There are organizations writing legislation in many states to severely limit or hinder animal ownership. *You* will be affected by this legislation in spite of the catchy “anti-puppy mill” titles of the laws. The primary organization behind the laws is the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). HSUS is neither a humane society nor is it affiliated with a government entity. The second strongest instigator of anti-animal ownership legislation is People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA), which is an ethically-challenged organization that supports militant animal rights practices and owns an animal euthanasia warehouse in Virginia that it calls a “shelter” where it has killed more than 20,000 adoptable dogs and cats in the past ten years. PeTA is compensated by the state of Virginia for its service of killing adoptable animals.

Legislation is currently being proposed to impede animal ownership in 34 states of the United States, with more states planned for future legislation. Although, much of this legislation is targeted toward “puppy mills,” “animal hoarders,” and “pet overpopulation,” the ultimate goal is to strip animal owners of their rights to own animals.

Some “puppy mill” prevention laws, such as California’s AB 241, propose to address an issue of unhealthy breeding practices, but the laws do nothing to address the issues they claim. There are ample laws to address animal breeding and animal care, but laws like AB 241 make a crime out of owning animals. Humane animal ownership has never been discussed as criminal behavior, yet the primary proponent of these laws, HSUS is attempting to make a crime out of animal ownership.

The President of HSUS, Wayne Pacelle, in a July 2008 interview, commented that his mission is “really about human behavior and less about the animals. Animals for the most part just need to be left alone.” The behavior that he abhors is animal ownership because he would rather see animals “left alone,” as in, not owned. AB 241 currently sets the limit of animals a person can own at 50, but amendments to laws, such as a reduction in the number of animals owned, are easy to legislate since those changes have fewer requirements. Limits on animal ownership in some states are as low as 10. If the problem, as cited by HSUS, is “pet overpopulation,” then it would make more sense to increase the number of owned animals so that there are fewer strays. Logic fails where money is concerned for the multi-million dollar conglomerate of profit and non-profit corporations that is HSUS.

One of the most bizarre inceptions of a “pet overpopulation” law proposed by PeTA is SB 250. This law would require mandatory sterilization of good quality animals and would require “custodians” of animals, like animal trainers, Cesar Millan, for example, or pet sitters for people deployed in the military, to sterilize the animals they care that are owned by other people.

Both HSUS and PeTA harp on a notion of “pet overpopulation.” By their own accounts, the animals euthanized in shelters amount to only 2-4% of the overall pet population and include animals that are very sick, very old, or with temperaments not suitable for society. Although, many of us would like to see a world where 100% of dogs and cats have a home, the fact remains, that some animals are not suitable and a 96-98% success rate is excellent.

Without mandatory spay and neuter laws and without mandatory pet limits, according to the HSUS, Americans have reduced the unwanted pet population from 30% to less than 4%. These laws if enacted, would likely raise the euthanasia rates in shelters from pets that owners cannot afford to spay or neuter and from pets in excess of what the law would allow.

Learn about the anti-animal laws that affect you and contact your state legislators to let them know that you do not support these laws.

http://noanimalsleft.org/