2008 Legislative Breakfast Report
 

Our 2008 Legislative Breakfast in Albany was well received; we had a total of over thirty legislators and/or their staff in attendance. At the breakfast we went over LOHV’s pending bills with the attending legislators and aides. After the breakfast we had meetings scheduled with the leadership of the legislative bodies and the committees that would have to hear our bills.

 I would like to express my appreciation to all of you who came to help us make our breakfast a success;

Pictures of the event can be seen at: http://humanevoters.org/events/LegBreak2008/Pics.htm

We took up our bills with the leadership of the Senate, the Assembly and the Committee chairs:

1)       The Canned Hunt Bill (S00784 and A02612) has an excellent chance of passing this year it was opposed by the farm bureau. In conference with the Senate leadership, we made some changes to address the concerns of the farmers. It has passed the Assembly and is out of the Encon Committee in the Senate. We were lead to believe that it will be able to get to the Senate floor for a full vote before this session ends. Recently, after the legislative breakfast, – we’ve been informed that a large national animal protection organization is opposed to the bill which would outlaw canned hunts in the state of New York. We are trying to get in touch with the organization to explore their concerns”

2)       Ban Shooting Contest Bill (S0156 and A02614) This bill has no opposition from the Legislative leadership; the head of the Senate Encon Committee (Carl Marcellino) who is its sponsor seems reluctant to schedule it for a committee hearing. His aide asked us to poll his committee members to see where they stand. We are asking him to confirm that he would schedule it for a hearing if the majority of his committee favors passage of the bill. Marcellino’s posturing and trying to send us off to do some busy-work-tasks seems to be a negative indicator.
We’ve taken an alternate path to bypass Marcellino and the NYS legislature – by going to the DEC and asking them to pass a regulation which would achieve the same effect as the stalled bill. Peter Grannis the Commissioner of the DEC expressed his willingness to check out and make sure that such a regulation has no unforeseen consequences.

3)       Dissection Notification Bill (S05408 and A00585) This bill also has no opposition from the Legislative leadership. The committee chairs of both chambers were unavailable for consultation on the day of our breakfast.  We will schedule meetings with them in a week or thereabouts to help this bill get to the floor of both chambers for a vote.

4)       Home Rule for Trapping Bill (S01461and A07991) This bill is also stuck in the Senate Encon Committee. Carl Marcellino seems totally determined to stop this bill – although neither he nor his staff can come up with an explanation of why home-rule should not be expanded into this area.  We have to wait until Marcellino gets voted out or until the entire NY State Senate is no longer controlled by the Republican Party (very possibly January 2009).

5)       Prohibit Foie Gras Production Bill (S01463 and A06277) This bill unfortunately has little chance of moving forward this session. The Farm Bureau is totally opposed to it.  The Farm Bureau exercises a great deal of influence in the current Senate. The Farm Bureau argues that this would constitute limiting a “normal farm practice.” Force-feeding ducks is not a normal practice by any standard. The Farm Bureau is concerned with limiting any farm practice for humane reason – in their view permitting any such law would lead to a “slippery slope” which would result in banning many farm practices which people with a humane perspective would find objectionable.