News - Humane Society of Berks County

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function." F. Scott Fitzgerald.

I was watching coverage of President Obama's Nobel Prize acceptance speech last night and one of the commentators brought up the preceding quote by Fitzgerald. Although he was talking about the President's explanation of U.S. foreign policy, it struck me that the Humane Society has been spending a great deal of time recently talking about how we could function while holding two opposing ideas. I think we probably all have been having this discussion in one way or another.

After several years of essentially unbridled forward movement at the HSBC, we suddenly hit The Recession Year. For the past five years we did not question whether we would succeed in what we were doing, we only asked how successful we would be. Failure was not an option and it seemed a fairly reasonable approach. After all, for five years we improved on every metric of success we laid out for our organization. More animals saved, more volunteers, more successful events, more impact in the community. Again, I think we were not alone in that. What did Alan Greenspan call it? Irrational exuberance.

Of course, it wasn't really irrational on our part. We had spent five year identifying problems and solutions and finding ways to implement- and pay- for them. It wasn't dumb luck. It was good planning and hard work. And a bit of luck. But this past year we had the same reality check as everyone else. It wasn't that we did not grow, we did. In nearly- and that nearly sticks in my throat- every area we still met or exceeded our goals. But we did not grow to the level we had set for ourselves.

But the need for our services did not decline. The cost of providing those services went up well beyond our projections as a result. After five years of growth, improvement, budget stabilization, and increased services and benefits to animals and people, we fell short for the first time.

In the past, we would have done what many non-profits did this past year. Cut services, cut hours, been less effective. We did not.

I think that is because we have always been aware of the need for our organization to hold two opposing ideas. It is the nature of being an open door animal welfare organization. The mere fact of being one doesn't necessarily lead to that, though. Many animal organizations can only manage one idea at a time. Either they choose the, "We can't save them all," idea or they choose the equally intellectually bankrupt, "Let's just say we will save them all and it will magically happen," idea.

The Humane Society of Berks County has long accepted that, as an open door animal welfare organization, no, we cannot save them all. But as an aspirational animal welfare organization, we damn well have the commitment that we better get to the point where we can, and the faster the better. This can bring charges of faithlessness to the cause from both camps (and believe me, there are two incredibly opposed sides of this battle of ideologies.) But this realistic view has also been responsible for the success we have had at helping more animals than ever before.

We know what we did yesterday, we know what we will do today, and we know what we will strive for tomorrow. We are not prisoners of the past or paralyzed by an unrealized tomorrow. We are optimistic realists.

A few weeks ago, when the staff, board and I worked through the very unpleasant budget reality we face now and in the coming year, I asked each of them to read an excerpt from Jim Collin's book, Good to Great. It was about what Collins called the Stockdale Paradox. Admiral Jim Stockdale was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. He survived captivity and torture and ultimately won his freedom.

When asked what made him survive when others didn't, his answer was, "Oh, that’s easy, the optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, 'We're going to be out by Christmas.' And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they'd say, 'We're going to be out by Easter.' And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart."

He went on, "This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

We save more animals than ever before because we always hope for the best and expect the worst, and then go one step further and try to figure out how to make the worst better. We now face the same thing with our budget going into next year. We never had a huge endowment to draw from. We never had a Daddy Warbucks to write the big emergency check. We always had to work for what we brought in and we valued what was accomplished with those hard earned wages.

We now face a very different budget world. Many old sources of funds- corporate support, the casual donor- are simply gone. Even the way people purchase tickets to events or give of their time has changed. The world has changed under our feet but we are determined that we will not allow it impact the animals and people who need us, who rely on us, who have no other option but us and the help we can give.

So, you can bet we are planning for the worst and have made major changes and undertaken significant restructuring so we can go through another year without making cuts in services and animal care, as we were able to avoid this past year. We have the plan in place for the worst case scenario.

But you can also bet that we have another plan: the plan that sees us emerging from this crap storm of a recession, and stronger than ever before. The HSBC just completed its new Five Year Strategic Plan (we'll have it posted soon), and it is ambitious and aggressive and it is optimistic. It calls for us to do things that have never been done in animal welfare, here or anywhere else.

I think the test of a first-rate organization is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. And that's what we are doing right now. We are holding onto to equal parts optimism and pessimism, realism and idealism, the best and the worst.

Will we survive if we are forced down the path we would rather not take? Of course we will. But we don't want to show the world that we can do the hard things and survive. We want to show the world that we can do the hard things and grow and thrive.

You will help determine which path we take. You may not know it but you are a part of both plans for the coming year at the Humane Society of Berks County. In one plan you do nothing. And we make the hard choices and merely survive as an organization. A lesser existence, helping fewer animals, changing fewer lives. Functional but diminished.

In the other plan you become the active partner and supporter we are confident you can be and are so hopeful you will be. In that plan we make the hard choices and we remain strong, we grow stronger, we do more, we help more animals and people. We become the realization of our aspirations, not our fears.

12-17-09 Update: Well, I may have been a little more bummed out than normal when I wrote that but I am pleased to say that some of our good friends came through recently and made me feel like Jimmy Stewart in It's A Wonderful Life. One friend who was not able to participate in the Walk this year made a $20,000 donation to the 2009 Walk, putting us in a tie with last year's best ever Walk. Another friend donated the RV we have needed to complete our mobile wellness and emergency hospital. Reading Hospital donated an ultrasound unit. Maybe we are going to fulfill our 2010 dreams for the Humane Society after all! How will you help?

There is a health care crisis in our country. No, not that one. It’s a veterinary health care crisis and it is leading to the deaths of possibly millions of animals each year in America’s animal shelters.

I know what you’ve been told about why animals die in shelters. Don’t believe it. It’s not overpopulation and it’s not crummy, uncaring owners. It is very simply that a huge portion of animal caretakers do not have access to quality, affordable health care for their pets.

Sure, there is still a problem of unwanted litters of dogs in many parts of the U.S. However, increasingly it is more like pockets of measles impacting a region, not a pandemic. There is certainly a problem of too many litters of cats nearly everywhere, but that problem has as much to do with the cultural perception of cats. It’s not for lack of the “spay/neuter” mantra getting out there to the general public. Research is increasingly showing that the decision to sterilize a pet is less about a caretaker’s choice and more about a caretaker’s access to quality, affordable health care.

If you can afford it, you spay and neuter your pet. If you can’t, you don’t.

The vast majority of dogs entering shelters in Berks County are young adults, not puppies. Not as many puppies, not as many geriatric dogs. Why? Do the owners of really young dogs and really old dogs not “have to move”, don’t “have allergies”, aren’t “getting divorced”? No. It’s that no matter how true these reasons for surrendering a dog to a shelter may be, there are usually other underlying issues of health and behavior which have helped result in the decision to relinquish.

Health and behavioral issues which, with the care, treatment and regular consultation with a veterinarian, might never get out of control. Simple bad puppy behavior might never progress to dangerous or destructive behavior. Simple health issues might be addressed before they grow to life or welfare threatening status. Something as simple as good housebreaking advice can avoid destruction of home and property. Those little puddles are a lot less charming and a lot more troublesome when the dog is a year old.

Like sterilization, if you can afford to get behavioral counseling, medical care, and housebreaking assistance from your regular family vet, you get it. If you can’t, you don’t. Or you get less than you should. And the less you get, the more likely your pet ends up in a shelter, facing euthanasia.

Most people don’t bring a pet into their family wanting to fail it, to fail their children who love it, to fail themselves by eventually giving up on the animal they love. There are very few truly callous people who dump off their pet to take a vacation. Yes, they are out there, but most of the people who walk up to our counter are upset and want help or, more often, wish they had help from the start.

That’s the reason behind the Humane Society of Berks County’s shift to a focus on providing proactive veterinary health services to the animals in our care, to the animals adopted from us and elsewhere, and to the animals of the general public. We know why many, if not most, of the animals come to us and we know that providing quality health care at affordable rates can help stop many, maybe not all, from needing our sheltering services.

We also know that waiting until they are at our door is usually too late. The damage is done to the caretaker/animal relationship. Even if our staff and veterinarians can fix that pet up as good as new and teach it to be the perfect pet (and we do), it’s too late for that family.

The two Veterinary Hospitals of the Humane Society of Berks County are there to provide access to quality, affordable health care for all, or at least as many as our resources allow. We sterilize every cat, dog, rabbit and many small pets prior to adoption, to ensure there is no chance of adding to the population.

To keep animals adopted from the HSBC in their new homes, we have our unique 30 Day Adoption Health Guarantee (click for details) , which provides free treatment for common health conditions which can often result in an adoption return in the first 30 days and we offer reduced rates for all other testing, care and treatment in the first 30 days to help new adopters to choose all the care we know will decrease the likelihood of illness, behavioral problems and adoption returns in the future.

To help adoption efforts at other organizations, we have created our original Thanks for Adopting Anywhere (click here for details) veterinary health program, which provides a free veterinary exam and health care discounts for pets adopted anywhere in the past 30 days. We know that even if we didn’t adopt an animal, keeping it in its new home helps free up resources that could be better used for other animals.

We are the only Veterinary Hospital in the region, private or non-profit, with a standard sliding scale fee structure (click here for details) based on demonstrated income. This allows those who have financial hardships but want to provide their animals with the quality health care they need (and there are so many of those in this economy), to do so.

It’s not just about cheap spay/neuter and keeping up with required vaccinations. It’s about a pet and a family having a strong, consistent, ongoing relationship with a veterinarian. It’s about providing the proactive services that we know make the most profound difference in whether a pet stays at home or comes to us. It’s about teaching those who have never had the expectation of providing regular vet care for their pet to expect it.

We see the difference it makes. We see it when an entire family piles into one of our exam rooms with beaming parents and happy kids because they are showing their children that they can give their beloved family pet the care it needs, maybe for the first time. That lesson is not lost on the children, who will grow up with that expectation of care. We see it when someone brings in a pet to surrender because it has a treatable health condition but they don’t have the $500 or $100 or $20 to treat the problem. We can have one of our staff veterinarians treat the animal and send it home.

One more healthy animal, one more happy caretaker, one more open space for a truly homeless pet in our shelters.

Some people say that if you can’t afford a pet, don’t have one. We get hate mail every time we have a pet food distribution day from those who think we shouldn’t cater to “deadbeats”. We have those who think our Ani-Meals on Wheels program is a silly waste of resources, or that we shouldn’t ever work to help those who are neglecting their animals through ignorance or lack or resources learn a better way and help them obtain the tools they need. In animal welfare there is a lot of quiet talk about “those people” and judgment about who should and should not be allowed to share their lives with a companion animal.

We often preach the value of our companion animals and we mean it. We say that proper health care, behavioral and sterilization services are vital to our animals. But are we to say that these things are only important for those of us who can afford it? Are we to say this health care is vital, except for the pets of the poor? That all companion animals deserve a future, deserve food and shelter, except for the pets of the poor? Do we say that every child should have the love and companionship of a cat or dog, unless you are a poor child? Do we continue to lament the millions of animals euthanized in shelters each year but not take the steps required to truly change the underlying reasons for these deaths?

No. Now is the time for the animal welfare movement to fulfill its promise. We must provide quality, equitable health care to those who want to provide it but can’t. We need to recognize that there is a large population of those who want care for their animals but can’t afford it or can’t get to the health care. We need to stop pretending that “those people” just don’t know what to do and begin to see that they just don’t have the tools to do it.

The late Senator Ted Kennedy said, "Let us resolve that the state of a family's health shall never depend on the size of a family's wealth." He was probably just talking about human health care, but as the proud father of dogs, he might also have known this is too often the case for veterinary care, too. It’s not just about the poor. The cost of veterinary health care is increasingly a problem for those of us who can afford vet care. That is, until it gets too expensive even for us. The loss of a job, an illness in the family, an animal illness beyond our means to afford. Suddenly, you and I become one of “those people”.

It is time for us to change the model of veterinary health care delivery and to change the way in which animal welfare organizations utilize health care. The Humane Society of Berks County is trying to do just that. It is not easy- we’re breaking new ground for us and for most shelters in the nation. It is not cheap- every client that is not billed or billed at a reduced rate may save a life but it costs resources. Are we to say we chose not to save a life- or thousands of lives- because of money?

You and others who care about animals have demanded a change from the decades of status quo which resulted in millions and millions of animals being euthanized each year. We’re trying to deliver on that demand. But we need your help to do that- financially and by helping to change the way the world views this problem.

I would be remiss if I did not point out that many people do have to choose between the health care of their human family and the healthcare of their animal family because of the sky rocketing cost of human insurance coverage. The Humane Society of Berks County is not immune from this either. The cost of health care for our staff has been increasing in the past few years by staggering jumps of 25%, 30% or more a year requiring constant changes in plans and disruption of health care.

For those of us on staff lucky enough to have a spouse with great coverage, that’s no problem. For the rest of our staff, it’s a huge one. Animal shelters often employ the young and at pay rates that are far lower than they should be or we would like them to be. Any significant medical expenses can ruin the life of a staff member. That’s why we’ve always provided complete health care benefits for our employees, and it has proven vital.

In the past two years we have had three employees have babies, and cases of cancer and other major illnesses. Without health insurance, many of our employees might have forced to quit, depriving our animals and our organization with the highly qualified and trained staff who help make our work possible.

But the cost of insurance has risen so high that we recently had to cut our health contribution and could face dropping insurance coverage altogether due to rising premiums. The HSBC may soon have to make the choice of having resources for our animals or health insurance for our staff. This is a choice employers are making around the nation right now.

Anyone who says there is no need for health care reform is telling about the same truth as those who say poor people choose not to care for their pets. Something needs to be done for our animals and something needs to be done with human health care so the HSBC can continue to provide high quality health care coverage for our human employees, as well as our animals.

Our adopters take home animals with pre-existing conditions every day. Shouldn’t insurance companies give the same consideration for humans? We provide reduced vet rates to those in financial distress because we know they need it most. Shouldn’t insurance companies do the same? We extend our programs to every adopter who needs our help, not just those in our “adoption network”. Shouldn’t insurance companies do the same?

