MESSAGE FROM THE ARC PRESIDENT

Dear ARC Members,

Happy Holiday to you all (though belated a day or two). Just to keep you abreast of club activity, the newly elected Board Officers and Directors took office July 1st. As mandated by the Bylaws we have an initial conference call scheduled to look at items for the year's beginning.

Some of you may already have received the latest ARK; if not many of you should have it this week. It is a very informative issue, so please take a look.

You will note an addition to the website regarding our support for establishing a "K9 Veterans Day". Please visit www.k9veteransday.org and look at the efforts being made to establish March 13th to honor service animals. The Board believes this to be a very good cause, worthy of our backing.

I have had several more calls and some private letters to the Board that have been answered, providing direct information to members who simply let us know what is on their mind, whether it be updates for the web page or questions about volunteering. As a reminder, California is set to vote soon in their State Appropriations Committee on HB 250 (essentially statewide mandated spay/ neuter). Please visit www.paws4laws.com for more information on this bill and others in various states.

And while I am thinking legislation, the ARC Intern has completed a state by state survey of the positions of all state veterinary medical associations on the dock/crop issue. Once those findings are tabulated we will make them available for the members. This will be used to garner support from as many states as possible to oppose the AVMA on docking and cropping.

Short message this week, I have to get the grill going as it is the Fourth after all!

Jeff Shaver

Jeff Shaver
ARC President