A blog by spcaLA president, Madeline Bernstein

Jun 24, 2022

Dog and cat bill of rights is nothing of the sort

Why are animal welfare groups, including California Animal Welfare Association (the California 

A famous shelter supporter/adopter
membership entity that represents both private and public shelters) opposed to California Assembly Bill 1881, (AB 1881) the so called dog and cat bill of rights? 

Because this bill is hypocritical and nothing of the sort. Besides being an insult to California’s animal shelters, rescues, and adopters. It’s an ignorant and disgruntled statement by our legislature that shelters and rescues are doing a poor job educating adopters and that our adopters are ill-prepared and have bad intentions. 

Here's the issue. 

Those of us in the animal welfare field want all animals to enjoy a respectful, humane and good quality of life. This bill only cares about dogs and cats. 

Shelters send the fewest animals into the public square for adoption. Breeders, pet stores, veterinary offices, private sellers, puppy mills and so on are not included in the bill. In fact, it is punitive, via fine, against shelters and rescue groups only. 

Are those dogs and cats not worthy of inclusion?

Shelter and rescue professionals have been and are committed to the sheltering, care, reunification, and adoption of animals that come to us for care. spcaLA has been caring for animals since 1877! In fact, the number of animals coming into shelters has dramatically decreased nationally because of our collective educational programs, adoption counseling and aid to adopters.

As stated in California Animal Welfare Association's an opposition letter, "this bill is designed to be punitive and specifically targets shelters and there is really no justification in doing so. This bill does not solve a problem. The sponsor of this bill thinks that “bad” people are adopting animals from shelters, behaving irresponsibly, and then returning them. There is no data to support this". The document goes on to say that "the sponsors of this bill allege that our sheltering professionals are not properly counseling or communicating with adopters about the expectations to provide quality care. As a result, the state must step in and provide us with a notice to post in our facilities".  Again, not true and insulting.

Even if the sponsor's assertions are true, which they are not, does any rational person think that posting a flyer to a wall solves the problem, and that punishing the shelter as opposed to those that actually don't care for their pets properly accomplishes anything?

If you ask me, I think this ridiculous bill, if passed, would signal that all the other animals in the shelter, (horses, rabbits, pigs, birds, pocket pets, etc., who need extra special adoption counseling would require none at all. 

Silly - No?



1 comment:

  1. Thank you for speaking out against this ludicrous legislation. This is an insult to shelters, rescues, and adopters and a waste of legislative resources. I hope our lawmakers aren't duped by this.

    ReplyDelete