Get political on animal issues. Voting tips with Shelby Bobosky from Texas Humane Legislation Network

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We love pooch ideas for podcasts and merchandise, so anytime send an email to polly at barkinwag. com with your suggestions.  Welcome to Bark and Wag 15 minute vet talk. I'm your host, Polly Requa. Today we're talking to Shelby, executive director of Texas Humane Legislation Network. We're going to talk about registering to vote, looking up animal voting records in your state, scorecards. Welcome Shelby. Hi, Polly. 

Thanks for being on the podcast. So tell us what should we be doing before November 5th?  Excellent question. I know that a lot of animal lovers out there don't really think tying their legislators to To animal issues is important, but it is incredibly important and I urge anybody that cares about animals, whether you are volunteering in the shelter all the time, whether you have your own 501 C3, your own rescue, whether you're a shelter professional.

To get political for animals. And that means looking at your candidates and seeing what kind of voting history they have on animal welfare legislation.  So how do people do that?  You know, Polly, it's really simple.  So many States, I believe over 30 have C4 organizations dedicated to promoting the humane treatment of animals.

through legislation and advocacy and it might be, it's,  Texas Humane Legislation is a perfect example, but in Missouri, in Minnesota, in Georgia, they all might have different names, but they essentially are telling you how previous legislative scorecards came out. And so all you have to Google is Legislation, animals, voters, and usually your state organization pops up.

But in addition to that, Polly, Humane Society Legislative Fund, HSLF,  has a wonderful scorecard and Track record of congressional members that have voted on congressional bills, but I urge everyone to look at your own states as well. And so what is on a scorecard? I don't think I know about that. Sure.

Well, and it's different in every state, right? For example, we don't call them scorecards. We just call them voting records, but it usually has the bills that relate to animal welfare in the previous legislative session, and it shows you how your legislator voted. And it's also a really good way to keep your elected officials honest.

You know, when we were passing the Safe Outdoor Dogs Act here in Texas in 2023, I had a couple of C3s in a district say to me, Oh, we just thanked our legislator who came to one of our adoption events. And I said, Oh, who is that? They told me his name. I said, he did not vote for our bill. And they were shocked.

And they said, well, his office told us he did. And I sent them the legislative record and they could not believe it. And they definitely called him out and, you know, had some words with him because of that. mistaken identity on a vote. So not only does it keep your legislators honest because they know that you are looking at their record on animal welfare bills. 

Wow. Okay. And is there, are there any other tips that you can give the voters? You know, it's just so important not only to look up, a legislative, uh, record from a certain elected official, but let's say you don't have that. Let's say you have a race where you have no incumbents and that means, you know, any kind of previous voting history to review. 

Everybody right now wants your vote. So there are town halls, there are public forums, whether it's in Zoom or any other manner, and you can ask them really important questions. For example, if you have an overpopulation situation in your town, and you have a potential city council member that's being elected, You can ask them, what do you think if our city passed a mandatory spay neuter ordinance?

Or what do you think about making those who do not get their animal spayed or neutered to purchase a breeding permit, right? So this can go all the way up to your congressional, uh, elected officials and legislators like your senators and your congressmen. But most importantly, so many animal issues happen at the local level so it can go all the way down even to your city council members and your County commissioners.

So again, if they don't have that background, feel free to start following them on Facebook. You know, do they have a pet? And guess what? Where did they get their pet from? Did they go ahead and adopt their animal from the local shelter? That would be something very attractive to me, right? Uh, does the person own, um, a breeding facility?

Do they own a pet store that sells puppies? You know, all of these simple, um, kind of research tools can be done in five minutes to learn more about your candidate. So I urge everyone to take that time. If you are willing to spend hundreds of hours volunteering at your local shelter. Um, or you're in the sheltering profession.

You definitely want to research these candidates.  And so you brought up a good, um, point. Are there certain questions if people are going to go to a town hall meeting to ask? I mean, obviously one is how do you feel about puppy mills? Like that needs to end.  Are there other questions? I mean, I know you just said a few, but, um, are there any  ones that should be brought up so that People would just automatically know, I'm not going to vote for you, or I will vote for you.

Yeah, it's, it's a great question, Polly, and it really depends on where you are, but I'll give some more examples. How about, hey, do you own any pets? Where'd you, where, oh, you have three dogs? Where'd you get your dogs from? You know, um, well, I got all three at Petland. Okay. That might give your answer, um, you know, to your idea,  right?

But in addition to that, I will give a quick example in a city here in Texas, what they have started to do is not pick up stray animals. And I definitely would ask a candidate for a city council position on that. How do you feel about that? Are you okay with dogs?  that are roaming around? Or do you think that that violates our stray law?

Um, another example,  you know, what do you think? There was a recent dog fighting bust in East Texas. I would certainly ask that candidate. Do you think we need to strengthen? The dog fighting law, you know, so it really depends on the issues that your city, your County, your state face. But in Texas overpopulation is a crisis that is nonstop and it feel like it feels like there's no way out.

So I definitely want to know if our elected officials are willing to put funding behind spay and neuter, um, programs and so forth. So again, look to your own. local issues, but it could be as easy as, you know, do you own a pet and where'd you get that pet from?  Okay, great. Well, this is, this is a great topic.

And um, I appreciate you being on the podcast and I look forward to having you back. Thank you so much, Polly. And just remember  to always think that you can get political for animals. It is not intimidating. And just a couple of minutes, you can learn so much about your candidates and elected officials. 

Great.

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