What's Next?

On our PERSONAL STORIES page, please read about Gizmo, the little pit bull puppy who hanged herself on her chain. The local ACO had tried to help Gizmo, even brought her into protective custody, but a judge returned the puppy to her abusive owner. In 2010 we will be trying to add a provision to NH's animal cruelty statute to require humane tethering, so that law enforcement officers can intervene effectively to help dogs like Gizmo before its too late. Several other states have adopted chaining/tethering restrictions-- it's time for NH to follow suit.

Also, we hope to introduce legislation in 2010 that will bring attention to the problem of puppy mills. Here in NH, a "commercial breeder " is defined as one who produces 10 litters or 50 puppies per year, or derives 40% of their income from the sale of puppies. We don't have too many commerical breeders, but we have many smaller backyard breeders who, even though they may be licensed by the Dept Ag, slip through the cracks for inspections. We've had a number of terrible cases in recent years with seizures of large numbers of animals in very poor condition from the backyard breeders. When these animals are finally rescued it puts a huge burden on the states' animal shelters which, oftentimes, end up absorbing most of the costs of care. Previous legislative efforts to limit numbers of puppies sold per year have failed. This issue could be addressed in several ways. Either we could try to redefine ,"commercial breeder" in NH, or we could take an entirely different approach and try to place some restriction on the pet stores that are selling puppy mill bred puppies.

We've heard from a number of people with concerns about this issue, and we would be anxious to hear your thoughts about this.

The successes we had with our legislation in 2008 should demonstrate that, with persistance and hard work, we CAN make a change in the lives of animals... maybe not as quickly as we want to, but we can make a change.

Please continue to tell all your friends and animal-people acquaintances about this website, encourage them to sign the Guestbook, so that when we go back to the Legislature in 2010 we will be an even more unstoppable force than we were before!

Contact e-mail: info@give-us-shelter.com

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