URGENT - UPDATE TO KY’S ANTI D0G-FIGHTING LEGISLATION

It’s been a busy and often discouraging time for everyone involved in the effort to change KY’s legislation to prevent the furthering of dog-fighting in our state. Many of you have been following the events in our UNITED Against Dog-Fighting Facebook groups (Note: there is a closed group for members only and a Public Page that anyone can read and follow). Links to both groups are shown below. In summary, we had high hopes that SB14 would be the solution we needed to stop the owning, breeding, training, selling or transferring of dogs and/or their offspring for dog-fighting. As you are already aware, KY is the only state in the country where that activity is NOT already illegal. That’s what this fight has always been for and continues to be for. Unfortunately, SB14 had some very bad changes made to it in the Senate Agriculture Committee, which according to the prosecutors who have reviewed it, would not only make it impossible for them to prosecute anyone for the activities we’ve been trying to stop, but also would weaken our existing dog-fighting legislation. THIS IS WHERE WE ARE NOW: We have an alternative to SB 14. That is HOUSE Bill 428. HB 428 has simple, clean, straightforward language and will accomplish everything we need it to, while still protecting the rights of farmers and hunters in our state. WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP: First, sign this petition if you haven’t already done so. Then share it with your family and friends and ask them to sign it. We will be presenting this petition to our legislators to let them know that Kentuckians support this legislation. Contact your legislators and members of the House Judiciary Committee and urge them to support HB 428 without amendment. You’ll find a listing of the Judiciary Committee members shown in our Facebook groups…or you can check out this site: http://www.lrc.ky.gov/Committee/standing/Jud(H)/members.htm Attend the House Judiciary meeting, next Wed. March 9th in Frankfort (Time and place will be posted in our Facebook Groups when available). Ask your family and friends to attend as well. We need to show our legislators that Kentuckians want this done…THIS Session! Check out all the information in our Facebook groups and join the fight to make Kentucky a more humane society for the animals and citizens in our state. Below is a link to each group: https://www.facebook.com/UADFKY/?fref=ts https://www.facebook.com/groups/672889626170927/ As always, donations to our gofundme account are greatly appreciated. Most of our funding has been depleted and was used in a variety of ways, including to save the lives of the Lincoln County Shelter dogs, for purchasing print materials, and for live events and social media advertising to educate citizens regarding dogfighting and the legislation we are working so hard to get passed! https://gofundme.com/rccdsw