6/22/08

VVAW met at 11:25 am on Sunday, 6/22/08, at the office of William E. Wood Associ-ates, Realtors, Port Warwick Office, in Newport News, VA.

In attendance: * denotes member of Virginia Voters for Animal Welfare Board of Direc-tors

Del. Kenny Alexander
*Lillian Clancy
Jerry Coalgate
Cindy Confer
Sara Eser
Susan Greene
Janelle Gregory
Bobbi Gribble
Debra Griggs
Debbie Kidd
*Don Marro
Erica Mascarello
Beth McCrary
Ellen Miles
Debra Olech
Linda Owen
Shawne Owen
Stephanie Scott
Kathy Strouse
Betty Weakland
*Pat Weakland

The meeting was called to order by Debra Griggs who served as facilitator. Each person introduced themselves.

Debra spoke as a representative of the Virginia Federation of Humane Societies (VFHS) and discussed the VFHS goal of making Virginia a no kill state by 2011. This goal was announced three years ago, and the group has become active in meeting that goal. She also explained that VFHS is open to all organizations who serve animals, including smaller rescue groups.

Don Marro spoke as the representative of VAW/VVAW about why all were in atten-dance, and that 2008 was a watershed year for animal legislation.

Bobbie Gribble described Animal Rescue Tidewater which she heads, and Shawne Owen described the Animal Welfare Coalition of Hampton Roads.

Debra introduced Delegate Kenneth (Kenny) Alexander who is her delegate in the Gen-eral Assembly and the patron of HB 673, the “water bill”, in the 2008 session. Del. Alexander has patroned bills for Debra for three years. Debra recounted a discussion she had with Del. Alexander during the 2008 session regarding a bill he was patroning which was anticipated to have a very difficult time getting anywhere. Debra suggested he might withdraw the bill to avoid being “hammered” by the process. Del. Alexander responded with “I don’t represent them – I represent you” and so he continued to advocate for his constituent even if it was a lonely fight.

Del. Alexander mentioned some bills he would like to see introduced. With the number of foreclosures increasing, the number of animals being abandoned and left behind is growing as well. If this is determined to be a problem, and he recalled the problem with abandoned animals he saw in New Orleans, he feels it must be addressed. Second, he wants to have humane education taught in the schools, noting that he did not grow up with pets and feels there are many like him. The way to train children to behave hu-manely is to have humane education be part of the public school curriculum.

He reminded us that Virginia is a very traditional state and change is slow. Even so, he advises sending the same bill in again and again if that is what it takes. Such bills can serve as a way to change the mind-set of the legislators. He said legislators do not need to carry your bill, but they do need to represent their constituents.

Last, he said he wants animal rescue and planning for the animals to be part of public pol-icy in the event of an emergency. Each group involved in an emergency plan must un-derstand how they are involved and what they are to do, and he is not sure that this is part of the plan currently under development by Gov. Kaine. He wants planning for animals to be “part of the agenda” and public policy.

In closing, Del. Alexander was given a certificate of thanks from Animal Rescue of Tidewater to commemorate his work for the animals.

Kathy Strouse presented by video the 2008 animal bills. Each bill that passed was briefly described. Included were HB5, 207, 537, 538, 655, 656, 673, 999, and 1331, and SB26, 592, and 663. The presentation ended with Kathy saying in 2009 VACA will advocate for more ACO training and to extend protective orders to pets in domestic violence situa-tions.

Bills which passed

House bills
HB 5 eliminate use of gas chambers
HB 207 limits pound inspections to areas where animals are housed
HB 537 allows county treasurers to destroy receipts regarding rabies vacci-nations after registering the information
HB 538 defines commercial breeders and allows for inspections by ACOs
HB 655 allows Judges discretion to determine whether or not a dog is dan-gerous
HB 656 animal fighting bill
HB 999 requires an alleged abuser to post bond for housing and care of im-pounded animal while case is pending in court.
HB 1331 recodify all animal law

Senate Bills
SB 26 makes dog fighting a RICO offense (i.e., steep penalties)
SB 532 animal fighting
SB 663 allows increase of fees for habitual offenders

Michelle Welch’s video overview of animal fighting aired next. She described the ani-mal fighting bills as model laws with increased scope and increased penalties. She advo-cated reporting suspected animal fighting to the Animal Fighting Task force, and report-ing animal cruelty to ACOs.

Don’s presentation on HB5, the gas chamber bill, aired next. Using gas chambers to euthanize is now illegal.

This was followed by Don’s taped presentation of SB26, the RICO bill. This bill now adds dogfighting to Virginia’s Racketeering Influenced & Corrupt Organization (RICO) statutes ($1.0 million fine, 5 to 40 years incarceration).

Lillian Clancy, Don and Debra all encouraged asking local Commonwealth Attorneys about dogfighting in their jurisdiction – is there dogfighting, is it being prosecuted - and to make sure Commonwealth Attorneys understand the impact the RICO bill has for dog-fighting prosecution.

Debra next described the water bill, HB673, as a “by request” bill and what that means; a citizen seeing a need and the willingness of her delegate allowed the water bill to take life.

Next Kathy Strouse spoke about the puppymill bill, HB538, saying it was “amazing” to see which groups came to the table to ensure the bill was successfully passed. She de-scribed it as a “landmark” bill for the US.

Susan Greene asked why so many back yard breeders still breed, and Jerry Coalgate asked if there are changes in the conditions in which dogs are kept, asking particularly about the size of their enclosures, wondering if they have adequate space.

Susanne Kogut presented by video the bond bill (HB 999). Because of limited resources and space and dogs held pending legal proceedings, this bill was pursued. It allows lo-calities to ask for a bond in such cases, or, alternatively, transferring the animals to the pound for potential adoption.

The meeting then moved to topics which are anticipated to be focal points for 2009 legis-lation. The process will work by building statewide issue-based groups from each meet-ing. For instance, Debra will head the tethering group for the state, and there are already three people signed up to work on it from the Culpeper meeting two weeks ago. The group will grow as people from Tidewater add their names to work on tethering.

The topics from the Culpeper meeting, carried over to this Tidewater meeting, are:
1. tethering

2. humane investigator

3. s/n generally and s/n prior to adoption

4. license fee cap

5. TNR

6. retail sales

7. hunting dog identification

8. breeder regulation

9. humane education

A tenth issue was brought up regarding abandoned animals, addressing the topic Del. Alexander had mentioned. It was decided this could be combined with #7 above, and so this topic was not added separately to the list.

Susan Greene wants more spay/neuter and isn’t sure how to get it. Don suggested getting a tax credit for vets who help, and this became topic #10.

Jerry Coalgate mentioned an effort to keep cats inside, and then decided it might become part of humane ed, so didn’t need to be a new topic.

Jerry then asked about a problem cat breeders may be, and Debra Olech said even ham-sters are a problem. Susan added that cats are a huge problem, but a problem that is largely unseen since cats are largely nocturnal. Debra noted that Susanne Kogut at the Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA has said that to achieve their 90% save rate, they must focus heavily on cats and pits.

Having gathered all additional topics of interest, Debra then asked attendees to find the issue sheet with the topic they wish to focus on and sign up for it.

As the meeting closed, Gary Brittingham and Stephanie Scott were thanked for their work on the video presentations and getting the meeting site, and Pat Weakland was thanked for his purchase of video equipment and getting the supplies and equipment set up for all the meetings, and to Bobbi Gribble for the goodies she brought to the meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:10 pm.