Animal advocates from around the state are calling for all hands on deck to reach out to their elected officials to oppose a piece of legislation they have called a “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing”. Below are several of the calls to action regarding Senate Bill 183.
The bill was filed by Senator David Sessions.
The Greater Birmingham Humane Society has posted numerous posts and videos on their FaceBook page opposing the legislation. Their original post reads:
🚨ACT NOW AND MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD! CALL YOU COUNTY’S SENATOR NOW! Read and share on how Senate Bill 183 is a WOLF in sheep’s clothing. 🚨
There has been a significant development in the Alabama legislature relating to puppy mills and retailers that sell puppies. This past Tuesday, Senate Bill 183 was introduced and unanimously passed out of committee Wednesday. Senate Bill 183 is fast-tracking its way through the Alabama Legislature, and our staff and our partners are deeply concerned about it.Â
If this bill passes, it could permanently STOP our ability to get protection for puppies and their parents in puppy mills. We have been unable to get lawmakers to pass meaningful legislation, so we have started approaching municipalities and asking THEM to pass ordinances that prohibit puppy mill breeding. We have also asked them to pass ordinances that would appropriately and properly license, tax, inspect and regulate certain breeders.
If SB 183 passes, the local regulation of pet stores will become null and void and existing ordinances are no longer enforceable. In the last two years, similar bills have been rejected in every state they have been attempted including Georgia, Florida, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Tennessee, and Michigan.Â
SB 183 was drafted by lobbyists to appear to be an animal welfare bill regulating puppy-selling pet stores. But read the bill. It has a fatal flaw. It protects puppy mills by securing their pet store supply chain because provisions allow pet stores to source from both unregulated, unlicensed breeders that operate with zero oversight and USDA-licensed breeders without certain violations under the Animal Welfare Act. The problem with that model is that ABOUT TWO YEARS AGO, THE USDA STOPPED MAKING VIOLATIONS PUBLIC AND NO LONGER RELEASE SPECIFIC BREEDERS’ INSPECTION REPORT INFORMATION. SO HOW WOULD ALABAMA OR ALABAMIANS KNOW IF THERE WAS A PENDING OR PAST VIOLATION AGAINST A BREEDER? The commercial and high-end breeders defined in this bill (as well as the pet stores) know this provision is completely unenforceable because the USDA no longer releases specific breeders’ inspection report information.
The Alabama Puppy Mill Project wrote this on their FaceBook page:
IT’S TIME TO LIGHT UP THE PHONES!Â
IF YOU DON’T, ALABAMA IS ABOUT TO BE KNOWN AS PETLAND’S PAWN
YOU MUST CALL AND EMAIL YOUR LEGISLATOR NOW – TODAY AND TOMORROW!Â
If you don’t call and bombard these legislators and tell them to VOTE NO ON SB 183 we can all kiss it goodbye with Alabama ever passing legislation to regulate puppy mills, much less any sort of meaningful animal welfare legislation.
