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Letters to Local Government Leaders
This is the time to reach your officials.
Your officials are working now with the members of Virginia’s General Assembly, with the Virginia Association of Counties (VACO) and the Virginia Municipal League (VML), putting together the legislation they want enacted at the 2006 General Assembly.
There are legislative initiatives we will put forward again, and you need to help in their passage by asking your local officials and your state representatives to push for them.
Below (and also available on the VVAW website) is a wonderful letter written by Margaret Marsh. Amongst other things Margaret does, she works tirelessly for the Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA. She has authorized its circulation as a model for others to use.
If you use this as a basis for your own letters, you will need to get your own county or city code for relevant local code citations, and you will need to get your local euthanasia rates.
We encourage you to send letters to these people:
- your county Board of Supervisors (or City/Town Council)
- County Administrator (or city/Town Mayor)
- General District Court Judge
- local Commonwealth Attorney
- all members of the Senate Ag committee
- all members of the House Ag committee
- Larry Land/VACO – Virginia Association of Counties
- Denise Thompson/VML – Virginia Municipal League
- press, TV
To reach the above, go to the new “Get Active” section of the website here:
http://www.virginiavotersforanimalwelfare.com/GetActive.htm
We will be adding more information to this page, but much you will need to get started is there.
Please let us know if you have questions, but PLEASE start on this today and send letters out before the end of August.
Margaret’s letter follows, and is also available on the website on the "Get Active" link above.
PS: Please don’t forget the upcoming September meeting. We will have details by the end of the week regarding the 9/10/05 meeting here in Delaplane. Have you saved the day?
Lillian, Don, and Glen
Virginia Voters For Animal Welfare
_____
Dear:
I am very concerned about the great number of homeless dogs and cats in Virginia. 61,000+ dogs and 63,000+ cats were killed at taxpayer expense in 2003 in Virginia. The vast majority of these were healthy, adoptable animals. In 2003, the Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA took in 2,262 dogs and 2,645 cats. Of those, 35% were euthanized because there was insufficient funding to take adequate care of these homeless animals. In 2004, 300 fewer cats were received while the number of intake dogs remained the same. 36% of these shelter dogs and cats were euthanized.
The Charlottesville area is one of the best places to live in America. We certainly haven’t addressed our overpopulation of homeless animals in a fashion that fits this distinction. Please change this by increasing the funding to spay and neuter dogs and cats in central Virginia and increasing the funding given to shelters that house these homeless animals so they can receive the care they need until they are adopted.
You can do this by:
- Increasing the cost of a dog license in Albemarle County from $5 to the state maximum of $10 for unaltered dogs as allowed by Virginia Code 3.1-796.87 while retaining the rate of $3 for altered dogs. This increase in the difference between altered and unaltered dogs will encourage people to spay/neuter their animals. Use those funds to defray the costs of local animal control, including efforts to promote sterilization of cats and dogs.
- Enforcing the Albemarle County Code Sections 4-300 and 4-312 and the code of Virginia 3.1-796.85 and 3.1-796.92 stating that every dog must be licensed and must wear their license tag, collecting the $100 maximum penalty allowed by Albemarle County Code Section 4-315 when a dog is found without its license tag, and using those funds to defray the costs of local animal control, including efforts to promote sterilization of cats and dogs.
- Enforcing the Albemarle County Code Section 4-305 and the code of Virginia 3.1-796.103 stating that payment of the license tax subsequent to the summons to appear before a court for failure to pay the license tax within the time required shall not operate to relieve the owner from the penalty, collecting the $100 maximum penalty allowed by Albemarle County Code Section 4-315, and using those funds to defray the costs of local animal control, including efforts to promote sterilization of cats and dogs.
- Increasing the penalty each time a dog is found to be unlicensed to the state maximum of $150 as allowed by Virginia Code 3.1-796.94.
- Requesting that your state legislators raise the state cap as allowed by Virginia Code 3.1-796.87 for unsterilized dogs from $10 to $35, using this new law to increase the cost of a dog license in Albemarle County to the new state maximum of $35 for unaltered dogs while retaining the rate of $3 for altered dogs, and using these funds to promote sterilization of dogs and cats. Increasing the difference between altered and unaltered dogs to $32 annually should strongly encourage owners of all unsterilized dogs to have their animals spayed or neutered.
You can do this by:
- Requiring that every person selling dogs/cats have a business license as required by Albemarle County Code Section 8-101 A1 and earmark those license fees to defray the costs of local animal control, including efforts to promote sterilization of cats and dogs;
- Passing a local ordinance requiring that every person selling dogs/cats have a dealer permit costing $50 per year and enforcing the penalty of a Class 3 misdemeanor or $500 penalty for violation as allowed by 3.1-796.84 of the code of Virginia. Use those funds to defray the costs of local animal control, including efforts to promote sterilization of cats and dogs.
You can do this by:
- Enforcing Section 4-207B of the Albemarle County Code and 33.1-796.73 of the code of Virginia which states that no animal – including hunting dogs - may simply be abandoned or dumped. This law is regularly broken after hunting season when large numbers of abandoned hounds are collected by animal control officers and fill Virginian shelters.
- Enforcing the penalty of a class 3 misdemeanor and $500 penalty as allowed by the code of Virginia 18.2-11 for violation of Albemarle County Code Section 4-207B and Virginia code 3.1-796.73.
You can do this by:
- Adding dog license fees to the annual personal property tax bills sent by the County of Albemarle. Use those funds to defray the costs of local animal control, including efforts to promote sterilization of cats and dogs.
Other states have made great headway in stabilizing their homeless dog and cat populations by making changes similar to the ones requested in this letter. Please help bring the pet population in central Virginia under control and make pet owners responsible. Enforce the laws already on the books, fill in the holes by passing new ordinances, collect the maximum penalties allowed, use all collected funds to defray the costs of local animal control including efforts to promote sterilization of cats and dogs, and ask the state legislation to raise the maximum penalties allowed.
Sincerely,