Category: Environment

Wayne Pacelle responded to the recent events with SB 161. Evidently the plan of the HSUS, Best Friends Society, and ASPCA is to focus on the Constitutional Amendment that protects citizen initiatives. The organizations also plan to monitor whether there is improvement for dogs in the puppy mills in Missouri. If there is no real improvement, the organizations plan to respond with another citizen initiative, but this time, one hopefully protected from legislative mucking about.

This confirms that there won’t be a move to bring about a referendum to veto SB 161. Disappointing but understandable. With the burn out and apathy I’m seeing demonstrated by various pundits, it may be difficult to bring about a referendum, especially with the actions of HSMO and MAAL.

This is not a happy state, though, either for dogs or voters. I genuinely believe that the lives for dogs in large scale commercial breeding operations will not improve with SB 161, regardless of extra money given to the Department of Agriculture. Even before SB 161 was signed by the Governor, the Department of Agriculture was making noise that the real problem in Missouri is the unlicensed breeders. We know differently, but this just demonstrates that business will proceed as usual in the Department. I don’t expect to see an improvement in transparency, nor do I expect to see an improvement in application of the now weakened regulations.

Additionally, no matter how Governor Nixon and the representatives tried to spin it, SB 161 does not reflect the will of the people. The people’s vote was trodden in the political mechanization that resulted in SB 161.

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Word is now circulating that Governor Nixon signed SB 113.

The will of the voters means little to the people in Jefferson City. Cruelty to dogs means even less.

Update: Confirmation from Yael T. Abouhalkah from the Kansas City Star.

Not to worry, claims Nixon in an oily move: The legislature has promised to look at his “Missouri compromise” that also guts the voter-approved Prop B in important ways, just not as badly as the legislature’s bill does.

Of course, by signing the really bad law into effect, Nixon must pull out stops to get his merely “bad” bill through.

Barb Shelly also published a writing on the SB 161 debate in the House today, including the fact that it has an emergency clause that would basically override the people’s ability to bring about a referendum blocking SB 113. They certainly don’t want us to ever vote on this issue, do they?

What also concerned me about the House discussion is the vet requirement mentioned in the debate mirrors SB 113 rather than the text of SB 161 the Governor posted. Was the text of the SB 161 amendment changed before being introduced in the House today?

And the House passed SB 161 today. Worse, it passed the emergency clause, which makes the bill “referendum proof”. The debate was contentious and there were a couple of brave folks who spoke out against the emergency clause, but when you have a legislature so dominated by special interests, the people don’t have a chance.

I have a recording of the emergency clause debate and will post it and other recordings I’ve made. I’ll post them all eventually.

These people didn’t just want to kill the Proposition B vote, they wanted to piss on its grave, too. How can we vote for people who have so much disdain for us?

The reps literally ran SB 161 from the House to Senate and instituted a vote on the senate floor. The move was so quick, the senators were confused and they had to run the debate and vote again.

I was so disappointed to hear Jolie Justus join with the rural legislators in order to throw HSUS under the bus. The Democrats felt it was more important to back Nixon than to back their own voters. And they did the worse thing possible: they attacked a national organization with numerous members in this state, in order to ensure the Democrats win the governor’s election in 2012.

This is the worst form of political expediency. We talk about the political shenanigans on the Republican side, but what about the Democrats? Well, as we can see, they’re not above playing political games. After all: it’s just dogs, right?

I’m a Democrat but I have no pride in my party today. None at all.