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D’VAL WESTPHAL
Of the Journal
Now that legal cockfighting is a distant memory, there’s really not much more for animal advocates to do in New Mexico, right?
Wrong. While more roosters may be safe from the crime-ridden blood sport, circa 2009 there’s still a lot of work to do to ensure all animals in the state are treated humanely.
Animal Protection of New Mexico took a deep breath after the 2007 Legislature banned cockfighting. Then it got busy helping ensure the ban is enforced and violators are prosecuted. Busy helping train law enforcement officers on animal cruelty so they understand the link to domestic violence and know what paraphernalia to look for to get “stackable charges.” Busy trying to educate people about the cruelty of chaining their dogs. Busy rescuing starving, abandoned horses. Busy trying to teach people that tying a can of gasoline to a kitten’s tail and lighting it is a deliberate act of cruelty and not a harmless “see if it gets scared” exercise. Busy explaining that you can’t throw a bag of 20 puppies over a 20-foot wall onto concrete and expect things to turn out OK.
The group handled 2,000 cases that came via its hot lines in 2008. Even with a cockfighting ban, there’s lots of work to do.
Executive director Lisa Jennings says the group’s political arm, Animal Protection Voters, has a slate of legislation based on those cases, several joint proposals with the Attorney General’s Animal Cruelty Task Force. It includes:
- Broadening the state’s felony animal cruelty statute (HB 159) so intentional neglect or abandonment; criminal negligence; and denial of food, water or shelter resulting in great bodily harm or death are fourthdegree felonies. Rewording would also make reptiles and research labs subject to the scope of the law.
- Heather Ferguson, the group’s legislative director, says the object isn’t to target someone who forgot to put kibble in the dish one morning. It’s the person who knows that they eat every day and yet doesn’t make sure their animals do, too. Jennings emphasizes that “we’re not trying to create felons; there’s no shortage.”
- Creating a state indemnity law (SB 127) so owners of animals that are seized kick in money for their care — reasonable charges that could start at a few dollars a day for food. “Requiring owners to post a security deposit for animal care is not a punitive measure, but rather represents the normal cost of caring for animals,” the group’s Legislative Priorities list says.
Ferguson gives the example of 12 horses seized in Wagon Mound; while the case dragged on for a year and a half, the state livestock board spent some $50,000 caring for the animals. In Doña Ana County, the shelter has 92 seized animals from dogs to ducks to a potbellied pig that it’s caring for without help from the owners.
* Establishing an equine protection fund. It would provide support to sanctuaries for abandoned/ relinquished horses and subsidize humane euthanasia and disposal. “All of us are going to live or die,” Jennings says. “Suffering is what the issue is. We want to avoid suffering.”
She acknowledges this is a tough year to get any state funding for a current initiative, much less a new one, but she’s been working closely with Gov. Bill Richardson to get relief for the state’s horses. In this economy, she fears, “these cases are only going to increase.” *
Clarifying wording in the “spay/neuter” license plate legislation (SB 185). Cleaning up the language wou ld get t he money intended for spay/neuter programs out of limbo and help make a dent in the euthanization of tens of thousands of animals — 67,000 in New Mexico in 2007 alone.
The group also supports the AG’s proposal to include animals in orders of protection (HB 434), and puts victims of domestic violence in touch with safe havens for their animals. One Animal Protection f lier says, “In a violent family, anyone can be a victim, including the family dog or cat. Violent acts are not separate or distinct — they develop in similar patterns and have similar characteristics. When you break free, rescue your animals too.”
That unpleasant connectivity is all too real when it comes to animal cruelty, Ferguson says. While cockfighting advocates have argued for years that it’s simply sport and cultural, she’s seen the guns and drugs and gambling and babies in filthy playpens next to dead animals too many times. She’s listened as the deputies asked for a prayer before the on-call vet euthanized pens of roosters. She’s accepted thanks from residents who were glad there was finally an impetus to get it —and all it encompassed — out of their neighborhood.
But in most cases Jennings says a little education and a lot of dedication go a long way. Some folks just don’t understand the effects of their actions, from a chain to a lack of shade. “If you dial in and drill down to the real reasons,” she says, “you may not like them, they may be fiscal or educational.” They are also often addressable.
All the proposals have been introduced, save for the horse protection fund, and are working their ways through the Legislature. When it comes to how we treat our animals, “we have a long way to go on how people think,” Ferguson says. Putting these laws in place may help shorten it.
road@abqjournal.com
Cruelty hot lines
Animal Protection of New Mexico: 821-9142 in Albuquerque
AG’s Animal Cruelty Task Force, toll free: (888) 260-2178
Posted with permission from the Albuquerque Publishing Company. |