And we created our non-profit animal hospitals because after 100 years the private sector hadn’t figured out a way to accommodate the needs of the homeless pets we care for and the people who need extra help. No private vet has gone out of business because of our non-profit alternative, no one has been denied vet care elsewhere or had it rationed- in fact, it’s just the opposite as private practice now have a place to send clients them previously could not help. It has also provided those with no access to vet health care with a choice and an option for the first time. Couldn’t we at least explore the idea that what works for animals might work for people?

Financial considerations do drive decisions about animal health care and pet relinquishment to shelters. One important way to make sure that our pets get the quality, affordable health care they need is to ensure that we can get the quality, affordable health care we need. Our elected officials can help animals and the entire under funded non-profit animal and human welfare sector but passing strong, comprehensive health care reform now.

House Bill 39 was signed today (8-27-09) by Governor Rendell and it is not only a good day for the dogs of Pennsylvania, it's a proud day for Berks County. That's because the primary author of the House Bill is Berks County's own Representative Tom Caltigirone. The prime mover in the Senate was Berks County's Senator Mike O'Pake. The work they have done is another example that Berks County as a whole is emerging as a leader in animal welfare for all of Pennsylvania.

I did note with some amusement that Soldier's Grove Park was packed with not only those who had unceasingly championed this extremely important bill (and I am proud to include HSBC among those ranks) but also those in animal welfare who were somewhat less than active in supporting this bill, some even having arguing it as a distraction from efforts to pass last year's HB 2525, the "Puppy Mill Bill". I may have even counted an active opponant or two of the bill in the crowd.

Last year when HB 39 couldn't even get a vote on the floor, we kept reminding everyone of its importance and of our pride in the tenacity of Representative Caltigirone for refusing to let it drop. He knew that the bill, which will ban anyone but a licensed vet from performing surgery and debarking, among other procedures, was important and needed to pass. We couldn't have agreed more and were proud to have presented him with the HSBC's Golden Bone Award for Outstanding Service to Animal Welfare in late 2008, even though it looked like the bill had been killed for the year.

He kept on fighting, we kept up reminding our 10,000+ active supporters that it was important, many others did the same, and finally this bill is now a law.

Suddenly, the orphan bill has many fathers as everyone crammed in for the photo opp, no matter how little they really helped. I say I noted this humorously, not sardonically or sarcastically as it might be so easy to do, because I'm kind of tall so I could manage to get my head above the crowd for the pictures and because the passage of the bill marks another turning point in how animal welfare is being successfully promoted in Pennsylvania now.

While HB 39 and HB 2525 both faced stiff opposition and couldn't even make it to floor votes initially, they ended up passing both chambers unanimously or very near to it. Elected officials are starting to see real danger in opposing quality, common sense animal welfare legislation. When these bills finally make it, everyone suddenly loves them and piles on for the Yea vote. It is both funny and refreshing.

However, we are now seeing other bills being shipped to the proverbial orphanage, such as the various bills and efforts to ban pigeon shoots in Pennsylvania. Like HB 2525 and HB 39, the first attempt is to avoid having to take any vote or any public position by our legislators. Such courage they show.

Maybe our brave legislators should take the lead of Tom Caltigirone, Mike O'Pake and Governor Rendell on HB 39 and HB 2525, or the dozens of sponsors of the pigeon shoot bill who have made public statements. They could put a little spine in their backs and actually put the pigeon shoot bill up for a Yea or Nay vote once and for all.

Who knows? Maybe it will pass and a thousand new fathers will be able to cram in for the bill signing photo opp.

I just attended a very exclusive closed door meeting. The HSBC was among about twenty animal welfare organizations represented at the invitation only "summit" with the Philadelphia Eagles. After the nearly two hour meeting, Eagles President Joe Banner did not ask us to keep any secrets. He asked those in attendance to share with the media and public what we felt were the right things to share.

Since there are thousands, if not millions, of shocked Eagles fans and animal lovers out there who were not able to get a seat at the table for this important discussion, as one of the lucky few, I think it's right to share a great deal with you.

Mr. Banner asked for and received many, many comments which fell into two basic camps. One camp expressed a belief of profound disappointment, if not ongoing anger, at the Eagles and at Michael Vick and a deep feeling that he was not a repentant man who should pay further for his crimes. The other camp expressed disappointment but also felt that the train had left the station on the entire situation and it is now time to make the most of what we have and to do the most good for the most animals.

