Please help! Urgent!

PLEASE HELP! The New Hampshire state government is attempting to pass a bill that will turn all New Hampshire HUmane societies into kill shelters! New Hampshire is one of the leading states for transtorts from the south and if this bill is passed it will be devastating to both animals down south and here!

Briefly here are the most problematic changes to the current state law:

Shelters are no longer exempt from any part of RSA 437.

Every animal must have an initial health certificate from a vet ( we pay for this) upon entering the shelter & again before the pet goes home(we pay for 2nd one too). This includes owner surrenders, ACO strays, returns, citizen strays, etc. Last year this would have cost us approximately $25K. Because of this financial burden many more cats would simply be euthanized instead of medically managed or behaviorally modified.

Every transport dog entering the shelter must be held for 7 days before it is available for adoption ( it is 48 hours now); health certificate process applies here too. Longer period for dogs' exposure to unvaccinated animals brought in by ACO and citizens. The sooner dogs are out of a shelter the less likely they are to contract illness. Our transport program would be reduced for lack of space- this may be the state vets intention.



All veterinarians who provide a health certificate for any reason( moving, going out of country, etc.) must now be accredited.



Transported animals must have been transported on a USDA certified vehicle unless the shelter provides the transportation.

Please please please help us! Most shelters would rather shut down than have to become a kill shelter. If you can help in any way either by contacting anyone you know who can help or just spreading the word anything is going to make a difference. The bill is called HB 325-NF, they are having another meeting about it tuesday so hurry!
 
Although I agree that the change in policies sound questionable and way, way more expensive, I disagree with the position against kill shelters actually (as a vet student). Don't misunderstand me though, I HATE that so many innocent animals die unnecessarily every year across the nation. It makes me sick to even think about it and working in a shelter and watching good pets come in and never leave must be one of the most difficult jobs on the planet. However, it is not the shelters that are the problem, it is the overpopulation and irresponsible pet ownership that allows too many puppies and kitten to born that is the problem. No-kill shelter are good in theory, but if you look at what actually happens, it's not the happily ever after ending you'd think. Those shelters fill up in like a week and then there is no room for any other animals. And regardless of "no-kill" status they DO still euthanize aggressive, overly sick, or aggressive breeds like pits and chows. Those are considered unadoptable so they do actually euthanize those, just not the other animals that have the potential for adoption. So these "adoptable" animals sit in a tiny cage with minimal interaction for years possibly. Face it, adult dogs do not get adopted nearly as fast as those adorable fluffy puppies and kittens!

So those good animals sit in cages and then all the strays have no place to go. At least in the shelter they are warm, protected, vaccinated, fed and spayed/netuered. Without turnover from regular euthanasia (which is horrible, I agree) there is no room for the dogs and cats that need help. So when people get tired of the dog that hangs around their place, or tired of the dog that cute little puppy grew into, or the cat that doesn't always make it to the litter box, they can't take them to shelter where they're protected and may possibly be adopted. There's no room for them! So instead they set them loose, dump them somewhere, or worse, get rid of them (see lots of gunshot wounds out in the country). It happens every day all over the nation, we see it all the time. So unloved dogs and cats sit in shelters where they eventually get so frustrated with living in a cage that they snap at another dog and are deemed aggressive and euthanized, and the other unloved dogs and cats that can't get into a shelter starve to death, get deadly disease, get hit by cars, get shot, or have more puppies and kittens to add to the problem.

Texas is facing this problem right now with horses. We shut down all the horse slaughter plants because we like horses and think of them more as companion animals than livestock. But no one thought ahead about what would happen to those horses otherwise. Within months of closing them down all the horse rescues were too full to take in more and we started seeing people just letting their horses go where they got hit by cars, letting them starve to death, or just tying them to a telephone pole hoping someone might stop and give it a little food. At least with the slaughterhouse option those people that are too poor or just don't care about their horses enough to give them proper care and food, especially in this economy, could at least make a little money by selling them to slaughter. Let's face it, quick humane euthanasia is a MUCH better fate than being left to starve to death or getting hit by a car. Legislation is actually being processed right now to reverse it and reopen the slaughter plants because we've seen all the damage that has occurred from what we thought was a good idea.

