⚠️ This petition discusses a real case involving animal abuse, neglect, and abandonment. Some details may be upsetting to sensitive readers.

Nola and Haven’s story is shared to show why stronger protections are urgently needed to prevent this from happening again.

Please continue with care.

THE ISSUE

PETITION TO SUPPORT NOLA’S LAW 

Protecting Nevada’s Animals Before They Become Victims.

Nola and Haven were two young sibling kittens adopted together from The Biggest Little Cat Rescue through Petsmart’s adoption program that we are apart of here in Reno, Nevada.

Their adopter went through our adoption process, answered our questions, met our requirements, and signed our adoption contract.  At the time, we had no information available to us that would have prevented the adoption.

Days later, everything changed.

Haven was found abandoned inside his carrier in a dumpster near the adopter’s residence. Thankfully, he survived.

Nola disappeared.

Her whereabouts remain unknown.

In the aftermath, we learned that critical information regarding animal welfare concerns and Do Not Adopt records existed outside of our rescue’s knowledge. Had information identifying a prospective adopter as someone who should not receive an animal been available through one reliable statewide system, an adoption could be stopped before another animal was placed at risk.

That is the gap Nola’s Law seeks to close.

Nevada currently does not have one official, centralized statewide system that allows rescues, shelters, animal control agencies, law enforcement, and members of the public rehoming animals to reliably check for qualifying animal-cruelty convictions and legally established Do Not Adopt restrictions before placing an animal.

Other states have already recognized this need. Tennessee operates a statewide public Animal Abuse Registry, and Delaware maintains a statewide Animal Abuse Offender List. Delaware also requires animal shelters to check its list before approving an adoption.

Nevada’s animals deserve protection before something happens to them, not accountability only after it is too late.

WHAT NOLA’S LAW WOULD DO

We are asking Nevada lawmakers to establish a centralized statewide Animal Abuse and Do Not Adopt database that would:

• Include qualifying animal-cruelty convictions and legally established Do Not Adopt restrictions.

• Require shelters and verified rescues to check the statewide system before approving an adoption.

• Ensure Nevada rescues, shelters, animal control agencies, and law enforcement have reliable access to critical information regardless of county or jurisdiction.

• Provide appropriate public search access so individuals privately rehoming an animal can make informed decisions about who they are entrusting that animal to.

• Establish clear statewide requirements for reporting, maintaining, updating, and sharing these records so critical information cannot disappear between agencies or jurisdictions.

No rescue, shelter, foster, or individual should discover crucial information after an animal has already been placed.

No animal should pay the price because one organization had information that another organization never received.

And no known animal abuser should be able to simply move between cities, counties, shelters, rescues, or private rehoming situations because the systems protecting animals do not communicate with one another.

Nola’s Law is about closing that gap.

We cannot change what happened to Haven.

We cannot yet answer what happened to Nola.

But we can fight to make sure their story changes what happens to the animals who come after them.

Please sign this petition in support of Nola’s Law and join us in asking Nevada lawmakers to create a statewide system that helps keep animals out of the hands of known abusers.

For Nola. For Haven. For every animal who cannot speak for themselves.