For his part, Mr. Banner expressed his own prior lack of awareness of the pervasiveness of dog fighting, a lack of awareness shared by most of the public. He told us that while, yes, the Eagles made a decision to hire Vick because he is a talented player who they hope can help the team, he also had spent a great deal of time with him and truly believed that Vick is a transformed man. He told us that the Eagles would not have hired him if they thought this was not the case. He told us that by hiring Vick they knew they were in effect buying a problem- the problem of dog fighting. And he told us that the Eagles have a very genuine commitment to making a real substantive change for the better. He said that he would be seriously and personally disappointed if things were not demonstrably better a year from now as a result of the Eagles' commitment to this issue.

Joe Banner is clearly a serious guy. He obviously takes his job and his team seriously. And when he says he gets the seriousness of the issue and the level of accountability his team now has for making a difference as a result of making the very controversial decision to hire Vick, I believe he means it.

When he says he thinks Vick knows what he did was wrong and is truly trying to make amends, Banner means it. When he says that he would not have hired him if he didn't think Vick meant it, I believe him. I still reserve judgment on Vick's sincerity, after all, I haven't sat down across a table from him. But I don't doubt Joe Banner's sincerity.

I am not a naive man. I am not a Pollyanna. I know Joe Banner represents a billion dollar corporation. Whether to improve their image, fix a PR nightmare, truly help a wayward back up quarterback find his way to salvation, or make a real difference in the lives of the thousands of animals facing death and injury in dog fights (or equal parts of each), the Eagles bring a power and a force with them in their efforts, whatever their efforts are.

I've been trying to think of another billion dollar corporation which has ever walked into a room full of animal welfare organizations and said, "We are going to put our resources and commitment behind your work and we will make a difference." Oh, wait- I think I dreamt that once. And then I woke up to the reality that animal welfare and dog fighting is not the kind of sexy charity most mega-corporations go for. And make no mistake, the Eagles are a mega-corporation that is part of an even bigger one, the NFL.

So, I will now perhaps state the obvious in saying that I was among the "train has left the station" camp. The deal is done, the ink is dry. I can't say I'm happy about the choice or that I wouldn't SOOOO much rather New England had signed Vick. But as of now, our Eagles have bought this problem.

We can be mad at them. Boycott and boo the team. Make sure they think real hard before signing the next paroled dog fighting felon (like that's likely to happen again).

Or, we can hold Mr. Banner to his word. We can make use of the power and influence of the Eagles to make a positive difference. We can challenge them to make good on their promise to help us end dog fighting and maybe even more.

We can remind him that when he sat across from Mike Vick and took him at his word that he was a changed man, we believed Mr. Banner meant it.

And then we will remind him that when we sat across the table from him and he made a personal commitment to employ the might of the Philadelphia Eagles in the effort to end dog fighting and aid in the promotion of animal welfare, we believed him.

When the news broke that Michael Vick signed with the Eagles, it seemed that America was shocked. As Gil Scott-Heron observed more than three decades ago, America seems to lead the world in shock.

When Vick was arrested, America was shocked. When the details of his crimes came out-- shock. When the NFL allowed for Vick’s return- more shock. The Eagles announcement- yet still more shock. When the Humane Society of the United States announced Vick would be participating in its End Dogfighting Campaign, which targets at-risk kids and young adults, those in animal welfare were really shocked.

Those who care about animal welfare were rightly outraged and disgusted at Vick’s actions. I share that outrage and disgust as a career animal welfare professional who has seen first-hand what torture and abuse of animals at the hands of men like Vick looks like. But when I see and hear the ongoing outrage at Vick and at the HSUS (no relation to the Humane Society of Berks County) for trying to make use of him to keep others from following in his footsteps, I wonder, “Where has the outrage been?”

Where is the outrage each year when shelters across the nation euthanize millions of animals for lack of space? My own organization is fortunate. We haven’t had to euthanize a healthy animal in over two years. But so far this year we have euthanized 171 cats, dogs, and small animals which were sick or injured, simply because we lacked the financial resources to mend and adopt these broken animals. Where is the outrage over that?

There is outrage about Vick but what about the estimated 100,000 people involved every year, every day, in animal fighting in cities, towns, and the countryside? Is it less outrageous if it is not in our face, not perpetrated by a famous sports star?

There is increasing recognition by the outraged masses that Vick grew up in a community that so accepted animal fighting that he was doing it when he was eight years old- hardly old enough to know what he was doing was wrong when all his role models probably condoned it as right. Where is the outrage at the generational poverty in America which disproportionately impacts minorities like Vick and helps set the stage for cruelty like his? At the fact that about 24% of Blacks and Hispanics live in poverty while only 8% of Whites do, that Hispanics are more than twice as likely and Blacks are more than 5 times as likely as Whites to be in prison, that Blacks and Hispanics have double the school drop-out rate? Do we have no outrage left for that?

Maybe we should spend a little less time being shocked and more time looking for the causes of the shocking. When we know where animal fighting is most likely to occur and why, when we know exactly what crucible is required to create the cultural acceptance of animal cruelty and dog fighting, why aren’t we doing more about it?

