Wednesday, March 09, 2011
By Elisabeth Jennings
Executive Director, Animal Protection of New Mexico and Animal Protection Voters
For decades, Animal Protection of New Mexico and Animal Protection Voters have been examining and challenging the root causes of historic and widespread animal cruelty in the state, rolling up our sleeves and offering humane and workable solutions to communities. There are significant hurdles that lie between today's reality and a brighter future for animals who depend on us for virtually every aspect of their well-being.
To be sure, Animal Protection of New Mexico and Animal Protection Voters work to see strong laws enacted and enforced in New Mexico. Most New Mexicans uphold improved animal protection laws passed in recent years, knowing they protect people and animals. The incontrovertible link between animal cruelty and family violence makes crimes against animals a serious social welfare issue for our time.
Over a decade's worth of animal cruelty cases have demonstrated that the state's cruelty statute — not significantly upgraded since 1999 — needs to clearly address conduct often treated as minor crimes today. We aim to ensure there are consequences for egregious and reckless acts against animals: starving a dog to death on the end of a chain; cutting off a puppy's ears with scissors; letting dogs be eaten alive by maggots; abandoning a mother dog and her puppies to die of starvation; and neglecting and starving a horse to the point where her outgrown hooves force her to stand on gangrenous fetlocks, leading to muscle atrophy, constant pain and her death.
These are willful acts that caused unimaginable suffering and which most people could not stand to witness. All of these cases occurred in New Mexico, and all were considered to be the least serious kind under current state law.
Sen. Richard Martinez's Senate Bill 348 and Rep. Al Park's House Bill 319 currently being considered in the 2011 legislative session would further protect animals from cruelty like that described above, conduct that should be earnestly confronted. The bills also would make the heinous crime of bestiality a fourth-degree felony.
But changing the laws is not the entire answer. That's why Animal Protection of New Mexico provides program services that help people make kind and responsible choices so animals are given relief on the ground, where it matters. For example, Animal Protection of New Mexico partnered to create a statewide Equine Protection Fund that provides temporary feed assistance for horses in families affected by an economic downturn, assistance for the costs of equine euthanasia and is currently planning its first low-cost gelding clinic.
In just six years, Animal Protection of New Mexico has subsidized over $80,000 worth of training to animal control officers across New Mexico, helping them obtain professional training essential to this important job, but which their communities often cannot afford. Further, Animal Protection of New Mexico is working with the N.M. Department of Public Safety to train therapists to effectively treat those who are cruel to animals, as punishment alone is not an effective remedy. Animal Protection of New Mexico's website (www.apnm.org) has available a comprehensive list of statewide resources for those who are experiencing problems with animal issues, and those without Internet service can call our hot line (1-505-265-2322, x29) for help.
Most New Mexicans do care for their animals and go to lengths to treat them with respect and stewardship. But rare outliers commit unacceptable acts of cruelty, and these cases cannot and should not be ignored.
Animal Protection Voters urges New Mexicans to support SB 348 and HB 319, measures that appeal to our sense of decency and invoke our empathy for animals. The common theme from thousands of calls our hot line receives every year is that compassion and personal responsibility, combined with the will to make positive change happen, make our state a more humane place for everyone.
Posted with permission from the Albuquerque Publishing Company.
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