Legalectric

That’s old Steiner here, telling all you legislators that it’s time to adopt more than a cat or a dog!  Our legislative session starts on Tuesday, and now’s the time to adopt the Minnesota Companion Animal Protection Act.

The language: HF 391 Minnesota Companion Animal Protection Act

It was introduced last year in the House (HF 391) and Senate (SF 1204).  It was forwarded on to their respective Ag committes, and stalled out.

To revive it, I think the best thing to do is to contact those listed as authors and the chairs of House and Senate Ag Committees that you want to see the Companion Animal Protection Act, HF 391 and SF 1204, passed this year.  Emails of authors and Chairs here to cut and paste:

rep.john.benson@house.mn (House author)

rep.paul.rosenthal@house.mn (House author)

rep.jeanne.poppe@house.mn (Chair – House Agriculture Policy Committee)

sen.julie.rosen@senate.mn (Senate author)

sen.jeff.hayden@senate.mn (Senate author)

sen.matt.schmit@senate.mn (Senate author)

sen.foung.hawj@senate.mn (Senate author)

sen.dan.sparks@senate.mn (Chair – Senate Jobs, Agriculture & Rural Devo Committee

Looking at the bill, I’ve got a few comments, and I’m making them as a member of the Board of the Humane Society of Goodhue County, where I’ve learned a few things about Companion Animal Protection, though to be clear, I am NOT speaking for HSGC, nor do my comments reflect the policies of HSGC:

First, in the Definitions, lines 2.8 – 2.15,  the Private and Public sheltering agency should mention requiring licensure of the agencies and to acknowledge that licensure includes a limit the number of animals they may hold.

Line 2.11, I think “has” should be “have.”

Still in Definitions, lines 2.20 – 2.22, “stated” should be deleted, and paragraph should say:

Subd. 10. Rescue group.  “Rescue Group” means a collaboration of individuals organized as a Minnesota non-profit or designated by IRS as a nonprofit under section 501 (c)(3), and whose primary purpose is animal rescue and adoption.

For consistency, I’d lock in all holding periods to five (5) days, and not two or three depending on circumstances (see lines 3.12, 3.16, 3.20, 4.2, et al.)

Line 3.29, should add, at the end of line, “and public.”  Shelters do move animals between them to give animals a new venue to increase adoption opportunities.

Sec. 4, lines 4.1 – 4.9 should be expanded to include specifically prohibiting euthanasia of owner relinquished animals unless irremediably suffering and/or non-rehabilitable.  The MCAPA should also include language requiring that shelters provide owners wanting to surrender their animals with information on training and behavior options prior to accepting the animal.  Owners often dump animals at shelters who are perfectly good, healthy animals “to be put to sleep.”  Not acceptable.

Lines 5.1 – 5.2 need clarification — if animals are not candidates for redemption, transfer, or adoption, how will they “leave the shelter in reasonable condition?”  This sounds like a mandate for palliative care to limit suffering, but the intent and language of these two lines is not clear.

Lines 5.24 – 5.31 — How will we know if “any of the organization’s current directors, officers, staff or volunteers have been convicted..”  A registry?

Add to Sec. 7, line 6.32: microchips, identification tags, and licenses.  All animals adopted or transferred out of public and private sheltering agencies shall be microchipped.

Add to Sec. 7, at end of line 7.1, before line 7.2: The holding period does not begin until the photo and description have been posted.

ADD an animal abuse registry.  Animal abuse, neglect, and hoarding isn’t a one time thing, it’s a pattern of behavior and by tracking those abusing animals, we can prevent adoptions into environments that are dangerous for these animals we’re working to protect:

Sec. 8. [346.67] ADOPTION OR TRANSFER CRITERIA.

Subd. 1 (language in lines 7.12 – 7.15)

Subd. 2.  The state Department of Agriculture shall maintain a publicly accessible online registry of individuals, business, and organizations convicted of animal abuse, neglect and/or hoarding for reference by public or private sheltering agencies and rescue groups, which shall include name of offender, current address, other known addresses, date of conviction with statutory citation, and summary of offense(s).  Public or private sheltering agencies and rescue groups, kennels, and individuals shall be prohibited from adopting, selling, or giving animals to those on the registry and members of their households.

Add to Sec. 9, l. 7.20: (1) there are no empty cates, kennels, or other living environments in the shelter, or the shelter is filled to its licensed capacity.

Add to Sec. 12, ENFORCEMENT, line 10.12: A public or private sheltering agency, rescue group, or individual may compel a public or …

Those are the thoughts off the top of my head, and this is a work in progress.  Now, on to the House and Senate authors and Committee chairs!  Once more with feeling, here they are:

rep.john.benson@house.mn (House author)

rep.paul.rosenthal@house.mn (House author)

rep.jeanne.poppe@house.mn (Chair – House Agriculture Policy Committee)

sen.julie.rosen@senate.mn (Senate author)

sen.jeff.hayden@senate.mn (Senate author)

sen.matt.schmit@senate.mn (Senate author)

sen.foung.hawj@senate.mn (Senate author)

sen.dan.sparks@senate.mn (Chair – Senate Jobs, Agriculture & Rural Devo Committee

Degasify… degasify… degasify… degasify… Bakken crude must be degasified before it’s put into tankers and goes down the track!  What’s so hard about that to understand?

Yesterday, the DOT issued a letter of agreements with the Association of American Railroads:

DOT and AAR Letter – Feb 21 2014

The majority of which is blather that is make work feel good nothingness, the only thing with some quantifiable demonstrable meat to it is:

Nowhere do they address a requirement to degasify the crude before it is loaded, and it’s that gas in the crude that is so explosive.  HELLO!  When are they going to deal with the issue?

Here’s the DOT letter regarding degasifying:

1_2_14 DOT Rail_Safety_Alert

And here’s the part that addresses degasifying the crude before transport:

Come on, DOT, how hard is that to understand?  Bakken crude must be degasified before it goes rolling down the track.

The DOT map says it all — all the roads are closed in SE Minnesota.  Maybe next week…

Cars stuck on West, a major street in Red Wing, one right here and another a block further downhill who did a 360 or more, now the cops are out there and a big pick up truck, but that car is still stuck, ???  What a mess.  It’s a good night to stay inside, and I don’t regret not going up to Grand Rapids for the Great Northern Transmission Line scoping meeting, though I miss having a visit with Charlotte!

STrib reports “white out conditions.”

And the Weather Underground says “Blizzard Warning,” but it’s 33 degrees right now.  Heavy snow, and lots of it, our boat cover collapsed.  Alan shoveled off the attached garage roof without taking a header, whew, and built a roof rake and got the snow off the garage/shop before it collapsed.  This is more like Minnesota winter as I remember it.  And it sucks just as bad as I remember it!

For your viewing enjoyment, from Jeanne, my SiL, or is it SoL (she’s probably enjoying this beautiful day in Costa Rica right now), I so needed this:

The Keystone XL pipeline has been hit with a significant problem, and a MAJOR victory for landowners in Nebraska!  Here’s the Court’s decision:

Keystone XL Eminent Domain decision — LB-1161-Court-Order-Feb-19-2014

The Nutshell version: