Forwarded from another list.
Non-NYS breeders or owners please write too, it won't hurt and may make the legislators take notice! NYS A9988 & S6903 expand the pet dealer law and will require anyone selling 25 or more of any type of animal to be licensed, $100 per year fee, mandatory inspection and paperwork requirements, it also bans sales of certain animals deemed "exotic".
Katrina
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This post is geared toward rabbit breeders, but other species hobby breeders will be hurt, too. Rabbits are not the only species where it is common for a hobby breeder to sell more than 25 a year. Rats and other high production species commonly are sold in numbers higher than this by hobby breeders.
Just because you are not in New York does not mean this won't affect you. If it gets passed there, it could be only a matter of time before it gets passed in your state.
Non-NYS breeders or owners please write to, it won't hurt and may make the legislators take notice! NYS A9988 & S6903 expand the pet dealer law and will require anyone selling 25 or more of any type of animal to be licensed, $100 per year fee, mandatory inspection and paperwork requirements, it also bans sales of certain animals deemed "exotic".
For rabbit breeders 81% of NYS hobby show breeders will end up being required to be licensed as "pet dealers", 71% of our youth breeders will also be required to be licensed.
Please take a few minutes and send a letter to the Senate sponsor Robach robach@senate.state.ny.us asking him to withdraw the bill or at least amend it to exempt rabbit breeders
Also send a copy to each member of the Senate Consumer Protection Com. where this bill is currently sitting:
Chairperson:
Fuschillo fuschill@senate.state.ny.us 518-455-3341
Members:
Libous senator@senatorlibous.com 518-4552677
Hassell-Thompson hassellt@senate.state.ny.us 518-455-2061
Nozzolio nozzolio@senate.state.ny.us 518-455-2366
Lachman lachman@senate.state.ny.us 518-455-2437
Leibell leibell@senate.state.ny.us 518-455-3111
Krueger kruger@senate.state.ny.us 518-455-2460
Marcellino marcelli@senate.state.ny.us 518-455-2390
Dilan dilan@senate.state.ny.us 518-455-2177
Hoffmann hoffman@senate.state.ny.us 518-455-2665
Sabini sabini@senate.state.ny.us 518-455-2529
Johnson ojohnson@senate.state.ny.us 518-455-3411
Mendez mendez@senate.state.ny.us 518-455-3361
Also send a copy to the Assembly sponsor:
Paulin paulina@assembly.state.ny.us DISTRICT OFFICE
700 White Plains Rd.
Suite 252
Scarsdale, NY 10583
914-723-1115 ALBANY OFFICE
LOB 327
Albany, NY 12248
518-455-5585
Co-sponsors: Grannis grannis@assembly.state.ny.us
Seddio, DISTRICT OFFICE 2424 Ralph Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11234-5517
718-968-2770 ALBANY OFFICE LOB 555
Albany, NY 12248
518-455-5211
Benjamin benjami@assembly.state.ny.us
Galef galefs@assembly.state.ny.us
Lavelle lavellj@assembly.state.ny.us
Norman normanc@assembly.state.ny.us
Ortiz ortizf@assembly.state.ny.us
Multi-sponsors: Bing bingj@assembly.state.ny.us , Bradley
bradlea@assembly.state.ny.us , Brennan
brennaj@assembly.state.ny.us ,
Clark clarkb@assembly.state.ny.us , Glick
glickd@assembly.state.ny.us ,
Gordon gordond@assembly.state.ny.us , Grodenchik
grodenb@assembly.state.ny.us , Gromack
gromaca@assembly.state.ny.us ,
Hooper DISTRICT OFFICE 80 N. Franklin St Hempstead, NY 11550
516-489-6610 ALBANY OFFICE LOB 744 Albany, NY 12248 518-455-5861,
Lafayette lafayei@assembly.state.ny.us , Mayersohn
mayersn@assembly.state.ny.us , Pheffer
Pheffea@assembly.state.ny.us ,
Reilich reilicw@assembly.state.ny.us ,Robinson DISTRICT OFFICE 1360
Fulton Street, Room 417 Brooklyn, NY 11216 718-399-7630 ALBANY
OFFICE
LOB 430 Albany, NY 12248 518-455-5474 ,& Towns
townsd@assembly.state.ny.us
And a copy to the Assembly Ag com. where the A9988 is
sittingAssembly
Agriculture Committee Members
Chair Assemblyman William Magee
mageew@assembly.state.ny.us
Members
Assemblyman Darrel J. Aubertine
aubertd@assembly.state.ny.us
Assemblyman Marc W. Butler
butlerm@assembly.state.ny.us
cohena@assembly.state.ny.us
Assemblyman Michael Cohen
28th Assembly DistrictnQueens
ALBANY OFFICE
LOB 834
Albany, NY 12248
518-455-4926
DISTRICT OFFICE
98-08 Metropolitan Avenue
Forest Hills, NY 11375
718-263-5595
No Email
Fax 455-5173
Assemblymember Clifford W. Crouch
crouchc@assembly.state.ny.us
Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz
cymbros@assembly.state.ny.us
Assemblywoman Francine DelMonte
delmontf@assembly.state.ny.us
Assemblymember RoAnn M. Destito
destitr@assembly.state.ny.us
Assemblyman Steve Englebright
engles@assembly.state.ny.us
Assemblyman Daniel L. Hooker
hookerd@assembly.state.ny.us
Assemblyman Jeff Klein
kleinj@assembly.state.ny.us
Lifton: liftonb@assembly.state.ny.us
Assemblyman Pat Manning
manninp@assembly.state.ny.us
Assemblywoman Margaret M. Markey
markeym@assembly.state.ny.us
Assemblyman Roy McDonald
ALBANY OFFICE
LOB 531
Albany, NY 12248
518-455-5404
DISTRICT OFFICE
383 Broadway - Rm. 202
Fort Edward, NY 12828
518-747-7098
No Email
Fax 518 455-3727
Assemblymember John J. McEneny
mcenenj@assembly.state.ny.us
Assemblyman Peter M. Rivera
riverap@assembly.state.ny.us
Assemblyman Richard A. Smith
ALBANY OFFICE
LOB 619
Albany, NY 12248
518-455-4462
DISTRICT OFFICE
