On March 31, 2005 Hearts United for Animals and the
Coalition Against Misery took a major step in the war against puppy mills.
They filed four initiatives with the Nebraska Secretary of State. The
Nebraska Constitution allows citizens to propose legislation outside of
the legislature through a process called initiative. The first initiative
filed by the organizations would require all commercial kennels to have
heat and air-conditioning. The second would put limitations on the ages at
which a female dog or cat in a commercial kennel could be bred. The third
would increase the sizes of the cages in commercial kennels. And the
fourth would raise the fee paid by large kennels for a kennel license and
require that every kennel be inspected before it is licensed.
The next step in the initiative process is for the
organizations to obtain approximately 85,000 signatures on petitions to
put the initiatives on the 2006 ballot where they will be voted on by the
citizens of Nebraska. The organizations have one year to get the requisite
signatures.
The organizations said that they decided to take this step
and invoke the initiative process because the large lobbies for the
breeders, pet stores and farm industries have been able to manipulate any
legislation that was introduced to state legislatures or to the federal
legislature. Examples where the will of the people has recently been
circumvented are in Oklahoma, Nebraska, California and Connecticut. The
pet industry lobby has bragged about their ability to change the language
of proposed statutes or have them withdrawn completely as they did in
Oklahoma. The animal welfare organizations decided to go directly to the
people and let them speak for the dogs.
This is the first time that an initiative has ever been
filed in any state to help the dogs suffering in puppy mills. This is an
enormous undertaking for the next year and a half. First there will be the
considerable work getting 85,000 signatures and then convincing a majority
of Nebraska voters to vote for the initiatives. The pet industry and farm
industry will turn out in force to fight these initiatives. Your help is
needed. We need many people in Nebraska and the surrounding border states
to help collect signatures. There is a meeting scheduled for April 30th.
Read more about the meeting below. There are many other jobs for people
who live further away. If you can donate some time to this project, it
would be greatly appreciated. And monetary donations are needed for
billboards, tv ads, newspaper and magazine ads, yard signs, flyers and
more. Your help is needed now. Go to the website below to help:
http://www.prisonersofgreed.org/Nebraska.html
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Editor Re: Hunting
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