 1381. 

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Find your representative in the Virginia House of Delegates at whosmy.virginiageneralassembly.gov.

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Robin Robertson Starr is the chief executive officer of the Richmond SPCA. To read her biography or that of our other bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires both your first and last name to be used as your screen name.

Comments

[paula]

Thank you for posting this. I am not in Virginia but am sincerely hope this passes.

[Linda O'Connell]

I live in Chesapeake, and we call PETA , people embarrassing the Tidewater area. You are correct when you say that PETA does nothing to help animals find homes. And they use the excuse that it's because the animal is sick or old. ??? Do we throw PETA away then? I say yes, let's throw PETA out of our state.

[RG]

As a resident you can make a difference, SB 1381 is coming to vote on Monday, make sure your voice is heard!

[Sydney Ashlin]

we need to get this law passed

[Dana Norwood]

Among the definitions included in SB1381is Adequate Space, which allows that an animal may be maintained on a chain three times the length of it's body for it's entire life. Why is this not being amended in this legislative effort? Far more than 2,301 animals (the number of animals taken into PETA's custody in a given year) in Virginia languish on chains for their entire lives.

[Tammy Zaluzney]

Your friends at CAPA for Maryland support you and SB1831 100%

[jennifer]

I got a robo call from PETA requesting me to write and call and oppose the bill. Of course I did not, but the slickness of their tactic alone made me suspicious. Spending money on robo Calls? People who advocate for just treatment of animals don't need to be incited to act justly.

[Diana Maxwell]

How can it be legal for PETA to take a pet off of private property? Why are they doing this? I will definitely write to my state legislator about this.

[penny Hilton]

Please pass senate bill 1381. It IS the RIGHT thing to do.

[Jaimie]

Nice post.

[Kelly]

Please let me know what I can do to help. I live in Pennsylvania but will NEVER, EVER support PETA financially again and want desperately to pass this information along to whomever I can and end PETA's reign of killing animals.