Friday, August 04, 2006
Congress at work for animals....
Amid all the horrible pictures we all remember seeing from New Orleans last year, you surely remember seeing the folks who wouldn't evacuate because they refused to leave their pets behind. Many of us, especially those of us who are single, think of our pets as family, and we would no sooner abandon them to a natural disaster than we would our parents or children.
Well, last night the U.S. Senate unanimously approved its version of the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act. The House passed its own version in May, so all that remains is to work out the differences between the two. Both bills require that emergency preparedness plans include consideration of people with pets and service animals before a disaster strikes. I'll also point out that both the House and Senate versions had bipartisan sponsorship.
Also last night, the Senate passed a bill closing a loophole that allows game hunters to write off the cost of hunting vacations by donating mounted prizes to phony museums -- some of which existed only in the hunter's living room. Regardless of your position on game hunting and wildlife preservation, we can all be glad that we as taxpayers will no longer by paying the bill for these trips via fraudulent write-offs. Estimates of the cost to taxpayers for this scam are as much as $43 million per year.
All in all, a good night's work for our legislators!
Well, last night the U.S. Senate unanimously approved its version of the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act. The House passed its own version in May, so all that remains is to work out the differences between the two. Both bills require that emergency preparedness plans include consideration of people with pets and service animals before a disaster strikes. I'll also point out that both the House and Senate versions had bipartisan sponsorship.
Also last night, the Senate passed a bill closing a loophole that allows game hunters to write off the cost of hunting vacations by donating mounted prizes to phony museums -- some of which existed only in the hunter's living room. Regardless of your position on game hunting and wildlife preservation, we can all be glad that we as taxpayers will no longer by paying the bill for these trips via fraudulent write-offs. Estimates of the cost to taxpayers for this scam are as much as $43 million per year.
All in all, a good night's work for our legislators!
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Hi, Mark, and first of all, Happy (late) Birthday!! :-)
Second, I just came back from a short trip to Gulfport/Biloxi and saw the damage and destruction that is still very evident today, almost a year after Katrina. I wonder how many pets needlessly died because of the no pets evacuation policy, and how many PEOPLE died because they refused to abandon their pets. I have to say I would never leave my pets behind and I am so glad to see this become law.
For once, a good day's work for our lawmakers. :-)
Second, I just came back from a short trip to Gulfport/Biloxi and saw the damage and destruction that is still very evident today, almost a year after Katrina. I wonder how many pets needlessly died because of the no pets evacuation policy, and how many PEOPLE died because they refused to abandon their pets. I have to say I would never leave my pets behind and I am so glad to see this become law.
For once, a good day's work for our lawmakers. :-)
Well, the answer to both of your wonders is "a lot." :-( But there were a lot of animals who were rescued. Some were reunited with their owners, some found new homes, and some are still waiting to be adopted. (It just occurred to me that some of those that were adopted, or might yet be, might have been strays before Katrina.)
I remember after the storm I was thinking about the animals that were orphaned, and it wasn't long after that when I started seeing reports on the efforts to rescue pets and find match them to their owners or find new parents for them.
If you've ever seen "Animal Precinct" on Animal Planet, they did a special episode after Sept. 11 where the officers were trying to help people find their pets and vice versa.
And thanks for the birthday wishes! Where you been?
I remember after the storm I was thinking about the animals that were orphaned, and it wasn't long after that when I started seeing reports on the efforts to rescue pets and find match them to their owners or find new parents for them.
If you've ever seen "Animal Precinct" on Animal Planet, they did a special episode after Sept. 11 where the officers were trying to help people find their pets and vice versa.
And thanks for the birthday wishes! Where you been?
I've had some enforced housework and cleaning, moving and rearranging that HAD to be done, plus several mini-trips and a lot of etc. going on. I've dropped by for a quick read a time or 2 lately. Hopefully I'm back posting fairly regularly and commenting, too. :-)
I'm kind of worried about Mikey. He's really slacked off on his blogging. I may just email him and check on him.
I'm kind of worried about Mikey. He's really slacked off on his blogging. I may just email him and check on him.
We still have pets in shelters here in Colorado that came from Katrina, they have set up foster homes around Denver to help with crowding in the shelters. My thoughts on hunting are if you need the food and will use the animal for food, great. Otherwise, did you feel tough, killing that animal while it was eating or tending it's young, or just being himself, isn't that what we call a sniper, did the animal have a gun to shot back? You get the idea, I am not a big hunting fan. The need for food is different than just killing for fun.
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