TX-RPOA E-News
From Responsible Pet Owners Alliance,
the reasonable voice regarding animal issues in Texas.
Responsible Pet Owners Alliance is an animal welfare organization,
not "animal rights" and, yes, there is a difference.
Permission granted to crosspost.

July 14, 2007
For those of you who think Best Friends Animal Society is NOT an "animal
rights" organization, read below. California's AB 1634 for spay/neuter of
all dogs and cats at 6 months of age is not dead and has been made a 2 year
bill. Rest assured, it's only resting and will rise again January 2008 in
the same committee.

This is not about saving animals, it's a national legislative "animal
rights" agenda to stop ALL breeding of pets. That should be crystal clear
to everyone by now. This is not a matter of "commercial" breeders as stated
below. The legislation is addressing all dog and cat owners. No Breeding =
No Pets.
No more mutts or purebreds.
The only people promoting this legislation are "animal rights" activists.

*************************************

http://network.bestfriends.org/california/news/16866.html
(Read comments on the web site.)
Forward from: Best Friends Animal Society,
Located on 33,000 acres in Kanab, Utah:

Best Friends Supports Move to Improve California Spay-Neuter Bill, Pledges
to Work with Groups to Create Statewide Subsidy Program

Contact for more information:
John Polis 435-644-2001 ext. 4858 (office) or 435-689-0265 (cell),
johnp@bestfriends.org
Julie Castle (435) 644-2001 ext. 4578, julie@bestfriends.org

For Release: July 16, 2007

Best Friends Animal Society today praised the efforts of Assemblyman Lloyd
Levine in bringing the subject of mandatory spay/neuter for dogs and cats to
the forefront of California state government, after Levine decided to
withdraw the bill earlier this week.

"We applaud Assemblyman Levine for having the vision to introduce such
groundbreaking legislation, as well as his leadership in withdrawing the
bill once he realized it had been rendered useless by intense lobbying from
commercial breeders," said Paul Berry, executive director of Best Friends
Animal Society.

Berry criticized comments by the AKC President Dennis Sprung, who described
the bill's withdrawal as an affirmation of "the fundamental rights and
liberties" of breeders.

"The fact that the American Kennel Club is more concerned about the welfare
of commercial animal breeders than the welfare of dogs is telling evidence
of the true AKC agenda." Berry said.

The original bill mandated that all dogs and cats be spayed or neutered -
given a few exceptions. The problem, Berry explained, was that the list of
exceptions kept growing and growing as different lobbies, especially the
commercial breeders, got in on the act and saw their profits being
threatened.

"Best Friends' primary concern, though, was the fact that low-income
families in many areas of California don't have sufficient access to
affordable spay/neuter services," Berry added. "And there was no clarity in
the bill on what would happen to pets if families couldn't afford the
spay/neuter cost."

Several news sources have reported that Levine will work on a new version of
the bill and reintroduce it in January.

"Best Friends will continue to work with Assemblyman Levine and the other
bill sponsors to address the issue of affordable, accessible spay/neuter for
low-income family pets," said Berry. "And if we can get the bill right on
this key issue, we pledge to work with our members in California, and with
local humane groups across the state, to create the first-ever, statewide
spay/neuter subsidy program in California. We feel such a subsidy program is
critical if this bill is to have any meaningful success for the animals it
seeks to protect."