Two important pieces of legislation are progressing through the Virginia Senate and need your support. Please urge your senator to vote YES on SB 872 (tethering in extreme weather) and SB 28 (medical research on dogs and cats).
SB 872 was engrossed by the Senate on second reading today, and it may receive a vote on the Senate floor tomorrow. SB 28 was reported by the Senate Finance Committee this morning on a vote of 11-Y, 5-N. If this bill’s first reading is on the legislative agenda tomorrow, it may be voted on as soon as Friday.
SB 872
Current state law does not prevent dogs from spending their lives at the end of a chain. Senator Lionel Spruill is the patron of SB 872, which aims to provide protections to dogs who are tethered or chained outdoors. The bill defines certain harsh weather conditions under which an animal may not legally be tethered and provides basic standards for length, weight and type of tether. This is incremental progress that is desperately needed to give protections to neglected tethered dogs across the Commonwealth.
Senate co-patrons for SB 872 are Spruill, Dance, DeSteph, Ebbin, Mason, McClellan, Reeves, Stanley, Wagner and Wexton. If you live in these senators’ districts, please thank them for adding their names to this legislation.
SB 28
Senators Glen Sturtevant and Bill Stanley were motivated by disturbing reports of painful cardiac experiments being performed on dogs at the McGuire VA Medical Center to introduce SB 28. Taxpayer dollars should not be used to carry out painful, medically unnecessary research on dogs and cats. By prohibiting state general funds from being used for such studies, the senators are making an important statement about the values of the Commonwealth in protecting the lives of companion animals.
Senators Black and Ebbin have also joined as co-patrons of SB 28. Please thank these senators, if you are their constituents.
Contacting Your Senator
If you are not sure who your senator is, enter your home address at http://whosmy.virginiageneralassembly.gov/. Be sure to include your address in your message so he or she will know you are a constituent.
Tabitha Frizzell Treloar is the director of communications for the Richmond SPCA. To read the biographies of our regular bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires a first and last name to be used as your screen name.
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