MESSAGE FROM THE ARC PRESIDENT

Hello Members:

A hectic week on the dog front, starting with a week ago Friday when we learned that several anti-dog bills in Massachusetts were announced for a vote the following Tuesday! Just the way HSUS plays the dirty tactics. Over the weekend the Legislative Committee, led of course by Barbara, prepared responses and I emailed and faxed them in time to beat the vote deadline. HB1968 HB1997 HB3589 SB763 SB778 Then it was on to BSL in Ogden, Utah and Whitehall, Ohio. All of these letters are available here on the ARC website, or at www.paws4laws.com.

Additionally on Paws4laws.com you can take a look at a state by state survey (conducted by the ARC Summer legal Intern Juan Michelen) of veterinarian positions on docking/cropping. Sadly, most are following the AVMA, equally disheartening, but not surprising, is the AVMA's vote last week refusing to budge from their strict "no dock/crop" mandate for these procedures to be removed from breed standards, due to them being considered "cosmetic" only. We must, as individuals, keep the heat on the AVMA or we are going to lose docking and cropping all-together.

As a final note on legislation, and some good news, the mandatory spay/neuter bill SB250 in California died again. Supposedly it can't be resurrected for a while, but don't count on it. AB241 (dog limits) was thought "done" but some shenanigans by an absent representative, Steinberg, have resulted in efforts to sneak this one through. Our response to that bill is also available for review at paws4laws. Lastly, the ARC Legislative Committee had our every other week phone conference to coordinate the "fire drill" team, to deal with situations like Massachusetts. Whew, I have a headache!

Several other items have been addressed as well. While you may have seen recent stories about a large "dog fighting" bust in the Midwest, you may not have seen the story about it by "Tailsinc" web publishing. Of course they chose to use two rather benign looking Rottweilers as their "grab" photo. When Pam Grant sent this to me I was none too pleased and just had to respond. This is just the kind of press that adds nothing to a story and demeans our dogs while doing so.

ARC (yours truly) has signed the AKC Registration Pledge Challenge to seek full compliance by ARC members in getting all our litters and pups registered with AKC. Take a look at www.akc.org/regpledge to learn more. Once the August deadline for members to begin signing the pledge arrives, I need to fulfill my pledge for the club by asking you all to sign as members.

The ARC mandatory Practices ballot voting deadline has passed. The Board will be tabulating the results and hope to have a message to you and on the web page next week.

Well, stay tuned and thanks again for the calls and emails. Off to Reliant Park again tomorrow to man the Texas Dog Commission booth and hand out legislative flyers . . .

“Talk” to you next week,

Jeff Shaver

Jeff Shaver
ARC President