A Victory for the Animals...Sorta'!

It really was a great day on Tuesday, going up to Sacramento to show my support for NOT repealing the Hayden Law. The victory was a bit hollow though, because as much as I wanted Hayden to stay "suspended" and not be "repealed," it's still just that, suspended. Remember shelters do not have to legally follow most of the  laws of Hayden at this time.

Now some of the Hayden law still remains in tact....For instance, shelters still must hold and make available for adoption animals relinquished by their purported owners and shelters must release animals to qualified 501(c)(3) rescue organizations who request said animals before the shelter kills them.
 
 I also learned that no mandate ever suspended for more than two years has ever been reinstated.

So where does that leave us? It leaves us pushing the Senate Budget Subcommittee to do what the Assembly Budget Subcommittee did. And we're not taking "no" for an answer.

It also leaves us with pondering questions of  how do we help shelter animals in the state of CA? What's next? While things have gotten much better for dogs, for cats it's another story. We are still killing the vast majority of cats who come into our shelters and we just can't accept that any more. As a society, we must look to communities that are having huge successes with live save rates (animals leaving the shelter alive) and create an environment for the rest to follow. There will always be trailblazers and followers--for the animals, we must now get the followers to follow the right ones.

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