September 1, 2023

SOME GREAT NEWS AND SOME AWFUL NEWS!



AB 829 & ACR 86 Both Successfully Pass Senate Appropriations Committee and Now Need Your Help!

AB 332 Killed by Department of Public Health!

The Senate Appropriations Committee successfully passed AB 829 (Waldron), the Animal Cruelty & Violence Intervention Act, out of the committee (off suspense file) with a unanimous vote of 7-0. The Committee also waived a hearing (Rule 28.8) on ACR 86 (Kalra), the Pet Crisis Response Act.

This means that both bills will be voted on by the full Senate sometime in the next two weeks.

Please Call YOUR Senator and

Ask Them To:

"Vote YES on AB 829 and ACR 86!"

FIND YOUR SENATOR HERE

Also, a quick note to celebrate several other animal related bills that passed the Appropriations Committee:

AB 363 (Bauer-Kahan): a bill related to pesticides.

AB 1215 (Carrillo): a bill related to pets and homeless shelters.

AB 1322 (Friedman): a bill related to rodenticides.

AB 1399 (Friedman): a bill related to veterinary telehealth.

AB 1573 (Friedman): a bill related to native plants.

AB 57 (Kalra): a bill related to pocket forests.

AB 357 (Maienschein): a bill related to animal testing.

AB 781 (Maienschein): a bill related to animals and emergency evacuation plans.

And now the really bad news...

AB 332 (Lee), the Animal Shelter Data Collection Act, was held by the Senate Appropriations Committee because the Department of Public Health (CDPH) did not want it to move forward. In other words, CDPH killed the bill.

As we have mentioned throughout the legislative year, CDPH collected and published all of the categories of data required by AB 332 from 1995 to 2016. This data was used by various stakeholders, including the shelters themselves, to better understand the scope of the dog and cat overpopulation problem. Having data that showed where adoptions were going up or where euthanasia was going up was imperative to understanding where successful shelter policies were working and where they weren't. In addition to help crafting policy, many philanthropic organizations used this data to direct their funding and resources to the areas with the greatest need.

We are extremely disappointed. We have begun evaluating what our next steps will be in order to make sure this data is available to the public. Thank you all for your help throughout the process.

In case you missed the live video of our

ACR 86 press conference on the SCIL Facebook page, click on press conference photo below. And click on the video below for the ACR 86 hearing.

We need your voices and financial support. Please, if you care about what we do and want to help us to keep working for the voiceless, donate today.

Thank you so much,

Judie Mancuso, founder/CEO/president

Social Compassion in Legislation