Our Volunteers: Left to right: Lisa Brown, Laura Brown, Anne  Muller, Peter Muller, Odette Wilkens, Rita Sarnicola, Joe Sarnicola, Mary Frances Hunter, Linda Segal, and Peter Ruotolo. (Not in picture but present: Robin Yager and Jeff Termini – taking the photo.	Some of our Volunteers meet with Chairman Magee of the Assembly Agriculture committee.  Left to right: Rita Sarnicola, Jeff Termini, Chairman Magee, Robin Yager, Peter Ruotolo, and Anne Muller
Greg Meyers – Senator Serrano’s right-hand man – and Peter Muller confer on sponsorship of our bills	Assembly Member Micah Kellner, the sponsor of Oreo’s Law, drops by for breakfast and a chat about his bill.  LOHV-NY sent Assembly Member Kellner a letter of support for Oreo’s bill.
We were very happy that Assembly Member Benjamin, and Assembly Member Tadisco, joined the LOHV-NY Breakfast.	Senator Padavan, a long-time supporter of LOHV-NY’s animal protective issues, and a great friend of animals, drops by and offers, as always, invaluable advice.
Chairman Sweeney, the Chair of the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee visits us.  He is a great friend of wildlife.  He passed the three wildlife bills out of his committee last year, and is expected to pass them again this year!	Assembly Members Alan Maisel and Linda Rosenthal are both solid supporters of animal protection issues and are favorably inclined toward many of LOHV-NY’s proposed bills.
LOHV-NY meets with the Senate Leadership to make necessary adjustments and address additional concerns so that the bills will face no new objections from the Senate Leadership once they pass out of the committees

 

 

The League of Humane Voters held its 8^th annual Legislative on Wednesday March 17^th in Albany.  Twelve knowledgeable volunteers from seven different counties of the state – ranging from Manhattan to Buffalo hosted the LOHV-NY breakfast for the over 30 senators, assembly members and key staffers who attended the breakfast session from 8:00 to 10:30. The members of the hosting team sat with the attendees, one-on-one, and went over the bills the League of Humane Voters is advocating in this session.

 

After the breakfast, the volunteers, in groups of four or five, met with the chairs of the committees which will review and pass our bills on for a floor vote by the entire chamber.

 

 

 

The bills are:

 

1) Currently pending Bills:

 

2) New Bills to be Introduced and actively lobbied for by LOHV-NY in this session are:

 

a)       Shelter Accountability Bill
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF THE BILL: This bill requires an annual public accounting of animal intake, live-releases, and deaths within the shelter by all animal shelters receiving public funding.  There is little to no public transparency at the present time.

b)      An act to prohibit animal live animal experimentation at institutes of higher learning as computer simulation and other technology is available.
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF THE BILL : The bill would restrict, limit or prohibit animal experimentation at institutes of higher learning as there is computer simulation and  other technology that adequately allows students to gain the same knowledge without repeating experiments on live animals.

c)       Outlaw Foie Gras Production
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF THE BILL: This bill prohibits the force-feeding of geese and ducks manually or mechanically in order to enlarge their livers for the purpose of producing foie gras, an expensive “delicacy.”

d)      Surcharge on animals sold in Pet stores to fund shelters, mobile spay-neuter units, and DEC Licensed Wildlife Rehabilitators
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF THE BILL: This bill establishes a 12% surcharge on sales of animals by pet stores, imported or obtained from breeders. The funds raised are to be paid into a dedicated fund administered by an animal protective NGO to be used to subsidize shelters (75%) and wildlife rehabilitators (20%) with 5% going to the NGO to defray administrative costs

3) Other pending bills supported by LOHV

 

 

 

We will keep you apprised of the progress of these bills.  

 

If You Are in Senator Antoine Thompson’s District, Please Contact Him to Pass the Wildlife Bills Through His Committee.  .

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Peter Muller

Chair

The League of Humane Voters - NY