Help Pass Anti-Cruelty Legislation- Pls Cross Post Widely

[Guest guest]

Ask your Texas Representative and Senator to co-sponsor and vote for House Bill

2328 and Senate Bill 1100, which will close the loopholes in Texas animal

cruelty law. Click on link to contact your Texas Representative and Senator:

http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/

 

Thanks to Dr. Pipipn for initially posting the below story. Margaret

 

 

Hopes high for animal cruelty bill

 

Web Posted: 03/03/2007 11:01 PM CST

 

Peggy Fikac

Austin Bureau

 

AUSTIN — Two leading lawmakers put new life in the fight against animal

cruelty last week with legislation to close loopholes that hinder prosecutors'

efforts to punish those who maim or cruelly kill animals.

 

" It's a bill whose time has come, " said Rep. Beverly Woolley, R-Houston, who

leads the House Calendars Committee and is sponsoring the legislation with Sen.

John Whitmire, D-Houston, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.

" These (cruel) things should not be happening. "

 

They're taking the lead after Houston Rockets owner Les Alexander put his muscle

behind the effort by placing the issue on the to-do list of top lobbyist Bill

Miller, who represents Alexander on sports issues and is an ally of House

Speaker Tom Craddick.

 

" Laws relating to animals have to be strengthened because there is really very

little protection from really cruel people, " said Alexander, an animal rights

advocate. " I don't think this is maybe the most important issue on everybody's

docket. But it is an important issue, because why would you want anything that

feels pain to suffer if you can do something about it so easily and quickly? "

 

The measures, introduced Friday, are House Bill 2328 and Senate Bill 1100.

 

It may not be easy to pass legislation that died without even a committee vote

in the last legislative session after agricultural and hunting interests raised

early concerns. But the effort has new firepower through its legislative

champions and an innovative approach meant to allay agriculture's worries.

 

The proposal would separate the law on livestock from that on other animals,

giving more dramatic protection to pets than farm animals. It would keep

exemptions for hunting and farming.

 

It would add protection for strays and make it an offense for owners to cruelly

kill their pets or seriously injure them in a cruel manner. Owners now can

escape punishment for actions short of torture.

 

The Texas Farm Bureau, which opposed the bill last session, hasn't taken a

position on the new proposal and is working with the sponsors on concerns, said

the bureau's Billy Howe.

 

Backers also are working to redraft the section on animal fighting because the

latest draft could inadvertently legitimize cockfights. That will be fixed, they

emphasized.

 

Animal advocates also are pushing to give extra protection to horses, which are

characterized as livestock.

 

As fine-tuning continues, the new push is sparking hope among longtime animal

advocates such as Dallas lawyer Skip Trimble of the Texas Humane Legislation

Network. He has pressed for change before, armed with examples of cases that

couldn't be prosecuted, such as a frisky puppy whose owner intentionally ran

over it with a lawnmower.

 

" I've never spoken to any person or group when I explain the current animal

statute that (is) not appalled at the loopholes that exist. I don't see the

general public being tolerant of animal abuse, " Trimble said.

 

Bexar County Assistant District Attorney Adriana Biggs didn't address specifics

of the proposal but said, " We support efforts to strengthen the law prohibiting

cruelty to animals. We think it's a worthwhile effort.

 

" We hear it from the community — that these are important cases, and that they

should be handled appropriately and not minimized (just) because it's an animal

that's receiving the abuse, " she said.

 

Biggs said 18 animal cruelty cases were filed with the district attorney's

office in 2006.

 

San Antonio has drawn national attention from animal welfare advocates after a

recent incident in which a man worked to amputate a dog's broken leg with

pruning shears and a pocketknife. The dog's owner described it as an effort at

treatment, but it horrified others, who have called for prosecution.

 

The Texas District and County Attorneys Association's Shannon Edmonds, who is

working on the legislative proposal, said, " Prosecutors don't want to be the pet

police " but would like some impediments removed. Like Trimble, he sees great

public interest in the issue.

 

" The only thing that gets more people down to the Capitol to testify than the

death penalty, " Edmonds said, " is animal cruelty. "

 

 

 

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pfikac

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Online at:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA030407.01B.animal_cruelty.37f\

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