No one wants to have to kill all the good dogs and cats that don't have homes, trust me. But I just ask you to consider what I've said to see that maybe kill shelters have their place sadly. Unfortunately being humanely euthanized after having a chance in warm, protected environment is a much better alternative to starving to death, dying slowly of disease, being hit by a car, or being shot by some idiot. It would be great to have as many no-kill shelters as were needed for all the millions of homeless animals, but that just isn't realistic by any standards. I wish they didn't have their place, but they do. By getting those animals off the streets we are also preventing them from continuing to overpopulate the area. The shelters are just a symptom. We have to fix the problem of all the dogs and cats that are not spayed or neutered! When there are fewer animals needing help then kill shelters may finally not be necessary!

I would still oppose the bill because it seems like the revisions are a huge waste of taxpayers money that could be better utilized on building more shelters if nothing else.
 
I work at a humane society. They make a huge difference in the lives of animals. The south has their own problems they are dealing with, but here in new hampshire we have a high demand for shelter dogs and not enough dogs in the shelters. More and more people do not want to buy from breeders which is great! New hampshire has one of the hughest transport rates in the country, and they DO NOT euthanize pits, chow chows, rotties, dobies, etc just "Because", most of our shelters in fact are filled to the brim with those breeds of dogs because they are so hard to adopt out due to insurance. True not all humane societies are "no kill" but true no kill shelters do not work, however we do. We only euthanize for aggression and severe illness that we are unable to treat because of our lack of funds. We help so many animals and make many many people very happy. We do not "fill up" in a week, we only take as many as we can handle at a time. We successfully adopted out somewhere around 4000 animals last year ALONE, and I am very proud to say I work at a humane society. If this bill is passed, animals UP HERE will be euthanized instead of rescued and rehomed and MANY MORE dogs will be euthanized down south because we did not have the funds to transport them up here.

And FYI, I LOVE chow chows and pitbulls, and all teh other Bully and so called "aggressive" breeds :mad: and so do many other people at humane societies because we see them as they truely are! In fact at the moment we have 3 pitbulls/ pit crosses, and 3 chow chow crosses, and a few other "aggressive" breed mixes we wouldn't harm a fly( thought cat's aren't out of the question :rolleyes:). The only time we euthanize a so called "aggressive" breed is when they are truely aggressive or sick, and we have had to euthanize way more chihuahuas than chow chows for that reason.
 
I never said humane societies were not a good thing, in fact I said quite the opposite! My dogs are shelter dogs and my cat was a rehabbed feral kitten. I'm fully on board with you, we're on the same page. ;) I think that's great that so many dogs are adopted from your shelter and you actually have room for more!! Trust me, I wish every shelter had that "problem"!! But you said yourself that you only take in as many as you can handle, and that means there are animals out there suffering because you can't handle them (not that it's your fault or anything). I don't have any problem with "aggressive breeds", I know for a fact that rotties and pits are some of the sweetest dogs there are if they're in the right hands! I'm glad that New Hampshire is finally getting to the source of the problem and seeing fewer dogs being bred and more pets being adopted. That makes me happy, I hope more states will follow suite in the future! :D For those that don't, sadly kill shelters will still have their place. :( Like I said above, I'd oppose the bill regardless.
 
Its a shame, no doubt about it, but this is the result of overwhelming numbers.
More sane legislation would be enforced desexing and a requirement for proffesional breeders to be registered and licensed and some effective penalties for backyard breeders and pup mills etc.
What you describe is a typical politically motivated 'bandaid' solution.
Unfortunately kill shelters will always be nessesary since people feel they have the 'right' to breed regardless and will continue to do so. :(
 
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Their focus is on puppy mills and pet stores, but they are now grouping us in. I don't think it is their intention to turn us into kill shelters, they just want to see fewer sick animals. Unfortunately the state veterinarian blames transports and whenever a dog comes into a vet a lo of vets first question is "is this a transport dog?" when any dog can get sick, all of the illnesses down there are also found up here. Unfortunately a lot of vets tattle and call the state vet and say "we have another transport dog with (whatever they have)" What they don't realize is, even with this bill dogs from shelters can still be sick. Health certificates don't always matter, some underlying things will go undetected. Also, being in this setting is a lot like being at school, sickness spreads like wildfire. we treat animals that are sick until they are better and with this bill we would not be able to. any animals that come in sick, injured, or abused will have to be euthanized due to lack of funds as well as cats. In the summer we usually have around 200 cats in house and 80 in foster, this would not be the case if this bill is passed. we would have to euthanize perfectly healthy cats due to both funds and lack of space due to the 7 day quarantine because we have so many cats coming in every day. We have been working efficiently since 1900 and getting better and better every year. My humane society would rather close than have to euthanize so many animals.
 
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