Hello everyone! Thank you for clicking on the link that brought you to this petition!! My name is Tracie Reece and I recently moved back to the Great state of Alabama in 2020. When I was a teenager, my father's job relocated us to Atlanta Georgia. It was there that I meet the love of my life and married him 41 years ago. Together we share three amazing children, two girls and a boy. We are so proud of our children and today all three of them are contributing, law abiding, voting citizens. My husband and I are also grandparents to four beautiful blessings of hope! I was a stay at home mom that always put my family first! I stayed very active in my childrens school and served as chairman of several PTA boards such as, The Community Outreach Program where I made sure that those in need received the help they so badly needed. I organized and lead our community in an effort to make sure all families had food on their tables. I worked with homeless shelters doing all that I could to make sure those individuals had all the necessities most of us take for granted. One year my daughter and I made several hundred wool scarfs that we gave out to those who didn't have heaters to keep them warm.
I am also a licensed Cosmetologist for 38+ years who waited to chase her dream of opening her very own Salon & Spa until her youngest child was graduated from highschool. Dreams can and do come true and Elequa Salon & Spa...The New Meaning of Excellence, aka Hello Gorgeous Inc. opened the doors for business. I took this amazing opportunity to once again to reach out to the community and do all I could to help others in need. My motto has always been to not only make people look fantastic on the outside, but to feel fantastic on the inside as well. I believe both are very important factors in and of itself and I used that salon to do what I called God's work. I did battered women's total makeovers for free so they could look, feel and be their best while applying for much needed jobs so they could start a new life for themselves, free of abuse. I teamed up with our city and did free children's haircuts and I made sure that they all went home with their own goodie bags filled with what they needed to take care of their hair at home. Elequa Salon & Spa sent all the hair we collected to a company dedicated to making an oil absorbing product used to help the thousands of innocent animals that were affected by the horrible oil spill. I also contacted all the salons in our community to inform them of my efforts and asked them to help me make a bigger difference by collecting their salons hair. They could either drop it off in bags at Elequa or call me and I would go pick it up. Locks of Love haircuts were always free and I sent the long locks of hair to the company that used it to make cancer victim wigs. Sadly, in 2010, I contracted Lyme Disease which was so debilitating and I was forced to close Elequa Salon & Spa. After a long period of time battling the awful disease, I am now pleased to say that I am once again functional; at least in my own new special way. All of those life experiences have brought me full circle and I once again find myself living another lifetime dream my husband and I have shared for a very long time; owning a farm.
Northeast Alabama is exactly where my husband and I will spend our golden years together doing what we love most, surrounding ourselves with our beloved animals on our very own farm. We both feel that this area is definitely God's country and it is my hope that everyone reading this can see the beauty here and relate.
In August, I learned about the inhumane case of animal cruelty that this particular mare had to endure. My heart broke into a thousand pieces when I heard about this innocent horse that had a rope tied around her neck and dragged down an asphalt road by an ATV. When I found out that animal cruelty in Alabama was still a misdemeanor, I knew then that I was not going to just ideally stand by and allow this type of crime to go unpunished. I will do everything in my power to change the laws in Alabama to make it a felony offense for anyone convicted of animal cruelty instead of it being a measley misdemeanor. It is past time for evil individuals that willingly commit animal cruelty to face stiffer punishment for their actions. It is past time for Alabama to join in with other states that have already changed their laws regarding animal cruelty and have made the crime of doing so a felony offense. We the people must stand up and have our voices heard for all animals who cannot stand up and fight for themselves!
I asked myself, what can I do in order to see real change happen in Alabama regarding animal cruelty. First, I sat down and wrote a letter to every news outlet I could find in an effort to get this particular story of animal cruelty out there for the general population of our community. I then realized that our communities are in desperate need of like minded individuals coming together to spread awareness about animal cruelty. Our children in Public and private schools need to be educated on animal cruelty! Our children need to feel empathy for any and all animals that are suffering from cruelty and they need to be taught proper animal husbandry. They also need to know what animal abuse looks like and how they can make a huge difference by being able to anonymously report any animal abuse they may witness, and last but not least, how animal cruelty can be prevented!
It is my goal to make sure these crucial steps are implemented so cruelty to animals can hopefully one day come to an end.
Please encourage everyone you know to sign this petition so that they may do the same for everyone they know! IN ORDER TO BE SUCCESSFUL, I NEED YOU TO JOIN FORCES WITH ME & FIGHT FOR WHAT IS RIGHT!! FIGHT FOR THE ANIMALS WHO HAVE NO VOICE TO FIGHT FOR THEMSELVES! TOGETHER, WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE! THANK YOU AND BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL!
Tracie Reece
traciereece@gmail.com