Sample Letter For Emails To Board of Supervisors and Planners

Please customize with your own voice and concerns and send them an email or letter ASAP! Mr. Brian Crawford Director, Marin County Community Development Agency 3501 Civic Center Dr, Suite 308 San Rafael, California 94903 November 22, 2016 Dear Mr. Crawford, I am writing to express my strong opposition to the proposed change to the Marin County Development Plan that would allow mobile slaughtering facilities, and mobile rendering facilities. This proposal will promote a problem “back yard” breeding, especially of rabbits, that will undoubtedly lead to host of problems, including additional strains on animal rescue and care facilities, animal cruelty, and environmental and health hazards. One of the biggest problems for animal care groups across the country is “small scale” breeders of rabbits. In our culture, rabbits are pets, not food. Despite efforts by a few restaurants and retailers to convince people that they are both, they are not: Whole Foods recognized this earlier this year when they discontinued sales of rabbit meat nationwide. On the other hand, backyard breeders far too often fail to give their animals even barely tolerable living conditions. Every year, county animal shelters and animal rescue groups such as SaveABunny participate in rescues of ‘meat’ rabbits. We encounter diseased bunnies with horrible injuries: wounds infected with maggots, broken bones, feet and toes chewed off by raccoons and rats. We rescue and care for these poor animals, and see time and again that with the proper care, they recover and are adopted to homes as loved family members and pets. But each one of these rescues from ‘small scale’ rabbit “farmers” places tremendous operational, medical, and financial burdens on county and private animal shelters. Even if a rabbit is cared for decently in a meat breeding operation, there is no guarantee that they will be killed in a humane manner. Simply because rabbits can survive in a small cage, rabbits are classified by the FDA as poultry. As such, they can –and are- slaughtered alive: screaming in terror and in great pain they are skinned and eviscerated while conscious. Mobile slaughtering facilities will allow this all to happen here in Marin. This is unacceptable. Furthermore, the proposal fails to consider environmental risks and health hazards. How will you be assured land and water will not be fouled by animal carcasses? Will Marin county have inspectors onsite with each mobile slaughtering facility at each location? This proposal is offensive in what it will likely do to animals, especially those animals that I and the vast majority of people in Marin and the nation hold as our pets. On top of that, the proposal has unacceptable costs and risks for public and private animal service organizations, for public health, and for the environment. This proposal must be rejected. Sincerely,