UPDATE: October 21, 2009, Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI) has REINTRODUCED The Pet Safety and Protection Act (a.k.a. "Buck's Bill") in Congress! Contact your legislators and tell them to support H.R. 3907 in the House and S. 1834 in the Senate to end the sale of stray animals and shelter dogs and cats to research labs! https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=Use...
Background:
Though the Pet Safety and Protection Act passed in both the House and Senate as amendments in their respective Farm Bills in 2007, the provision was excluded from the final version of the 2008 Farm Bill. For more than a decade, Sen. Akaka has introduced this legislation to protect stray animals in SHELTERS from being used in experiments, and each time the legislation has been defeated by special interests groups lobbying on behalf of those in the animal dealing business, who exploit animals for money in needless experiments that serve human beings no purpose. We must not let Buck die in vain!
The Pet Safety and Protection Act ("Buck's Bill") seeks to amend the Animal Welfare Act to ensure that all dogs and cats used by research facilities, often for painful and terminal experimentation, are obtained legally. The PSPA will stop animal research facilities from buying dogs and cats from Class B dealers trafficking in "Random Source" animals.
Named for one of the many animals rescued by Last Chance for Animals during a 2003 raid of the nation's most notorious Class B animal dealer, C.C. Baird, Buck was very ill on the day of his rescue, struggling with Stage 3 Heartworm disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Parasitic pneumonia. Buck spent 7 months at the vet clinic before he was able to be moved to a foster family, but tragically, Buck died in foster care, succumbing to the abuse he suffered at the hands of C.C. Baird.
Last Chance for Animals special investigator "Pete" went undercover at the Martin Creek Kennels in April 2003 and exposed the horrors that animals endure, a story told in the HBO film "Dealing Dogs." "Bucks Bill" honors Buck and all the dogs and cats who die due to inadequate care and abuse at the hands of Class B animal dealers like C.C. Baird.
Class A and B Animal Dealers are licensed by the USDA. Class A dealers breed and sell dogs, cats, and other animals strictly to be sold to labs for research. Class B Animal Dealers, however, obtain their animals from tax-payer-funded shelters, animal auctions, and other dealers, some of whom have been linked to the black market. Dogs and Cats obtained by Class B dealers and the "Bunchers," who round up animals for these dealers, have a long history of trafficking in Stolen Pets and misrepresenting themselves in responding to "Free-To-A-Good-Home" adds, with the unfortunate animals eventually being sold to research labs for experiments.
11 "Random Source" Class B dealers are currently licensed by the USDA to sell dogs and cats for experimentation. The USDA's Animal and Plant health Inspection Service (APHIS) is responsible for inspecting their premises, but the agency is grossly negligent in overseeing the individuals who supply the animals and their kennels. The unfathomable abuse and neglect is an absolute abomination--over crowded cages, rotten food, food contaminated with feces, frozen drinking water, dogs with serious untreated injuries and diseases, and live dogs caged with carcasses of dead dogs--are among the abuses documented in the film.
In 1966 Life Magazine first exposed the thriving commerce of unregulated animal dealers supplying animals to America's laboratories for research. Their 1966 cover story "Concentration Camps For Dogs" was the first to chronicle these horrors. Life photographer Stan Wayman accompanied Frank McMahon, chief investigator of the HSUS and a group of Maryland State Troopers and Humane officers in a 1966 raid of animal dealer Lester Brown's property. Wayman's photographs shocked and outraged the American public, prompting The U.S. Congress to pass the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act of 1966. http://www.hsus.org/about_us/accomplishments/history/concentration_camp_for_p...
Thank you to all U.S. Congressional Members who have supported "Bucks Bill", especially Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Carl Levin (D-MI), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), House Representatives Michael Doyle (D-PA) and Steve Israel (D-NY), and to Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) for his tireless and relentless effort to get these protections for shelter and stray animals passed.
May we never forget Buck nor the suffering he endured.
LCA Background on Buck's Bill is being updated to include the legislation's reintroduction.
http://www.lcanimal.org/cmpgn/cmpgn_d...
Thank you, Maria Daines and Paul Killington, for lending your voice on behalf of Buck. http://www.maria-daines.com/
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