And that’s also why, despite the “shock”, what Wayne Pacelle and the Humane Society of the United States did by enlisting Michael Vick’s assistance in the End Dogfighting campaign was right, was innovative and was courageous. They knew that the days of shock and outrage that young boys and men, who are raised in a culture where animal fighting is acceptable, must end. It is time to change that culture, smash the crucibles of cruelty and replace them with something else. Who is a better messenger than Vick?

Let’s be perfectly honest about those involved in animal welfare. They are mostly white, mostly middle and upper class, and mostly women. Those working in animal welfare are not representative of the populations which most need this anti-dog fighting message. We don’t share their history, culture or experience. Often, we literally don’t even speak their language.

I grew up in areas of high poverty and low education. Crime, drugs, violence and, yes, animal abuse, were often common where I grew up. But there were people who I knew and respected, not because they were from outside my community, but because they had, in fact, been there and done everything that was available for me to do. When they said, “Hey, you don’t want to do that,” I listened, and that made a crucial difference at crucial times in my childhood.

But I can’t walk into a meeting with minority kids in the city and be a role model for them. I may have been poor but I was poor and white in the suburbs and the country. They have no connection to my personal experience. But Vick is precisely the example they need of someone who looks like them, has been where they have been, has paid a very high price for never having learned the lessons he can teach them now. When Michael Vick says to minority kids, “Hey, you don’t want to do that,” they might just listen and that message might come at a crucial time for them.

That is why the most successful tolerance advocates working with racist skinheads are former racist skinheads. And those who are sometimes the most effective at helping drug and alcohol abusers are former abusers. And why drunk driving presentations at schools often come from those who did drink, drive and kill the innocent. And why the best advocates for keeping your newly adopted cat indoors are the adoption counselors who have had a cat run over because they used to let them roam. And why the most effective voice against dog fighting and the unconscionable cruelty that comes with it might just be someone who did it.

We don’t need to condone or forgive the behavior, or even believe in the “sincerity” or the motives, to recognize that those who formerly engaged in it might have a unique ability to connect with those most like themselves who are most at risk of repeating their mistakes.

So I will join the Humane Society of the United States in welcoming Michael Vick to the effort of bringing the culture of dog fighting to an end. Forgiveness is not mine to extend to him. Trust will need to be earned and may never come. But I will not allow my shock over what he did to outweigh my outrage that such things continue to happen every day, everywhere, even right here, maybe right this moment, in Berks County. So if he can help me accomplish what I, the Humane Society of Berks County, and the entire animal welfare movement have not managed to do so far- end the culture of animal fighting in our cities- I will work with him to do it.

What’s more shocking? To use every tool available to end animal fighting- or not to?

pps- Thanks and respect to Gil Scott-Heron for his "We Beg Your Pardon, America", which sprang so readily to mind. Consider purchasing it or the brilliant album it is on at iTunes: Click here.

In 2007, when the Humane Society became engaged in a pitched battle against Reading’s Animal Control Ordinance, one of our greatest opponents was Councilman Jeffrey Waltman. We never doubted his belief in the effectiveness of the ordinance, which was subsequently struck down by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, or his sincerity in wanting to protect the people of Reading. We simply thought that on the facts, he was wrong.

This time, Councilman Waltman, along with Councilman Fuhs, has proved to be a voice of reason and restraint as Reading’s Animal Control Board attempts to revise the overturned ordinance. The most prominent “improvement” offered in the revision is the limitation of the number of pets (other than fish) a person may own in Reading without obtaining a $50 permit and a home inspection by Reading Police or the Animal Control Board. Ostensibly, this is being proposed to solve supposed problems the City and its residents face from owners of large numbers of cats, dogs, or, as Councilman Fuhs wryly implied, gerbils.

But Councilman Waltman pointed out at a recent public meeting that the problems this new permitting and inspection regime claims to address already have remedies on the books. Barking dogs can already be deemed a nuisance and owners can be ticketed. Feces problems can already be addressed under health and safety ordinances and lead to sanctions up to condemnation of homes. There are already severe penalties for the owners of dogs that bite or harass people, other animals and even property under the State Dog law.

Councilman Fuhs went further, pointing out the dangerous notion that the owners of seven cats, canaries or gerbils would be required to allow police officers or the Animal Control Board inspect their home prior to permitting and approval. He makes the point that there are no written guidelines to establish what is an acceptable standard of care, anyway. Having learned the lesson of the prior ordinance, which was determined to be unconstitutional, Fuhs also questioned whether the case would stand up to the inevitable court challenge it will face, noting a recent court opinion contrary to this ordinance. The architects of the proposed ordinance say that other cities have these ordinances on the books. Of course, Reading’s last ordinance was on the books for ten years. Until it was ruled unconstitutional.

