Here Are the NY Pols Who Could Save Thousands of Lives a Year, If They Want It
Here Are the NY Pols Who Could Save Thousands of Lives a Year, If They Want It
They have to want it more than the $$ from "welfare" orgs that would rather continue killing than see the Shelter Animal Rescue Act become law.
In 2021 and again in 2022, the Shelter Animal Rescue Act was poised to move through the New York State Legislature, ideally on its way to the governor’s desk.
SARA would require animal control facilities in New York to release companion animals to qualified rescues, rather than kill them. All at no cost to New York taxpayers.
But SARA stalled, in both the Senate and Assembly. According to the legislature bill tracker, S7911 and A7155 were each held by their respective agriculture committees (for the purpose of legislating, New York State considers all animals, including household pets, to be farmed animals). Those committees are chaired by Binghamton Assembly Member Donna Lupardo and State Senator Michelle Hinchey of Kingston.
SARA is opposed by gargantuan non-profits including the ASPCA and the Humane Society of the United States — orgs that raise millions off the very companion animals they lobby the government to have killed.
A much smaller but possibly no less influential group is the New York State Animal Protection Federation. The APF is a lobbying group for many of New York’s municipal shelters, and describes its members as “no kill” when they in fact openly and routinely kill healthy and adoptable animals, including kittens and puppies.
To tighten its grip on Albany, the APF has its own political action committee, allowing it to hand out money to certain politicians. Though the APF PAC has donated just $4,250 all told, according to government records, it ramped up donations last (election) year. In addition to the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, the APF in 2023 donated to Governor Kathy Hochul and Senator Michelle Hinchey.
If money is the root of all evil, lying is right up there. And it’s mostly through lies that the pro-death orgs derive their power. These groups insist they never kill, or condone the killing of, adoptable animals, when their own data and real life episodes show the opposite is true.
Politicians are as prone to being hoodwinked as the rest of us. The difference, even if most don’t seem to realize it, is they are entrusted to know better, and to act on that knowledge. Lupardo (518-455-5431) and Hinchey (518-455-2350) could use some educating.