The PETA field killing kit found by police in the back of a PETA death van.
URGENT: Your Help Needed to Stop Legislation Which Would Allow PETA to Continue Killing Thousands of Animals Every Year.
At the behest of PETA, Virginia Delegate Bobby Orrock has just filed three bills to repeal SB 1381, a law passed last year designed to put PETA out of the killing business. That law, which required that Virginia shelters be “operated for the purpose of finding permanent adoptive homes” was designed to force PETA specifically, and private shelters generally, to do what the public already thinks “shelters” do: find homes for the animals they take in rather than kill them, as PETA currently does with thousands of animals every year, including healthy puppies and kittens and animals they have stolen from their families. Failure to do so would result in revocation of PETA’s license to operate a shelter.
Orrock’s legislation, HB 156 and HB 340, repeal that provision of SB 1381 by allowing “shelters” to be organized solely for the purpose of killing animals, with no requirement that they try to find animals homes.
Orrock’s third bill, HB 157, removes the power of the Virginia Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services (VDACS), which oversees shelters in Virginia, to revoke a shelter’s license, even if they violate regulations governing the conduct of those shelters.
If HS 156, HS 157, or HB 340 pass, PETA will be allowed to continue killing thousands of animals a year with impunity, while other regressive shelters will have no legal incentive to follow the law and do their job of rehoming lost and stray animals.
What are the chances of success for these devastating bills?
Despite PETA’s intense lobbying effort to derail SB 1381 last year, the votes were not even close: 95 to 2 in the House and 35 to 1 in the Senate and the Governor signed it into law. Why? At the time, media coverage about Maya – the beloved chihuahua captured on video being taken from her porch by PETA which later admitted it illegally took and killed her – was intense, and Virginia residents, concerned for the lives of animals, made their voices heard. The legislation designed to stop them from stealing and killing Virginia’s animal companions had massive public and political support.
This time, PETA is using donor funds to hire as many as seven lobbyists for Orrock’s bills (two directly and as many as five more for PETA shills), and unless Virginia residents speak out as they did last time, there is a good chance PETA will prevail. Thousands of lives every year hang in the balance. They will also set back the welfare of animals entering Virginia private shelters generally, as Orrock’s bills grant them the legal authority to kill animals without any effort at adoption and even to neglect and abuse them by eliminating the power of VDACS to revoke their shelter license if they do so. We must fight back.
What you can do to protect the animals of Virginia.
The only thing that can prevail against seven hired guns is the power of the people. If you live in Virginia, please contact your legislator and ask him/her to vote No on HB 156, HB 157, and HB 340. You can locate your delegate by clicking here.
In addition, please POLITELY tell Delegate Orrock that his bills will cause the deaths of thousands of animals every year and he should withdraw them:
https://www.facebook.com/delegateorrock/
(804) 698-1054
DelBOrrock@house.virginia.gov
Delegate Bobby Orrock
General Assembly Building
P.O. Box 406
Richmond, VA 23218
If you do not live in Virginia, please share with those who do.
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