But it’s in the fine print that the Humane Society finds the most to be concerned about. For the Humane Society of Berks County and its ability to help animals, the big changes come not in the provisions of the proposed ordinance but in the definitions.

Whether by intent or by oversight, the proposed ordinance will have the effect of immediately putting the Humane Society of Berks County in violation of the law or out of business entirely. That’s because two key terms have been redefined in the proposed ordinance: “Animal Shelter” and “Person”.

Now, whether you are a supporter of ours or not, it’s hard to say that the Humane Society’s Lindy Scholar Center for Animal Welfare in Reading, a facility which has been in operation for longer than most of us have been alive and served as the animal control facility for Reading for nearly as long, is not an animal shelter. However, with the stroke of a pen, the new ordinance would say we are not one- unless we contract with the City for their animal control and euthanasia services. It is worth noting that one of the outcomes of our opposition to the old, unconstitutional animal control ordinance was that we severed our contract relationship with the City and no longer provide them with animal control and euthanasia services.

If we are not an animal shelter under the proposed ordinance, then what are we? Would you believe we become a person? That’s right, with another stroke of the pen we would become a 109 year old person, rather than a 109 year old non-profit, 501c3 corporation which employs 30 taxpayers and provides services to tens of thousands of people and animals in Berks County and beyond each year. Seriously, here is the brand new addition to the list of definitions in the proposed ordinance:

Was there such confusion about what a person was that it required this bizarre and tortured legalese? I wonder…

What I don’t need to wonder about is what these two changes in definition mean to the Humane Society of Berks County. With these strokes of a pen, we (the Humane Society) become a “person” who “owns” four thousand “pets” each year. Really? Is that what we are? Under the proposed ordinance, yes.

How would this impact us? Well, since apparently we own more than six pets, we will need to file for a permit and pay $50 each year. Seems innocent enough. Oh, and we’ll have the let the police inspect us. OK, we see the police all the time. After all, we have officers who are, in fact, police officers with limited police powers under Pennsylvania law. I guess if the City wants to have their police officers spending (wasting?) their time inspecting the “pets” of our police officers (remember, our officers are part of the HSBC’s “personhood” under the ordinance), that’s fine.

But we all know that it won’t be our hardworking Reading Police, who have much more important work to do protecting Reading’s citizens and visitors, inspecting us (Wait for it…). It will be the Reading Animal Control Board or its “designated agents” who will be doing the inspections and approvals (Wait for it…). And who are their agents? A non-governmental corporation which provides the City with contract services for animal control and euthanasia, the Animal Rescue League (There it is!). Did I mention that the Reading Animal Control Board, the board which would authorize and control its “designated agents” and is the only means of appeal outside of the courts is chaired by the President of the Board of Directors of the Animal Rescue League?

Whether through oversight or design, this proposed ordinance would have the effect of putting our operations under the control, and requiring the approval, of a competing non-governmental organization. Despite being a court sworn law enforcement agency, licensed and inspected by the State Department of Agriculture, regulated in our veterinary services by the Pennsylvania Board of Veterinary Medicine, nationally recognized and award winning, having representatives serving on multiple Statewide boards of directors of animal welfare organizations, having the most modern and state-of-the-art adoption centers in the region, and subject to the laws of Pennsylvania, we would need the permission of a competing agency in order to be allowed to “own” more than six “pets”.

This is not just an absurdity, it is, as Councilman Fuhs suggested at the recent meeting, the height of governmental arrogance and an outrageous conflict of interest. Essentially what this ordinance does would be the equivalent of writing an ordinance that says a bank is only a bank in Reading if the City had a checking account there. And all the other banks that used to be banks until they changed the definition of what a bank is now fall under the scrutiny, control, and approval of the one bank the City does have an account with. “Sorry, Sovereign, with a stroke of a pen, you now need to let Wachovia inspect your branches and decide if you are allowed to operate. Oh, and if you have a problem with that, just appeal to a City committee that happens to be chaired by the President of Wachovia.” I will grapple for a G Rated term for what that is. That’s bull.

The Animal Rescue League is a fine organization which does great work for animals, as do we. We do not doubt their qualifications in the area of animal welfare. But our two organizations are extremely different in our approaches and are in sometimes direct competition for resources and in our promotion of the best ways to solve the problems facing animals-- as our diametrically opposed positions on the recently overturned animal control ordinance showed. It is utterly inappropriate to have one being given authority over the operations of another.

We wouldn’t accept that authority over them, they should not be given it over us.

And here’s another thought. Many cities use pest control companies or private citizens for animal control. The City already switched animal control providers once in the past two years. Will we receive inspections and approvals from Orkin next year or Joe Smith, Pest Control Agency the next?

