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[big4dogs at comcast.net]

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From: ADOA ADMIN <> 
To: big4dogs at comcast.net 
Subject: ADOA NEWS 
Date: Sun, 13 May 2007 21:16:35 +0000 



ADOA NEWS

.
NEW JERSEY –URGENT!!!
 
 
SOUND THE ALARM ASAP to OPPOSE NJ S1026!

This proposed legislation is going before the Economic Growth Committee at
10 am on Monday, May 14th, Room #1 in the StateHouse Annex in Trenton, NJ.

We need your help to OPPOSE NJ Senate bill 1026 which requires all cats and
dogs released from pounds and shelters be sterilized with certain
exceptions, and establishes penalty for noncompliance.

The bill provides exemptions but the definitions of these terms are
inadequate to protect the right to own and breed dogs responsibly without
undue governmental interference. If approved, this proposal will violate the
Constitutional rights of New Jersey dog owners. For a copy of the bill:
http://www.njleg.
<http://www.njleg. state.nj. us/2006/Bills/ S1500/1026_ I1.HTM>
state.nj.us/ 2006/Bills/ S1500/1026_ I1.HTM

Points to Consider: 

a.. Mandatory spay/neuter is an ineffective solution to animal control
problems because it fails to address the heart of the issue - irresponsible
ownership. Mandatory spay/neuter laws are extremely difficult to enforce and
can be evaded by irresponsible animal owners by not licensing their pets.
More regulations increase the workload of already financially strained
animal control offices, making it even more difficult for them to perform
their duties. 
b.. Spay/neuter requirements target all owners regardless of their actions
and would restrict the many responsible breeders who raise and breed
purebred dogs for their enjoyment of the sport. These breeders make a
serious commitment to their animals with the intention of promoting the
sport of purebred dogs and improving the individual breeds. 
c.. Strongly enforced animal control laws (such as leash laws), and
increased public education efforts are better ways to address the issue of
irresponsible dog ownership. A public education campaign would help teach
community residents about how to properly care for their pets, as well as
the need to be a responsible pet owner. 
d.. If your retired show dog, for example, jumps the fence and ends up in
the shelter, you can only reclaim him without neutering by providing
evidence that the dog is AKC registered and has been "shown" within the past
12 months. Never mind that he's a valuable stud dog. Consider that Agility
dogs are not allowed to compete until 15 months of age.
ACT NOW!

NJ Residents: Immediately contact your state representative. Urge them to
OPPOSE S1026 in its present form and to enforce leash laws and promote
responsible dog ownership. Go to http://www.njleg.
<http://www.njleg. state.nj. us/members/ legsearch. asp>
state.nj.us/ members/legsearc h.asp to find the names, emails and office
telephone numbers of your state representatives.

.CALIFORNIA 
 
 
WHERE LLOYD LEVINE IS TAKEN TO TASK!!!
http://www.whittier <http://www.whittier dailynews. com/opinions/ ci_5875299>
dailynews.com/ opinions/ ci_5875299

Chris Weinkopf: Assisted-suicide bill is an indignity
By Chris Weinkopf

Why should California adopt Assemblyman Lloyd Levine's bill requiring dog
and cat owners to spay or neuter their pets? Because, the Van Nuys Democrat
has said, doing so would "address the needless slaughter" of as many as
500,000 animals in the state's shelters each year. 

Remember that turn of phrase: "needless slaughter." This is how Levine
describes euthanizing dogs and cats. 

It's a telling description because, in Levine's view, when the victims of
euthanasia are not animals, but humans, theirs is a "Death with Dignity."
That's the popular name of another piece of legislation the assemblyman has
authored, one that would permit doctors to help kill patients whom they
determine have no more than six months to live. 

The bill twice failed to clear the Democratic Legislature in the past three
years, but Levine and his co-sponsor, Assemblywoman Patty Berg, D-Santa
Rosa, are reluctant to usher it off to an early death. This time, thanks to
the co-sponsorship of Assembly Speaker Fabian Nu ez, D-Los Angeles, it could
just pass. 

So, too, might Levine's spay-neuter bill. If so, the warped message from
Sacramento would be: Injecting a stray cat with a lethal medication is a
tragedy; feeding a dispirited and vulnerable senior citizen a lethal medication is a civil right. 

But coming from Levine, this all somehow makes sense. 

Levine is the same lawmaker, after all, who has proposed banning pet cloning
and the sale of incandescent light bulbs. For him, there are some grave
moral wrongs the law must forbid - like creating two pets out of the same
genetic material, or pole lamps - but barring doctors and HMOs from offing
distressed, suggestible patients isn't one of them. Go figure. 

What about doctors who don't want to get into the business of shortening
their patients' lives, physicians who take seriously the Hippocratic oath
and its pledge to do no harm? Not to worry, says Levine; his bill includes a
conscience clause, ensuring that no medical professionals would have to do
anything they consider morally abhorrent. 

Take that assurance with a large grain of cyanide. Levine is also the
one-time author of legislation that would have forced pharmacists, against
their moral or religious objections, to distribute abortifacients. As the
assemblyman has demonstrated, when "conscience" goes up against "choice,"
conscience loses every time. 

And if the erratic spinnings of Levine's moral compass disturb you, you
won't fine much solace in the words of his suicide bill's co-sponsors. 

Take Nu ez's angry response to L.A. Cardinal Roger Mahony's suggestion that,
by championing assisted suicide, Nu ez is supporting a culture of death. "I
support the `culture of death?"' Nu ez fumed. "I don't even support the
death penalty." 

