Candidate 2008

CLARK COUNTY CODE: 10.32.130 - Depriving of sustenance, shelter or medical care.

It is unlawful to deprive any animal of adequate sustenance, feed, water, or shelter, or expose to the elements of the weather and to the extremes of heat or cold, or refuse to obtain veterinarian medical care for illness, injury, disease or infirmity, or willfully instigate, engage in, or in any way further an act of cruelty to any animal, or any act to produce such cruelty. When the National Weather Service issues an excessive heat warning, dogs and cats must be provided with supplemental cooling to adequately reduce the temperature.

For more information on CLARK COUNTY code and laws regarding animals: http://library.municode.com/HTML/16214/level1/TIT10AN.html

CITY OF HENDERSON - MUNICIPAL CODES: http://library.municode.com/HTML/16399/level1/TIT7AN.html

CITY OF NORTH LAS VEGAS - MUNICIPAL CODES: http://library.municode.com/HTML/16023/level1/TIT6AN.html#TOPTITLE

CITY OF LAS VEGAS - MUNICIPAL CODES: http://library.municode.com/HTML/14787/level1/TIT7AN.html

If you're not sure where your Nevada Legislators stand on animal issues such as Spay/Neuter and Cruelty, please contact them and find out. Visit the link below and click on "Who's my legislator? What's my District?" located along the right side of the webpage: http://leg.state.nv.us

WE DID IT!!!

AB 15 is now a law! It will become effective on October 1, 2009. Click on the link below for more information on the bill.

A BIG thank you to everyone who took time to contact legislators or show up in person to support AB 15 and the other other animal welfare bills in the 2009 Legislature. And, thank you to all the legislators who voted for these animal welfare bills. These bills will make a positive difference in the lives of companion animals. IMPORTANT UPDATE! with the passage of regulated spay/neuter in CLV and Clark County, notice of applicable sterilization requirements with now be required in 3 jurdictions! It only applied to NLV when the bill was passed. Yeah!!! After May, please notify us if your vet office or public park does not have the new sterilization laws posted. Also, if you know anyone buying from a pet store, they must notify the purchaser in writing of the applicable sterilization laws, in addition to other information that must be provided by state law to the purchaser. This only applies to the City of North Las, City of Las Vegas, and Clark County.

http://www.leg.state.nv.us/75th2009/Bills/AB/AB15.pdf

Assembly Bill 15 requires:

"notice of any sterilization requirements for dogs and cats required by local ordinance to be posted in a public park and the office of each licensed veterinarian; requiring a retailer or dealer who sells a dog or cat to disclose to the purchaser any sterilization requirements for the animal required by local ordinance; and providing other matters properly relating thereto"

MORE GOOD NEWS!!!

2 more animal welfare laws were passed in 2009.

AB 199 (Revises provisions relating to fights between animals-This bill prohibits a person from owning, ossessing, keeping, training, promoting or purchasing an animal with the intent to use it to fight another animal or from selling an animal knowing that it is intended to be used to fight another animal.)

SB 132 (anti-tethering bill - so dogs don't live their lives on the end of a chain. Here's the link for more info: http://www.animallawcoalition.com/tethering-penning/article/674

FEDERAL LAWS IMPACTING NV - WILD FREE-ROAMING HORSE & BURRO ACT (http://www.wildhorsepreservation.com/resources/1971_act.html)

http://www.wildhorsepreservation.org/news/?p=3923 (Link for recent news. So very sad what is happening to our Wild Horses!)

Wild Horse & Burro Roundups: PLEASE EMAIL US IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO GET INVOLVED WITH THIS ISSUE. PUT WILD HORSES IN THE SUBJECT LINE. The current BLM plan is unsustainable and unreliable. In Nevada, wild horses are being rounded up and maintained for life - at taxpayer expense- and Nevadans should demand that it STOP. What BLM has done and continues to do, even under new leadership, makes no sense and isn't justified. Politics is driving the management of Nevada's wild horses and burros and it MUST STOP NOW. We met with Senator Reid's Legislative Director and other senior staff to call for an immediate halt to the roundups and address the concerns and direction from Congress and the findings of a 2008 GAO report. Here is an excerpt of the follow up letter based on the meeting, dated 1-15-10, sent to Dayle Lewis, Legislative Director for Nevada Senator Harry Reid :

" Excerpts from the GAO report, highlights page: “BLM has not provided specific formal guidance…Without clear guidance BLM cannot ensure that the factors considered in future AML revisions will be consistent across HMA’s…The extent to which BLM has actually met AML depends on the accuracy of BLM’s population counts.” GAO recommendations included: “BLM establish a formal policy for setting AML, develop alternatives for long-term holding facilities, and initiate a discussion with Congress and other stakeholders on how best to comply with the act, as amended.” The full report raises even more concerns. Also referenced in the meeting were comments from the US House of Representatives, Committee on Natural Resources, announcement dated October 7, 2009, titled: Rahall, Grijalva Welcome Interior’s Renewed Attention to Wild Horse & Burro Program.http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=600&Itemid=70 Excerpts from Announcement: "For far too long, wild horses and burros have been treated like a nuisance and subjected to long-term storage and slaughter - a problem documented in a Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation and addressed by the ROAM Act…Years of attempts by BLM to shoe-horn these magnificent animals into ever-shrinking territory has manufactured an overcrowding problem. Restoring horses and burros to the acreage from which they have been needlessly removed is critical said Chairman Rahall. “I look forward to continuing these efforts to forge common ground among advocates, as we work together to find permanent solutions to range management to protect and preserve our wild horses and ensure their continued presence on our nation's public lands," said Chairman Grijalva. “A 2008 report by the GAO, requested by Chairman Rahall, identified a number of deficiencies plaguing the BLM wild horse and burro program… These strategies would relieve the agency from having to round up the horses and care for them in long-term holding facilities. “

As we discussed in the meeting, BLM gets a vote of NO CONFIDENCE. Leadership may have changed but BLM’s actions have not! We STRONGLY URGE Senator Reid to END THIS INJUSTICE and call for an IMMEDIATE MORATORIUM on the roundups until the deficiencies in the GAO report are addressed, directives from Congress are followed, a dialogue is started with stakeholders on how best to comply with the act, and an independent census is done to determine reliable population counts. Time is of the essence, 212 wild horses have been gathered since we met Tuesday, 1/12/10. No more time for excuses. Voters in Nevada become more incensed with each horse gathered. We eagerly await to see if our NV Senator has the Courage and Leadership to RIGHT this WRONG. end of letter excerpt .

When I spoke to Senator Reid at a recent event, he suggested I speak with a former trusted staffer named Jerry Reynoldson. So, I spoke to Mr. Reynoldson and he has been staunchly against the roundups for some time due to the BLM's lack of a long-term, sustainable plan. Watch interviews from a channel 8 special http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=11285225 and see Mr. Reynoldson's opinion for yourself.