Urgent Ohio Voters- House Bill 70 Animal Cruelty -Needs Your Help! - Page 1

Urgent Ohio Voters House Bill 70 Animal Cruelty

House Bill 70 was recently introduced to increase the penalities for mistreatment of Companion Animals from a misdemeanor to a felony. Representative Gerberry introduced this bill at the request of Prosecutor Jay Macejko and the outcry of people demanding justice for the High Caliber K9 Steve Croley horrific case in Youngstown, Ohio and ALL abused companion animals. In October 2008 this kennel owner starved to death 7 dogs and 12 more dogs were found barely alive. This man received a slap on the wrist, only 4 months jail time plus fines for starving 7 dogs to death and abusing 12.

Ohio is only 1 of 5 states that abuse to companion animals is not a felony. In 45 states animal abuse is considered a serious felony crime. On May 13, 2009 there was a hearing for this house bill and without the support of the people this bill could die in committee. We cannot allow this bill to die in committee. We cannot allow animal abuse to continue and with little to no punishment to those who commit such horrific crimes to our companion animals and the people who love them.

Every day we say we’re going to do something to help animals – Today is our chance – We are their Voices and Every Voice makes a difference! If we do nothing, nothing ever changes.

Please write to your State Representatives in support of House Bill 70 – a list of Representatives can be found here: http://www.house.state.oh.us/index.php?option=com_displaymembers&Itemid=125

If you are unsure who your representative is see below link and enter zip code or district
http://www.house.state.oh.us/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=1

Please start a petition in your community, your dog club, your organization, etc. – please get signatures along with full name and address.

On www.nitrofoundation.com there is a petition that can be downloaded.

On behalf of the dogs who suffered and those who died at High Caliber K9, ALL abused animals, and on behalf of all companion animals and animal lovers we thank you for your support.

Please take action now. Thank you.

I would never support any bill  of this kind.Its opening a can of worms.We have a laws in place to protect animals.Use what we have to punnish offenders

qotto,
Excellent post.  Sadly, we seem to be in the minority.  Too many simply do not see down the road.  They do not understand all of the problems that will come about from these new laws.  Who will determine abuse???  According to many, prong collar is abuse.  The problem is that it is the animal activists that get this stuff started and they are the last people on the face of the earth that should be dictating to society on what is abuse.  They (Peta, humane society, animal control, animal cops) always use extreme examples of abuse, then make it out to be the norm. 

They have the big bucks, Hollywood, and politicians in their pocket.  They will always come across as "loving dogs", but don't have a clue what real love of a dog is all about.  They are the pet smart people who call any that train in any way other than what they consider humane, cruel.  A blind person should be able to see what more Government control in regards to our dogs will lead to. 

I think this is a loosing battle.  I see this crap going from state to state and gaining momentom.  It is like the gun control people, they will not be happy until we honest people have no guns, and no working dogs either. 

Of all the dangers I see to our breed and working breeds in general, it is not back yard breeders that will ruin our breed, it is those bleeding hearts that think they are Gods gift to animals and their calling is to make certain that everyone marches to their drumbeat.  It is about control and super ego.  When people say they work for the dogs, not money, hogwash.  Then go volunteer somewhere.   Too many organizations like this start out good, but good old egotistical people get in there, people that have little else going for themselves in life, then you have a colosal mess.

Ditto, guys..

Laws like this are brought into play by PETA and similar groups.  They use a horrendous incident like Crowley as an excuse, and then introduce something with an innocent name, like 'Karley's Law', or something.  Incidents like that are not all that common, thanks in large part to existing animal cruelty laws.  I love dogs, but I refuse to equate a dog to a human.  Dogs are animals, not people.  

It made me truly angry to see what that scumbag did to those dogs.  I really can't comprehend how someone could let those dogs just starve, and then rot away in their kennels.  Hell, he should have called the humane society if he couldn't afford to feed them, or something.  I think he'll face punishment aplenty when he faces his Maker someday, but for now, we do not need more laws.  As was stated above, people who support these laws do not realize the far-reaching impact of the laws.  A guy who is going to let the dogs starve in their runs is already a criminal, and no amount of legislating is going to stop people like him, nor puppy mills, for the that matter.  '

The thing that too many people cannot seem to understand, is that you can tighten up laws, whether that be dog laws, gun laws, or whatever, and still, the crime that these laws are supposed to prevent will go on.  The laws will only choke the good people.  Only law-abiding, decent citizens obey the laws, but they abided by the ones before that.  The criminals still will not care, and will not stop. 

