Support the Pet Safety and Protection Act! Once again it has been brought to my attention that there is legislation that needs our attention, and without us it will not pass. I beg all of you to follow these instructions and then send them to all of your contacts in your email list and ask them to do the same. We must stand together to offer protections to the animals that have no one. The information from the ASPCA.org is as follows:
S. 1834/H.R. 3907—Pet Safety and Protection Act: Sale of Dogs and Cats to Research Institutions
Sponsor(s): Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI); Rep. Michael Doyle (D-PA)
ASPCA Position: Support
Action Needed: Send a letter to your representative and senators urging them to support and cosponsor the Pet Safety and Protection Act, a bill to amend the Animal Welfare Act to ensure that all dogs and cats used by research facilities are obtained legally.
The U.S. Pet Safety and Protection Act (S. 1834/H.R. 3907) would provide a much-needed safety net to ensure that beloved family pets are not stolen or acquired under false pretenses for sale to research laboratories.
Recently reintroduced in Congress (notice the reintroduced, meaning it didn’t pass the first time it was introduced), the Pet Safety and Protection Act would prohibit Class B Dealers and unlicensed individuals from selling dogs and cats to research laboratories. Class B Dealers are people who make their livings by selling animals to the research industry. This is currently permitted under the Animal Welfare Act (passed in 1966), but these dealers are not held accountable for where they obtained their animals.
This is a problem, because dealers sometimes acquire animals through illegal or unethical means—such as by responding to “free to a good home” ads in newspapers, falsifying records to keep the true origins of the animals unknown, working with “bunchers” (people who collect animals from random sources to sell to Class B Dealers) and stealing pets kept outside in yards.
If the Pet Safety and Protection Act is passed, the Animal Welfare Act would be amended so that the only people who would be allowed to sell dogs and cats to research facilities would be:
1. Dealers who have bred and raised the animals.
2. Publicly owned pounds or shelters that obtained the animals from their legal owners.
3. A person donating a dog or cat whom they have bred and raised, or owned for at least one year.
(These categories of people are already allowed to sell to research. The Pet Safety and Protection Act would not change that or give them more rights than they currently have.)
People who obtained dogs and cats by any other means would not be permitted to sell those dogs and cats to research laboratories, thus ensuring that stolen pets do not end up in research facilities.
In addition to eliminating Class B Dealers, this bill would eliminate the incentive for bunchers to obtain dogs and cats through illegal or unethical means, as there would be no profit in doing so.
What You Can Do
Senator Akaka has been working on this measure for over 10 years—please show your support for his tireless efforts on behalf of our nation’s pets.
Use the email below to contact your U.S. representative and senators now and urge them to support and cosponsor S. 1834 and H.R. 3907. Because your legislators receive a lot of email, we request that you personalize your email message for greater impact. Thank you for your help!
Please Support and Cosponsor the Pet Safety and Protection Act, S. 1834/H.R. 3907
Dear [Legislator],
As a concerned constituent, I am writing to urge you to support and cosponsor the Pet Safety and Protection Act (PSPA), S. 1834/H.R. 3907. This important legislation would protect family pets by prohibiting the sale of dogs and cats to research institutions by Class B Dealers.
Class B Dealers, licensed under the federal Animal Welfare Act, collect dogs and cats from random sources and sell them to the research industry. Class B Dealers sometimes obtain their dogs through illegal or unethical means, such as responding to “free to good home” ads in the newspaper, falsifying records to keep the true origin of the animals unknown and stealing pets kept outside in yards.
Under the PSPA, the only people who would be allowed to sell dogs and cats to research facilities would be licensed dealers who have bred and raised the dog or cat, publicly owned pounds or shelters that obtained the animals from their legal owners, and persons donating a dog or cat that they have bred and raised or owned for at least 1 year. People who obtained dogs and cats by any other means would not be permitted to sell those dogs and cats to research laboratories, thus ensuring that stolen pets do not end up in research facilities. This bill would eliminate the incentive for dealers and “bunchers”–people who collect animals from random sources and sell them to Class B Dealers–to obtain dogs and cats through illegal or unethical means, as there would be no profit in doing so.
The PSPA would in no way impede research. There are many breeders who breed dogs specifically for the research industry and who will continue to fill the demand for such animals. The PSPA will, however, end the fraudulent practices of random-source dealers and the unnecessary suffering of animals in their care. Currently, over half of the Class B Dealers selling random source animals to research labs are under investigation by the USDA for allegedly failing to comply with the law. The PSPA would not only ensure that such dealers cease to operate, but would also guarantee that others do not emerge to take their place.
* Please personalize your message here
The Pet Safety and Protection Act would provide a much-needed safety net to ensure beloved pets are not stolen or acquired under false pretenses and sold to research laboratories. Therefore, I respectfully urge you to support and cosponsor S. 1834/H.R. 3907. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Address]
[City, State ZIP]
You can find a copy of the verbiage for this email on the ASPCA.org website, or you are welcome to copy it directly from here and make whatever changes you feel comfortable making to make it your own. Just take the time to do it today. How many times do you see an ad in the paper where someone has a dog stolen out of their yard, never to be seen again? It is a horrific end to think of a beloved family pet ending up in a laboratory, used for God knows what. I can’t imagine any of my animals ending up that way and I will do whatever it takes to make sure it never happens in my yard, and I hope you will join me in making sure it doesn’t happen in your yard either. You can never forget it is only through each of us that the Randolph County Humane Society continues to save lives, one by one.
In case you missed the Randolph County Humane Society Pictures with Santa event on Nov 1st at the Movie Gallery in Sparta we’ll have another event on Nov 15th at the AFSCME Union Hall in Chester from 1-4. You don’t even have to bring your pet to take part, and where else can you get a framed 4 X 6 family Christmas portrait for $8.
