Luckily for many animals on working and profitable farms, House Bill 2150 has just been defeated by Arizona Governor Doug Ducey as of Monday, March 30, 2015.
House Bill 2150 (HB 2150 as it was known) had passed both the Arizona House and Senate, and was awaiting the Governor's approval. This bill was upsetting many animal activists.
The animal activists believed that HB 2150 would take away protections for farm animals. They worried that the farm animals would be subjected to greater abuse, neglect and cruelty if they were exempt from the protections in place for cars and dogs. The bill was trying to say that farm animals were not animals essentially and did not need the same anti-cruelty laws as cats and dogs as farm animals were in a working environment and 80% of abuse was done to cats and dogs. The bill's goal was to have the Department of Agriculture oversee any abuse of farm animals and not have local law enforcement involved in issues of farm animal abuse. Local law enforcement is in charge of dog and cat abuse. However, the bill did attempt to add stricter laws about animal hoarding.
HB 2150 was the "pet project" of Representative Brenda Barton- Republican of Arizona.
One might wonder why Representative Barton would create such a strange bill that could jeopardize the safety of livestock. She had also tried to pass this bill previously that many feared would endanger animals on working farms.
In farm states the agendas of law writing representatives are an issue of concern as legislation is put in place to protect land, animals and also big business. It is challenging to satisfy the concerns of both natural resources and industry.
Humane Society officials were up in arms about HB 2150. At one rally a woman even brought her rescue horse who had suffered great abuse until she saved the horse. Some feel that working farms already abuse their animals and that the animals need much more protection and oversight by law enforcement, not less oversight.
Animal activists breathed a sigh of relief when HB 2150 was vetoed by Arizona Governor Doug Ducey on Monday, March 30, 2015.
Some might say that in the case of animal rights we need as many voices to protect the animals as they are unable to speak for themselves. It is hoped that HB 2150 will be put to bed once and for all.
