Alert 1/18/08 Humane Ed Bill(SB438) on Monday, 1/21/08!
Sen. Jill Vogel’s humane ed bill (SB 438) will be heard on Monday, 1/21/08.
Time/Place: Monday, 1/21/08
It will be heard ½ hour after the Session of the General Assembly adjourns, likely near 2 pm.
The hearing will be 4 th Floor East Conference Room of the General Assembly Building.
It will be heard by the Public Education Subcommittee of the Committee on Education and Health.
We wanted to have a humane ed bill since Day One. Let’s make sure it passes this time!
The link to the bill:
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?ses=081&typ=bil&val=sb438
Please let us know if you come and are willing to say a few words (less than a minute) in support of the bill. We particularly need educators. We also need people to come and offset the fear-mongering that is certain to be done by those in opposition.
Note that Sen. Vogel is also carrying SJ69, a bill to designate the first full week in February as Humane Treatment for Companion Animals Education Week in Virginia. SJ69 will be heard at another, unannounced, time.
Please do this:
1. First, thank Sen. Vogel for being the patron for this important piece of legislation.
Her full name: Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel. Her email: district27@sov.state.va.us
2. Please contact all the members of the Public Education Subcommittee and ask each to support the bill. The list of committee members is at the end of this alert.
The subject line should be: please vote in favor of SB 438
The message should ask them to pass SB 438. See the talking points below for ideas.
3. Next, send a quick note or make a quick phone call to your own delegate, and let them know you want this bill passed, and so you ask their support. This is particularly important to do if your delegate also happens to be a member of the Public Education Subcommittee.
background :
compassionate treatment of companion animals is unavailable in Virginia even in upscale and more highly educated households where a disposability mindset prevails; humane ed is necessary as part of a public school curriculum in order to drive out the disposability mindset and the Michael Vick “bad boy” model that prevails in far too many other settings
talking points:
a. provides illustrations and a compassionate frame of reference for treatment of companion animals which is otherwise missing or filled by inappropriate or downright wrong illustrations and models
b. is permissive, so a jurisdiction can opt to have a humane education component in the public school
c. can be part of the curriculum anywhere from kindergarten through high school
d. can be conducted before or after school hours or during the regular teaching day
e. materials to use for humane education are widely available, and many sources are willing to provide such material or, in fact, to present the program
f. the focus is compassionate treatment of companion animals and not the elimination of farms or farm animals, nor the promotion of a vegan lifestyle; opposition to this legislation will come from those with a disdainful disregard for the truth of the proposed curriculum and/or from those who believe teachers are so overworked that they couldn’t possibly deliver a message of such import, even through volunteers or on a permissive basis; these later points should be hit very hard in whatever contact is made with legislators
g. new attitudes from children likely to be adopted by parents
Will you come? It’s time we had this bill in place!
Lillian Clancy and Don Marro
___________________
Committee on Education and Health
Public Education Subcommittee
Harry B. Blevins
Chairman, Public Education Subcommittee, Committee on Education and Health
Howell, Janet
Locke, Mamie E.
Miller, John C.
Ruff, Frank J.