I received this email on March 31st from John Yates of the American Sporing Dog Alliance.
According to the email, the two bills that would have had a major impact on purebred breeders (Senate Bill 308
and Assembly Bill 587) have been defeated. I checked myself on The Wisconsin State Legislature
website, and yes, it's true.
March Newsletter
American Sporting Dog Alliance Helps
To Kill Horrible Wisconsin Legislation
The American Sporting Dog Alliance (ASDA) joined forces with Wisconsin dogs owners’ and sportsmen’s groups to defeat legislation in that state that would have virtually eliminated purebred dog breeding. Senate Bill 308 died in the Joint Committee on Finance following an avalanche of letters and phone calls from dog owners.
This means that the legislation died when the 2007-2008 session of the Legislature adjourned. ASDA urges continued vigilance, however, as similar legislation likely will be introduced next year due to intense pressure from animal rights groups. Wisconsin was a key state in the “puppy mill” campaign of groups such as the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), but hobby dog breeding was the real target of this legislation.
Wisconsin represents dog owners’ second major victory within a month. Last month, ASDA led the fight to decisively defeat similar destructive legislation in Oklahoma.
In Wisconsin, dog owners’ groups fought hard to block this legislation, using traditional lobbying and participation of their members.
ASDA’s strategy bolsters this effort at the grassroots level. Our approach is to develop a huge database of email addresses and message boards, and to inform tens of thousands of people about the issues. We ask dog owners to participate directly as citizens, and give them the information and procedure that they need to respond. This approach mobilizes many people who are not part of existing groups, such as hunters with dogs and people who work with registries that focus on sporting dogs.
In addition, our teams of veterinarians and attorneys performed detailed analyses of the legislation, and this information was made available to dog owners, legislators and other key people. We also worked to gain some improbable allies, when we proved to several people who had supported this legislation that it would have destroyed animal shelter and rescue programs in the state.
Then, we added to our grassroots approach with direct contacts with every senator on the committee.
The result was a veritable flood of letters from dog owners, and this played a key role in convincing the committee to toss this bill into the trashcan. Elected officials care deeply about the opinions of people who vote for or against them.
Learn more about this and other issues by visiting us at American Sporting Dog Alliance