The government is supposed to do what we tell them, not what they think they should do.  If the government wants to help out, they can stop paying attention to the lowlife groups like PETA and HSUS, since those groups have a dark agenda that will only be satisfied when all domesticated animals have been eliminated, along with a large portion of the human race.

Sadly, those of us who can see the harm in these laws are in the minority, and that makes me sad.  Our founding fathers warned of the dangers of too much government...The whole point in fighting for our freedom from England was to get away from excessive taxation and restrictive laws.  Ever heard of Self-Governing?  Makes the sacrifices of several generations of soldiers seem kind of wasted, which breaks my patriotic heart.  I have ancestors that fought in many of the wars, and I am a very distant relation to one of our founding fathers, all of whom worked to make our country free. 

Crys

It is quite disappointing to see some of the responses.  This bill wasn't introduced by Peta or the Humane Society, this bill was requested by the Prosecutor because he didn't have the legal tools to prosecute this man for the horrific crimes he committed.  Did you read House Bill 70? Do you know the weak animal laws in Ohio at present? Do you know the weak penalties that are in place today and the fines that are basically equiv. to a parking ticket?  This isn't about a prong collar.  This is about starving dogs to death that he was paid to care for, this is about sick indivuduals that tie a dog up to a bumper and drag it to death; those that skin them alive,  this is about people that leave their dogs outside without shelter in winter until they freeze to death, etc. 

We strongly believe that such a law will help animals in the future.  Imagine if the penality for 19 counts of animal cruelty was 19 years in prision and not 4 months in jail?  A felony would stay on a person's record and follow them from place to place, they wouldn't be permitted to vote, obtain certain licences, easily open a new kennel in another state and conduct business as usual and more.  Yes I agree most sickos will commit the crime regardless of the penalties but many will think twice if there are stronger laws and penalties in place and not harm an animal. 

Please support House Bill 70 and give the Prosecutors the tools they need.

What makes me angriest about PETA is that, as you can see from some of the above posts, they give LEGITIMATE animal welfare efforts a black eye.

Please support this bill. The Steve Croley case was one of the worst cases of abuse I've ever heard about. The people mainly responsible for this bill are, I believe, the couple who lost their rottweiler, Nitro to this creep. His body was so emaciated that at first it was mistaken for that of a doberman.

The dogs that died were given neither food nor water.


Nitro Foundation: support the bill  http://www.nitrofoundation.com/new-animal-law.html

Pictures of starved dogs: http://www.nitrofoundation.com/graphic-photos.html

Quote from Nitro's owners: Our mission is to help change laws in Ohio to make animal cruelty a felony.



I think every dog owner should make it their duty to support GENUINE animal welfare and anti-cruelty efforts. DO YOUR HOMEWORK!! Not every organization deserves to be lumped with PETA!

If we do nothing, we only give PETA more power. The REAL animal lovers need to speak out and be heard!

Sorry, Olskooldogs, we'll  have to agree to disagree on this one!

I agree that animals need to be protected from out and out cruelty.  Situations like the one referenced about, while not incredibly common, do happen, and they do happen more in states where the penalties are more lax.  Where my problem with these laws comes in is that the law doesn't mean what it says.  Okay, it does mean what it says, but all laws seem to be open to interpretation by the prosecutors and judges that are in the court system.

Laws that change cruelty like Croley's into felonies are good, but they are always used to build new laws that start to change what constitutes cruelty, and from there you have even more restrictive laws.  It begins a cycle.

Another thought to consider.  Even if there were laws that would have put a person like Croley behind bars, what does that really do?  It places a larger burden on the taxpayers, gives the offender three free meals a day and a free roof over his head, and when he gets out...he can do it all over again.  Yes, what happened there was absolutely appalling.  But it will continue to happen, laws or no laws.  And it will get worse, especially now that people are facing the economic problems that are going on.  He should have turned those dogs over to a shelter or to animal control, if he couldn't afford to feed them, but the chances are, he would have been turned away at the shelter, since he didn't own some of the dogs in question, and even if he did, there are usually waiting lists to surrender dogs to shelters.  And then there are the legal issues involved with housing someone else's dog.  

I'm just not sure that stronger laws will really change too much there.  I'm jaded, I guess.

Crys