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June 15, 2026

AB 2344 LOS ANGELES PRESS CONFERENCE

AB 1999 PASSES SENATE BUSINESS & PROFESSIONS COMMITTEE!

AB 1673 AMENDED TO ALLOW TEAR GASSING OF WOLVES!

Left: Judie Mancuso with L.A. Animal Services General Manager, Gabrielle Amster. Right: Judie Mancuso with Assemblymembers Matt Haney and Mark Gonzalez, and L.A. County Assistant District Attorney, Maria Ramirez.

Today at the Los Angeles North Central Animal Services Center, AB 2344 author Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez (D-Los Angeles), founder/president of Social Compassion in Legislation, Judie Mancuso, and LA County Assistant District Attorney, Maria Ramirez, spoke to media and live streamed a press conference regarding AB 2344. The day was covered by several news outlets, including this NBC Los Angeles and Los Angeles Magazine with more to come on this evenings news.

Below are Judie's comments from the press conference:

Good morning. My name is Judie Mancuso, and I am the Founder and President of Social Compassion in Legislation, proud co-sponsor of AB 2344 alongside the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Every year, animals are rescued from horrific situations involving neglect, abandonment, sexual abuse, starvation, dogfighting, hoarding, and other forms of cruelty.

These animals are victims. Yet under the current system, many of them are forced to remain in shelters for months or even years while criminal cases slowly make their way through the courts.

After enduring cruelty and neglect, these animals deserve the opportunity to heal in a loving home rather than spending months or years waiting for their future to be decided.

Today, shelters must continue to devote limited space and resources to caring for these animals. At a time when shelters across California are facing unprecedented overcrowding and resource challenges, this creates a burden and heartache not only for the animals involved in these cases, but for the entire animal welfare system.

AB 2344 provides a reasonable and compassionate solution.

This legislation recognizes a simple truth: animals are sentient, living, feeling beings—not pieces of property that should spend years sitting in a shelter while a case is pending, as if they were evidence in a filing cabinet.

Abused animals deserve the opportunity to begin healing and experience love, safety, and stability as soon as possible.

We are incredibly grateful to Assemblymember Matt Haney for authoring this bill and championing it through the Legislature, and to the members of the Assembly for unanimously supporting AB 2344.

We look forward to continuing to work with lawmakers to move this bill through the Senate and ultimately to the Governor’s desk for signature.

Thank you.

The bill will be heard in the Senate Public Safety Committee on June 23rd. As always, stay tuned for updates!

AB 1999 PASSES SENATE BUSINESS & PROFESSIONS COMMITTEE!

Click on the video above to watch the presentation of AB 1999 in the Senate Business and Professions Committee by Senator Tim Grayson in Assemblymember Kalra's absence.

Today, AB 1999, authored by Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San Jose), and cosponsored by Social Compassion in Legislation, the California Veterinary Medical Board, the California Veterinary Medical Association, and San Diego Humane Society passed the Senate Committee on Business, Professions, and Economic Development with a unanimous vote of 11 to 0.

The bill is a comprehensive piece of legislation to update California’s Veterinary Medicine Practice Act to expand access to care, and strengthen animal welfare protections across the state. Find the fact sheet here for more information.

The bill now heads to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

As always, stay tuned for updates!

CALL TO ACTION:



AB 1673 AMENDED TO ALLOW TEAR GAS ON WOLVES!

Late last week, AB 1673, authored by Assemblymember Heather Hadwick (R-Alturas), was amended to allow tear gas to be used to harass wolves.

AB 1673 moved through the first house (Assembly) as a benign piece of legislation that added wildlife coexistence programs to the list of programs which can receive funding from a county's wildlife propagation fund. However, at the beginning of the Senate process, Assemblymember Hadwick amended the bill by adding a "tear-gas bomb" to the bill.

A wide range of nonlethal tools already exists to deter wolves from livestock operations. These include range riders, fladry fencing, turbo fladry, livestock guardian animals, improved carcass management, night penning, human presence, alarm systems, strategic grazing practices, and other husbandry techniques. Wildlife experts, conservation organizations, and ranchers throughout the West have successfully employed these methods to reduce conflicts while avoiding harm to wildlife. California's own wolf coexistence programs emphasize these approaches as the preferred path forward.

Once we heard about this amendment, we did an extensive search to find jurisdictions that use tear gas as a wolf deterrent. We could not find one!

Tear gas is fundamentally different. It is designed to inflict acute sensory distress through irritation of the eyes, nose, lungs, and skin. While often discussed as a "nonlethal" tool, it is nonetheless an aversive chemical agent that can cause panic, disorientation, and unnecessary suffering. Its effects on wolf packs, pups, non-target wildlife, domestic animals, and surrounding ecosystems have not been studied. Moreover, there is no evidence or documentation that repeated exposure provides a long-term solution to wolf-livestock conflicts compared with established preventive measures.

PLEASE CALL THE CHAIR AND VICE CHAIR OF THE COMMITTEE AND TELL THEM:

"AS THE CHAIR (OR VICE CHAIR), THE SENATOR IS REPRESENTING ALL CALIFORNIANS ON THIS ISSUE AND I'M CALLING TO URGE THE SENATOR TO VOTE NO ON AB 1673 BECAUSE CALIFORNIA SHOULD NEVER ALLOW TEAR GASSING OUR WILDLIFE!"

Senate Natural Resources and Water Chair & Vice Chair:

Chair Sen. Josh Becker: 916-651-4013

Vice Chair Sen. Kelly Seyarto: 916-651-4032

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With tons of gratitude, Judie

Judie Mancuso, founder/CEO/president

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