12/9/07
VVAW met at 11:10 am on Sunday, 12/9/07, at Angels of Assisi in Roanoke, VA.
In attendance: * denotes member of Virginia Voters for Animal Welfare Board of Directors
*Lillian Clancy
*Peyton Coyner
Kelly Farrell, DVM
*Don Marro
*Mollie McCurdy
Lisa O’Neill
Lorelei Pulliam
*Pat Weakland
Don Marro brought the meeting to order.
1. Don Marro started by discussing the results of VVAW work, saying that because of VVAW, because of legislators who over the years have believed in and patroned the VVAW bills, and because of local citizens who pushed and advocated for change, change is finally starting to come.
2. Don pointed to four bills already filed to outlaw gas chambers for the upcoming session, bills patroned by Del. Jim Scott for the fourth year on behalf of VVAW, by Del. Clay Athey on behalf of VVAW for the second year, by Senator-elect Jill Vogel (who ran against and defeated Don in the last election) on behalf of VVAW, and by Del. Bobby Orrock, who consistently opposed leg-islation to eliminate gas chambers (and consistently opposed other pro-animal legislation) who now seemingly has seen the light and filed a bill himself to ban gas chambers.
3. Don continued that there are likely to be three puppymill bills in the upcoming session. One is a re-introduction of our “releasing agencies” bill (HB1853 in the 2007 session), again patroned by Del. Rob Wittman. Del. Eisenberg also is planning to patron a puppymill bill, and another is apparently being patroned by Del. Bobby Orrock. The language of the Eisenberg and Orrock bills has not yet been seen.
4. Don feels VVAW is having an impact. Citizens are more actively talking to and pushing on their legislators, and are more comfortable with telling their legislators to support pro-animal bills. And legislators continue to patron VVAW bills.
5. However, there are still obstacles. Don recounted the dialogue between Sen. Creigh Deeds and his constituent, Peyton Coyner, who is on the Board of VVAW. Peyton requested a meeting with his Senator, Sen. Deeds, to discuss bills he wanted Sen. Deeds to support. Sen. Deeds told Peyton that if any of the bills were from VVAW, or if Don Marro supported any of the bills, he would not support them, he would not meet with Peyton, and he would not meet with Don.
His reason? In the recent election to replace the retiring Sen. Russ Potts, Jill Vogel ran as a Re-publican, Karen Schultz ran as the Democrat candidate, and Don ran as an independent. Sen. Deeds feels that because Don ran, he drew enough votes from the Democrat, Karen Schultz, that caused her loss to Republican, Jill Vogel. Of course, it is impossible for this to be substantiated. but in so doing, Sen. Deeds will punish VVAW, Don, and most importantly, the animals who would benefit passage of pro-animal bills.
This is the same senator who met with several VVAW people last year and said he would rather eat glass than patron a pro-animal bill. This is also the senator who has his eye on being Gover-nor, and the same Senator who successfully promoted a constitutional amendment to allow peo-ple to hunt on Sundays in Virginia.
It is Don’s right – and everyone’s - to run for public office without retribution by others.
It is also not clear what impact if any Sen. Deeds’s words have had on other members of the General Assembly. However, formerly solid supporters (senators Whipple, Ticer and Houck) have been decidedly less responsive this time round.
6. A brief discussion took place of the bills VVAW hopes to have patroned and introduced come January.
Of special note was the request to Kelly Farrell to get her fellow veterinarians to support the bill giving vets a tax credit for providing pro-bono work to public pounds and c3 organizations. Having more vet services provided will save pounds and shelters money, make dogs and cats more attractive and adoptable, and result in a public policy benefit of reducing the number of days an animal spends in custody before being adopted.
7. A discussion of targeted spay/neuter programs took place with Kelly Farrell referring to sta-tistical work done by Fire Paw.
8. Lorelei Pulliam spoke of her pot-belly pigs, specifically of the large numbers of them need-ing help, and the great expense of having them sterilized, saying such surgeries typically cost $300. She has no organization helping her pay for this, and noted that these animals are sold as pets with owners frequently having no idea of the ultimate size of the animal. Describing them as “unprotected”, she would like pot-belly pigs to be classified as companion animals. Hers is the largest pot-belly pig group in the Virginia; she has 84 of them.
Kelly noted she has an attorney colleague who may be able to help.
Lorelei has filed a complaint with the USDA regarding the inappropriate classification of pot-belly pigs as exotics.
Kelly suggested asking the Attorney General to look at the issue of exotics vs. companion ani-mals. Lorelei noted that exotics are “very protected by the USDA” if they are not indigenous.
Pat Weakland wondered about including pot-belly pigs as animals to be sterilized in considering the “releasing agencies” bill.
Don suggested the USDA must be pushed to do a better job, (a task for another day, unfortu-nately.) take out the words in the parentheses – and commended Lorelei for her willingness to take on the USDA.
Lorelei noted that horses, ferrets, and rabbits are other animals needing similar help.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:45 pm.