Monday, July 09, 2012

Animal Welfare Group at Urban Harvest (Bismarck)

This Thursday North Dakotan's to Stop Animal Cruelty will have a table at Urban Harvest in Bismarck from 10am-8pm. They will have information and petitions available for people to sign. If you live in the area but haven’t had a chance to sign the petition this is your chance! Even if people feel neutral about the issue but support the democratic process it's worth signing the petition!

 Don’t live in the Bismarck area? No worries, there are signature gatherers at events going on all around the state. Check out their other events to find a signature gatherer near you!  

About the initiative
Over the last few months volunteers all over the state have been putting in a lot of hours and hard work on gathering signatures to get an initiative on November's ballot. If passed, a new section of law would be added to our existing animal cruelty law that would make extreme and intentional acts of cruelty to dogs, cats and horses a Class C felony. This section of law includes the same exemptions that are in our existing law (anything relating to hunting, agriculture or medical practice.)

There's been a lot of ongoing discussion over the past several years among legislators and other groups about change in this area but due to questions about wording, interpretation, etc. nothing has ever moved forward. As a result this initiative was written, in a very concise and balanced manner, to bring to the citizens to decide. In other words: it’s specific to our most common pets, includes only the most malicious types of cruelty and does not infringe on common practices held sacred by many ND citizens. 

Sunday, July 01, 2012

There was a great story on the North Dakotan's to Stop Animal Cruelty group recently. Here it is in case you missed it: Group Fights to Change the Animal Cruelty Laws in ND

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Drive to stiffen animal cruelty laws cites beating death of Grand Forks dog

My heart goes out to this family and the poor little dog who lost his life. Sign the petition to help North Dakotans to Stop Animal Cruelty get a measure on the ballot this November that would make awful acts of abuse such as this a felony.

Grand Forks Herald | May 4 2012

"People working to increase North Dakota penalties against animal cruelty are citing the recent killing of a pet dog during a Grand Forks home invasion and robbery as an example of why the cruelty laws should be toughened. North Dakotans to Stop Animal Cruelty, a coalition of animal shelters, veterinarians, pet rescue operations, animal control officers and others, said the beating death of a Chihuahua named Baby “demonstrates why certain acts of animal cruelty must be punished as felonies.”

Read the full article