3812 South Park Avenue
Blasdell, NY 14219
716-826-1878
No Email
Fax 518 455-5560
Assemblyman Paul D. Tonko
tonkop@assembly.state.ny.us
And to: Assembly speaker Sheldon speaker@assembly.state.ny.us
Senate Majority leader Bruno bruno@senate.state.ny.us
Write a letter in your own words-it works better than form letters, discuss the following points:
the rabbit breeding community is opposed to A9988/S6903 for many reasons:
-The licensing threshold of "25" or more rabbits sold per year is too low to exempt the average hobby rabbit breeder. This number may apply to dog and cat breeders but it doesn't for rabbits. Based on a survey of hobby breeders the average number sold per year by a hobby rabbit breeder is 68. Over 80% of NYS show rabbit breeders will be required to be licensed as "pet dealers".
-Requiring the majority of us to be licensed as "pet dealers", which we are not as this is our hobby, may cause many of us to have problems with local zoning laws restricting running a business in residential areas.
-Commercial pet rabbit dealers and breeders are already required to be licensed and inspected on the Federal level under the USDA by the Animal Welfare Act. This law is redundant and and an unnecessary expense for taxpayers.
-The current pet dealer law covering dogs and cats is facing funding problems due to the state budget, A9988/S6903 will add nearly every pet store and animal breeder and the expense of the program will skyrocket.
-Historically breeder licensing programs do not pay for themselves or solve any problems. The cost of licenses are raised becausethere are not enough breeders to finance it. This causes an undue hardship for hobby breeders. In the case of A9988/S6903 we areexpected to pay $100 per year despite the average breeder losing hundreds per year just to run a rabbitry. We also are paying the same licensing fee as dog and cat breeders despite there being a gross difference in prices each species is sold for i.e the average price of a dog is $496 while the price of an average pet rabbit is $19. Also some communities in other states are repealing breeder licensing laws because they do not work.
-Hobby breeders selling animals from our homes not needed in our breeding program already face a system of "inspection". Pet owners and other breeders visiting the breeder's facilities to purchase animals are able to report any substandard places. This system has been proven to work to eliminate irresponsible breeders. Watch the news, most people turned in to animal control arereported by primarily their neighbors or buyers. Existing laws for animal cruelty cover everyone, it does not exempt breeders or petstores therefore we do not need new laws which will be difficult to enforce.
-Mandatory licensing and inspection is an invasion of privacy for hobbyists who are pursuing a hobby from their home. Often timesthe standards as written apply to commercial operations but are near impossible to apply to a hobbyist's home set-up. Or the standards are not based on animal husbandry standards and acceptable industry practices. For example the pet dealer lawmandates animals be fed twice per day. Most rabbit breeders feed their animals once per day, there is no reason for us to feedtwice. To force hobby breeders to divide up one days worth of feed into 2 feedings is not practical, logical, or necessary. We are not running a business with employees, all the work is done by ourselves.
-The paperwork requirements will result in more hardships for hobby breeders. While many of us do keep records of our buyers and contact information (useful when bad legislation is proposed) some of the records required in the pet dealer law are useless for thehobbyist. By requiring us to keep all this extra paperwork it is like we are running a business. People that pursue hobby breeding do so because they do not want to run a business.
-Shelters and rescues are exempted creating discrimination against people breeding animals. Also there is ample evidence that shelters and rescues in NYS are importing large numbers of animals, if breeders are to be licensed so to should these hybrid petstores. According to the North Shore Animal League website they imported 10,000 animals into NYS last year alone, 83,000 since 1991. Also the organizations representing shelters have been able to provide input into A9988/S6903 however no input has been sought from the breeder's group such as the American Rabbit Breeders Assoc or the NYSRCBA.
-The state of CO requires breeder licensing for those running a
business. The law specifically exempts hobby breeders and sets
different limits for each species. For dogs and cats a breeder
selling 24 or fewer is considered a hobby breeder and exempt. For birds that number is less than 30; rats, mice or gerbils are less than 200; rabbit and cavies (guinea pigs) it's 65.
Please crosspost this, send to all your friends and pet customers, make sure the breeding community is aware of this attempt to license hobby breeders. And join http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NYSAO/ to discuss how best to organize to fight this legislation and other NYS legislation that affects all animal breeders and owners.
It's time to KILL THIS BILL!!!!
