9/28/06
There is some good news, and there is some bad news.
The good news is that Diana Puckett, Chair of the Wythe-Bland Animal Welfare League, has decided single-handedly to oppose the use of gas chambers as a way to "euthanize" excess pets in her Wythe County. She bought ad space in the Wythe newspaper for a very compelling ad, and she is having the ad also run in the papers for Bland and Smyth counties.
Diana’s ad is can be found by clicking on the link below. She welcomes plagiarism.
Please, letters to the editor in support of Diana and in opposition to Wythe County’s use of the gas chamber would go to the Wytheville Enterprise paper at: sportern@wythenews.com
There is some bad news.
ROANOKE
There were 27 who came to the Roanoke meeting on 9/10, and 7 of the 8 members of the VVAW Board came in addition. There were an additional 7 people who said they would be at the meeting, but then didn’t show up.
The 34 in attendance in Roanoke had a spirited meeting, and were asked to contact their own delegate and/or senator, asking each to patron a bill (the simplest request was to ask to co-patron the gas chamber elimination bill), and asking for a meeting to promote the VVAW legislative agenda. With the exception of the meeting already held with Pat Weakland and his delegate Robb Wittman and other efforts by members of the VVAW Board of Directors, as of this writing, we have not heard of any meeting that has been requested, let alone scheduled, and not a single legislator has been asked to patron a VVAW bill, let alone agreed to be a co-patron of the gas chamber bill.
CHARLOTTESVILLE
A grand total of 9 came to the Charlottesville meeting on 9/24, and 7 members of the VVAW Board (plus Betty Weakland) came in addition. There were an additional 9 who said they would be at the meeting but then didn’t show up.
We invited Bob Kane, Bob Murray and Walt Hutchens to attend but they neither responded nor came. That was no big surprise. What was a surprise was how many others didn’t come.
The excuses are varied, and include:
already made plans for that date
Sunday is for my family
have a potential adoption
children have a soccer game
computer has a problem
can’t get anyone to cover me at work
can’t leave my mother/father/grandparent/other relative
will be out of town
didn’t find out about the meeting till yesterday
This is not intended to be critical of those who are unable physically to attend meetings. It is directed at those who can come and don’t and find excuses why, and even more directed at those who say they are coming but don’t show up. What does it take to motivate you? Apparently not gas chambers, not the abandoning, not wholesale euthanasia – then what? Do you think this is going to go away by doing whatever you do instead of participating, by local action, or how? Ladies and gentlemen, there isn’t enough local action, it isn’t happening fast enough, and in some places it isn’t happening at all.
If you aren’t helping change things statewide, that means:
you condone the status quo and allow others to establish the legal, moral and financial frameworks within which we all must live
it is OK to kill so many companion animals each and every year
gas chambers will continue to operate
breeders, abusers, abandoners win, and your passivity, indifference and silence allows them to do so
animal cruelty and dog fighting will not be rigorously investigated or prosecuted
inspections of public pounds will be all but meaningless in all the bad places
re-instating humane investigators, a program that provides help for animals needing human intervention, will not happen
As one of our devoted and articulate VVAW Board members, Kim Kincheloe, puts it, no change means that we will watch as others around us
breed a lot, adopt a few, kill the rest
Even without you, we will continue. We believe we can make a difference, and we will try. It is better with more involved, but we will continue.
Outlawing gas chambers is the #1 priority with 10 additional pieces of proposed legislation for 2007. Click here for our 2007 initiatives.
What are you going to do?
This is not a spectator sport, and you don’t stop the bad things that will happen every day for the foreseeable future in Virginia with baby steps, by isolated local action, or by reading about what others are trying to do.
Tell me again your excuse.
Lillian Clancy and Don Marro