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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: United Poultry Concerns
Date: Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 11:59 AM
Subject: [UPC] Virginia Residents: Tell Governor NO to Proposed Farm Animal
Cruelty Exemptions!
To: adoptkings@gmail.com
[image: United Poultry Concerns]
*16 February 2011*
Virginia Residents: Tell Governor NO to Proposed Farm Animal Cruelty
Exemptions!
VA SB 1026 and HB 1541 Seek to Legalize Total Cruelty to Farm Animals.
Don’t Let This Happen!
Two bills are being quietly pushed through the Virginia General Assembly
that if signed into law by VA Governor Robert F. McDonnell will effectively
relieve farm animal owners (farmers and corporations) of all humane care
obligations. It will be legal for owners to deprive their animals of food
and water right up the point of “emaciation” and “dehydration.” Farm animal
owners will be exempt from providing shelter for their animals in bad
weather (“an act of God”) and will be legally permitted to hurt and neglect
farm animals so long as the abuse is a “customary” farming practice or
claimed to be.
At this writing, SB 1026 and HB 1541 have been approved by committees in
both chambers and are now in subcommittees. There is still time – limited
time – to stop these bills from enactment into law in the Commonwealth of
Virginia. Please act now!
*What Should I Do?*
If you are a Virginia resident, please contact your state legislators and
Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell and urge them NOT to give final
approval to this legislation. Even if these bills are approved by the VA
General Assembly, the proposed legislation must be signed by Governor
McDonnell to become law. He can choose to veto the legislation Urge him to
veto the legislation if it comes to his desk.
Contact Governor McDonnell through his website at:
http://www.governor.virginia.gov/AboutTheGovernor/contactGovernor.cfm.
To learn who your VA state legislators are and how to contact them, please
click on http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform and follow the
simple instructions.
For legislative history and updates on these bills, click on Bills &
Resolutions at http://lis.virginia.gov/
If you have time, please contact your local news media in Virginia
explaining why this law exempting farm animals from protection should not be
enacted. Ask them to cover the issue. When contacting lawmakers and media,
be sure to use your own words, and briefly and politely make your points.
Always request a reply. Thank you for speaking up for millions of farm
animals in Virginia.
*United Poultry Concerns’ Letter to VA Governor Robert F. McDonnell:*
February 16, 2011
Robert F. McDonnell
Governor of Virginia
Patrick Henry Building, 3rd Floor
Richmond, VA 23219
Dear Governor McDonnell:
I am writing to urge you please to veto Virginia Senate Bill 1026 and House
Bill 1541 if and when these bills come to your desk in the form of proposed
legislation for your signature. The proposed law seeks to reduce the level
of care for Virginia’s farm animals to a level that would permit extreme
cruelty without penalty to the owners of these animals.
SB 1026 and HB 1541 seek to amend the Code of Virginia relating to the care
of agricultural animals by reducing current requirements to provide adequate
food and water, to a provision that owners need only provide their animals
with food and water sufficient “to prevent emaciation” and “to prevent
dehydration.”
The proposed law seeks to weaken penalties from a Class 1 misdemeanor to a
Class 4 penalty with a token $250 fine. Even this nominal penalty would be
waived to allow an owner to withhold food, water and shelter from farm
animals if such denials of basic sustenance and care were deemed
“customarily withheld, restricted, or apportioned pursuant to a farming
activity.” There is no definition or guidance here as to what might be
“customary” and nothing to protect farm animals from hunger and thirst to
the point of prolonged, pathological suffering resulting from legalized
neglect and mistreatment. Please do not let this happen.
The proposed law amounts to total legal and moral abandonment of farm
animals in the Commonwealth of Virginia. If SB 1026 and HB 1541 become law,
there will be no standards of accountability whatsoever for owners of farm
animals. It will be legal for them to starve their animals to the point of
“emaciation” and to deprive them of water to the point of “dehydration.”
Owners will have no responsibility to provide shelter for their animals.
This is unacceptable.
Please do not sign this proposed legislation into law. It is being pushed
through the Virginia legislature without being adequately addressed. Please
do not authorize a law that would strip farm animals of all protections
against cruelty and allow their owners to mistreat them with impunity. Thank
you for your attention. I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Karen Davis, President
United Poultry Concerns
------------------------------
*Note*: On February 6, 2011, Virginia resident Marianne Roberts published a
letter in *The Daily* *Progress*, “Bill weakens animal cruelty law,” and on
February 7 *The Daily Progress* published an editorial, “Bill starves
protections for animals.” These informative opinion pieces can be read
at http://www2.dailyprogress.com/news/2011/feb/07/bill-starves-protections-anim...
and
http://www2.dailyprogress.com/news/2011/feb/06/bill-weakens-animal-cruelty-l....
*United Poultry Concerns is a nonprofit organization that promotes the
compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl.
Don't just switch from beef to chicken. Go Vegan.*
www.UPC-online.org
http://www.upc-online.org/donate.htm
Order Today: Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs: An Inside Look at the Modern
Poultry Industry (2009 Revised
Edition)http://www.upc-online.org/merchandise/book.html
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Elizabeth
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