Public Registries for Animal Abusers

The Animal Rescue Site is imploring citizens to sign an online petition to urge the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to create a national animal abuser registry to keep our animals and neighborhood safe.

"Convicted child abusers are automatically entered into a national public registry to inform people of their whereabouts and to ensure children's safety," a press release states. "Animal abusers should be held to no lower standards, and should be required to enter an animal abuse registry in order to protect the lives of animals living in close vicinity."

The letter that you may sign going to the head of the USDA, Thomas Vilsack, states that a registry of this nature is necessary, given the close correlation between animal abuse and child abuse.

The signature goal is 30,000.

To sign the letter, access http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/campaign.faces?siteId=3&campaign=AnimalAbuseRegistry online.

In unrelated pet news, co-sponsors are needed in Massachusetts for new legislation to protect aimals. Legislators have until Feb. 4 to co-sponsor these bills, according to mspca.org.

SD 1471 would include animals in abuse prevention orders following similar laws in Vermont, Maine, and others.

Establishing a Cat and Dog Spay/Neuter Fund (SD 1133), this bill would create a voluntary tax check-off fund to assist low-income people with sterilizing and vaccinating dogs and cats and also to educate the people about the importance of spaying and neutering.

SD 1729 would update the animal control laws. The current ones leave animals unprotected, according to staff.

Enhancing the Management of Problem Wildlife (SD 269) is a bill that would require that people who are granted permits to remedy wildlife conflicts reports the outcome to MassWildlife so they can track the number of animals taken by trappers, statewide populations, complaints about species, locations of complaints, and the methods chosen to remedy them.

To take action on these bills, see https://secure2.convio.net/mspca/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=347.

Calls are even more effective than emails, so call your legislators, too about co-sponsorship:

Wendy Davis - 512-463-0110

Mark Shelton - 512-463-0608