Virginia Breeders! PLEASE, if one of the representatives that voted YES is yours, CONTACT them before Wednesday about this bill. See below for what to say. This will affect YOU!

Tx! Sue


ALERT for All Virginia Dog Owners.



Dear Virginia Dog Owners:

HB538, HSUS's anti-dog breeder bill was reported by the House Agriculture Committee on Wednesday. The initial, binding vote was 9-8 in favor. Late votes changed this tally to 12-9. Here's how your representatives voted,

YEAS--Morgan, Cox, Sherwood, Orrock, Saxman, Plum, Shuler, Eisenberg, Shannon, Vanderhye, Mathieson, Bouchard--12.

NAYS--Ware, R.L., Wright, Hogan, Scott, E.T., Marshall, D.W., Lohr, Poindexter, Pogge, Lewis--9.

If you're represented by one of the Yea voters, please let them know how you feel about this vote against you and remember their vote when they run for reelection or higher office.

We lost this one-vote decision largely because VHDOA's Coalition, the Virginia Hunting Dog Alliance and the Virginia Federation of Dog Clubs and Breeders failed to coordinate their efforts and effectively address HB538's worst flaws. Only five minutes were allocated to those opposing the bill. Unfortunately, an AKC HB538 opposition letter was sent too late to be useful. Also weighing heavily against us was the HB538 supporting "I had all my concerns addressed" testimony of Tom Evans, VFDCB's long-time paid lobbyist who was terminated on January 21, 2008. The Virginia Veterinary Medical Association's Legislative Chairman, Dr. Steven Escobar, sent a letter supporting HB538. That hurt us as well. HB538 requires that a veterinarian must approve dog breedings. Tell VVMA and your veterinarian your opinion on this position. http://vhdoa.uplandbirddog.com/state17.html

What to do now.

We have only one chance left to kill HB538 and only one argument. The bill has been referred to the Appropriations Committee for a fiscal impact review. If Delegate Kirk Cox's subcommittee of Cox (Chairman), Morgan, Hogan, Abbitt, O'Bannon, Phillips, Dance, Shannon reports the bill at its 10:00 AM 2/7/2008 meeting, the full committee will report it the next day, it will pass its House floor vote on Monday-Tuesday and be sent to the Senate on February 13th. If HB538 isn't stopped on next Thursday, it will become VA law.

The Appropriations Committee has only one function, to review a bill's fiscal impact. It may not and will not reverse the policy decision of the Agriculture Committee that reported HB538. This is the $$ committee. If they are convinced that HB538 has a significant fiscal impact and isn't funded in the budget, it will not report it and HB538 will die.

Dog owners need to flood the Cox subcommittee with emails, phone calls and be there next Thursday.

Do NOT argue the bill's policy flaws. That's not only a waste of time, it's counterproductive. No one on that subcommittee cares and three of its members voted Yea on its policy merits in the Agriculture Committee.

What dog owners need to tell this subcommittee is that HB538 creates huge tax burdens on the state and local government by creating an complex and expensive duplicate dog kennel licensing and inspection program. The work's already being done very competently by the USDA. We're currently paying income taxes to fund the federal government's licensing and inspection program to ensure proper large dog breeder animal care. HB538 imposes unfunded costs on the state and counties that will drive up our taxes further without providing any benefit. It duplicates work already done. Further, it inadvertently harms responsible small hobby breeders. Repeat the phrase Unfunded Mandates.

The VHDOA's preliminary fiscal impact analysis is attached. This estimated $1.9 - 3.6 million increase in Virginia state income and local taxes is being refined. It will only get larger, not smaller.

In addition to taking action to communicate this Action Request widely and making your own subcommittee contacts ASAP, please contact the Chairman of your Board of Supervisors and urge that your county go on record opposing this burdensome unfunded mandate. Treasurers are already strapped attempting to implement Delegate Orrock's 2006 "gotcha" licensing bill. HB538 just compounds that problem. Be aware that the "gotcha" rabies dog tag system will be used to screen for HB538's "commercial" breeders.

VHDOA's General Assembly contact page at http://vhdoa.uplandbirddog.com/VA.AG.Ctmes.html has been rewritten to include the Cox subcommittee's email and phone information. Feel free to fill in your statement regarding HB538's fiscal impacts.

DO NOT limit your message to Vote No on HB538. That's completely ineffective and will be ignored.

Last chance folks. We need to outwork HSUS, et al. We may not have the funding, organization, experience or cohesion, but we have passion and don't want to lose our dogs.

Freely forward and cross post.