Here's something you might be interested in.
The puppy may have been small, but his innocence could fill a room. I won't get the priviledge of holding his warm, soft body in my hands; or, feeling his leathery tongue on my cheek, but I'll always remember the sweet, brown eyes in his picture. I've seen similar eyes in my own home and at the animal shelter where I volunteer.
Yesterday, Coco, a Labrador Retriever, died after his owner admitted to pinning him down and choking him. According to an article in the NCT, veterinary staff reported that he was having difficulty walking, breathing and his gums were blue. The poor puppy went into cardiac arrest and died yesterday.
Because animal abuse happens too often, and is taken much too lightly by the courts, I support Senate Bill 1277, a bill to launch a web site for convicted animal abusers that would function like the Megan's Law sex offender web site.
I often cry not only for my own dog, Nancy, who was beaten and neglected by her former owner, but for every one of the shelter dogs I've seen in my decade of volunteerism at the county animal shelter--the pitbulls with their ears hacked off to the skull or burned with cigarettes, the chihuahua whose coat was caked with flea dirt and injuries consistent with being kicked, the min pin who had been harpooned in the chest.
Most animal abusers will never pay a price for the misery they have inflicted. For those who do, the punishment amounts to no more than probation. What's worse is that there is little to stop these monsters from going out and doing harm to another animal. Hopefully, with the passage of Senate Bill 1277, we will stop at least some of the violence.
As one shelter manager put it, "Maybe if you saw the life drain from a few sad, lost, confused eyes, you would change your mind about breeding and selling to people you don't even know..."
The puppy may have been small, but his innocence could fill a room. I won't get the priviledge of holding his warm, soft body in my hands; or, feeling his leathery tongue on my cheek, but I'll always remember the sweet, brown eyes in his picture. I've seen similar eyes in my own home and at the animal shelter where I volunteer.
Yesterday, Coco, a Labrador Retriever, died after his owner admitted to pinning him down and choking him. According to an article in the NCT, veterinary staff reported that he was having difficulty walking, breathing and his gums were blue. The poor puppy went into cardiac arrest and died yesterday.
Because animal abuse happens too often, and is taken much too lightly by the courts, I support Senate Bill 1277, a bill to launch a web site for convicted animal abusers that would function like the Megan's Law sex offender web site.
I often cry not only for my own dog, Nancy, who was beaten and neglected by her former owner, but for every one of the shelter dogs I've seen in my decade of volunteerism at the county animal shelter--the pitbulls with their ears hacked off to the skull or burned with cigarettes, the chihuahua whose coat was caked with flea dirt and injuries consistent with being kicked, the min pin who had been harpooned in the chest.
Most animal abusers will never pay a price for the misery they have inflicted. For those who do, the punishment amounts to no more than probation. What's worse is that there is little to stop these monsters from going out and doing harm to another animal. Hopefully, with the passage of Senate Bill 1277, we will stop at least some of the violence.
As one shelter manager put it, "Maybe if you saw the life drain from a few sad, lost, confused eyes, you would change your mind about breeding and selling to people you don't even know..."