Indeed, and the irony is thick. While the courts have suspended capital
punishment in California out of concern that lethal injection may cause pain
to condemned killers, Nu ez sees fit to bring lethal medications to those
whose only crime is despair. And even though the state is hard-pressed to
find willing doctors to oversee its executions, the speaker wants doctors to
preside over the killing of its terminally ill. (No wonder both the
California and American Medical Associations oppose this bill.) 

Then there's Berg, who rejects the term "assisted suicide" because "suicide
implies that you can live." The terminally ill, according to the logic of
this formulation, apparently can't live, which raises the question: Why,
then, does Berg insist that they need doctors to help them die? 

A better question, though, is what makes surrendering to sickness, grief and
financial or familial pressures a "death with dignity" in the first place?
Is suicide somehow more "dignified" than fighting illness or treating
suffering? Is our dignity really lost when we can no longer feed, dress or
take ourselves to the bathroom? 

Assisted-suicide supporters insinuate that dignity is not inherent in the
human condition, but contingent upon one's abilities and the value society
puts on them. Stick around too long - become too weak, too feeble - and
you're undignified. Unlike other would-be suicides, your tragically low
sense of self-worth is justified. (No wonder disability-rights groups also
oppose this bill.) 

The notion that the infirm or dying are lacking in dignity points to an
astonishingly narrow view of humanity. Often, the weak and the sick can
teach the rest of us a good deal about courage, acceptance, strength - and
dignity, above all. 

chris.weinkopf@ <mailto:chris.weinkopf@ dailynews. com> dailynews.com 

Chris Weinkopf is the editorial-page editor of our sister newspaper, the Los
Angeles Daily News. 
 
 
Cleburne Times Review…TEXAS
 
Published: May 11, 2007 08:01 pm             
Don Newbury: Uncle Mort's best friend
Uncle Mort has a way of showing up at the most unexpected times. When he skids to a stop with golf cart smoking and takes porch steps two at a time, it usually means one or all of the following:

• Aunt Maude has had enough, and has suggested, if only in body language, that he might want to go to town for a while.

• The fish aren’t biting.

• Anger has reached a boiling point, and he’s ready to ingest tin foil and spit out roofing nails.

———

Saturday morning, it was all of the above. Maude was busy with spring planting, an annual project too detailed to interest Mort.

“She’s the only woman in the thicket who turns cucumber seeds inside out before planting, hoping to get pickles with dimples instead of warts,” Mort laughed.

His sentences came out in gasps. Within seconds, he was venting on state legislators, folks he thinks may be distant relatives of Will Rogers. “They never met a tangent they didn’t like,” Mort fumed, feeling that this time, they’ve taken things too far.

———

Mort paused to make coffee, filling the pot to the 10-cup line, so I knew I’d best settle in for some listening. “It don’t take much water to make good coffee,” Mort reminded.

He concedes that many of the legislators had good raisin’, but “when they get down to the Capitol, they look past pressing issues.” Instead, they plunge full bore into “minutiae that doesn’t need laws, just common sense.”

On this day, he was in a snit about new laws aimed at dog owners.

———

Lawmakers’ priorities are rarely impeccable, and giving dogs a bad time at this point in history may be “about as ‘peccable’ as it gets.”

My uncle figures canines are now under siege and probably weren’t even consulted when the “man’s best friend” line was coined.

“One of these days, dogs are going to demand a recount, and folks will know that this friendship thing is a one-sided deal,” Mort snorted. “If canines vote, we’ll be lucky if they consider us mere acquaintances.”

———

“Why wouldn’t dogs be peeved?” Mort questioned. “They’re being served tainted food, and they’re all tangled up in leash laws. And don’t get me started on dog pounds. A lot of ’em shouldn’t happen to a dog.”

Mort wasn’t through; his litany of front-burner issues had many verses.

He mentioned topics of poverty, immigration, environment, energy, school finance and the like. But taking center stage was legislation underscoring that dogs’ bites are always worse than their barks.

———

Mort unfurled stacks of proposed legislation aimed at dog owners. It shined light into the darkest corners, including “what they knew and when they knew it.” Severity of punishment would no longer hang on “first-bite” details. It would now include detailed historical information, such as the date of each dog’s first fang-showing.

“Could be that some dog owners will be so scared, they’ll muzzle their pets all the time instead of risk litigation and the possibility of a felony, hefty fines and even jail time,” he said.

He paused to stroke Ole Bullet, his hound dog who’d accompanied him on the golf cart.

———

“I really love dogs,” Mort said. “And they’re due a fair shake. Bullet helps me a bunch and is smart as a whip.”

He told about a heated argument a few days earlier with a farmer who maintains that pigs are smarter than dogs.

“Ain’t no way,” Mort responded. “I ain’t never heard of no seeing-eye pig.” (Bullet nudged me, making sure that I knew when to laugh.)

——— 

Mort shifted gears, opting for reflection on bygone years instead of blistering the government. He recalled the Depression era, when neighbors got rid of their dogs because food was so scarce. Mort urged them to simply feed them turnip greens.

When his friends protested that their dogs wouldn’t eat turnip greens, he responded, “Mine wouldn’t either for the first three weeks.”

———

As he poured his final cup of coffee, I asked Mort if he’d heard about the new Internet contest called “American Idol, Dog Version.” I told him it is for dogs across the nation.

He wanted to know if it has cleared the Legislature.

I glanced at Bullet. He was flossing his teeth. Then, he started howling a tune that sounded a lot like “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?”



Dr. Don Newbury is a speaker 

and author whose weekly 

column appears in 125 

newspapers in 

six states. He welcomes 

inquiries and comments. 

He can be reached by e-mail at 

newbury at speakerdoc.com and 

telephone at 817-447-3872. His Web site is www.speakerdoc.com.



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