So, the Humane Society of Berks County is urging the following of Reading City Council and the Mayor:

City Council and Mayor McMahon, please follow Councilman Fuhs’ and Waltman’s wise advice. Solve existing problems with existing tools and don’t make new problems where they don’t exist now.

Update (7-30-09): We recently learned that the City Clerk reportedly stated that it was not Council's intention to require a permit from the Humane Society (no word on what the Animal Control Board's intent was). She reportedly referred to the definition of "Animal Shelter" in the revised ordinance as proof we would not be impacted. It reads:

Since the definition specifically deletes "humane society" and replaces it with "designated animal control authority", which we are not, it seems hard to see how we would be exempted under this revision. Please notify the City that you don't see an exemption hidden in there, either, and that you expect the Humane Society of Berks County to be exempted in the event of any changes in the ordinance. Contact emails are below.

Please share your concerns with Reading's Mayor and City Council. Tell them this ordinance is unfair to pet owners, won't make problems better, and is written in such a way that the Humane Society could face closure on the whim of a non-elected Board. If you live in Reading, tell them you will remember their vote the next time you vote. If you visit and patronize Reading, remember that you get to vote with your dollars.

Click here for the Mayor's email and here for City Council. Please also make phone calls: 1-877-727-3234, ask to be connected with the Mayor's Office and a City Council extension.

Spring brings a return of many beautiful things after a long, cold winter. Unfortunately, for us in Berks County, it also brings the return of our own unique little ugliness: pigeon shoots. Alone in the nation, Pennsylvania is the only State to protect pigeon shoots. Alone in Pennsylvania, Berks County wears the shameful crown of being the only county in the State with regularly held pigeon shoots at multiple locations.

The Humane Society of Berks County has been actively opposing these shoots for the past two years and supporting legislation to ban the practice. As I have written many times before, we took this position because we, and the sportsmen and women who support us, work for us, and serve on our Board of Directors, recognize that organized pigeon shoots for profit are not in the mainstream of Berks County and Pennsylvania values. Pigeon shoots are not hunting, as the PA Game Commission and any reasonable hunter will tell you. They are not even about “pest control” as some would claim since all these birds are being imported to Pennsylvania from New York and the mid-west. They are unsporting canned hunts, undertaken for profit and rife with out-of-state money and gambling.

There are those who yell about the “tradition” of pigeon shoots or want to claim the equivalency of shoots with hunting and meat production or muddy the waters with Second Amendment rights concerns. While I have no doubt many are quite sincere, I also have no doubt that many make these arguments because they personally profit from these events, they have some out-of-state political ax to grind, or they just don’t like being told what to do by "animal people"- no matter how right we are.

Like many or even most in Berks, I am a sportsman, I eat meat, I own guns. I also I know that stopping organized pigeon shoots for profit will not allow anyone to take away my guns, that shooting pigeons in gambling derbies isn’t the same as eating a chicken, and that shooting a pigeon launched from a catapult or a turkey tied to a haybale isn’t the same as fair chase hunting. It is, quite simply, the same as tying a deer to a tree, taking money from someone to allow them to shoot it, and then leaving its carcass to rot uneaten. If you are an animal rights person, I know you believe this is cruelty. If you are a hunter, I also know that you know that this is completely antithetical to any true sporting tradition.

There has been some good news recently. Strausstown Gun Club, one of the last three locations to hold regular pigeon shoots in Berks, has decided to discontinue its shoots. The Humane Society of Berks County extends its deep appreciation to the members of Strausstown for making this decision and we hope the many sportsmen who support the work of the HSBC will show Strausstown their appreciation by supporting the club.

That still leaves two other groups still holding shoots, Pike Township Sportsmen’s Club in Oley and Wing Pointe in Hamburg. Wing Point hides its activities from view but Pike holds its shoots right on a public road for all to see. One thing you get to see is the group of young boys who serve as “wringers” (please see postscript for more on wringers). These are the ones who pick up the birds who have been shot and wring their necks before dumping them in trash cans. Is this the “sporting tradition” that the opponents of banning pigeon shoots think we should be passing down to our children? That hunting is killing a confined animal for profit and putting it out in the trash? Can you imagine Faulkner, Hemingway, Twain or London writing about that sporting ethic? You don’t need to be an “animal person” to know that is merely shameful and no “tradition” we should cling to.

I have spoken to many legislators, Democrats and Republicans, who are pro-gun rights and hunting and want to see these shoots go away because they view them as distasteful and unsporting. We have talked about our common wish to see the clubs voluntarily stop holding them and to find a way to avoid legislation that will just whip up the troops on both sides of the supposed issues.

While we have seen one club stop, the fact is these shoots will not go away until they are prohibited. We need to tell our legislators in both Parties that we are reasonable people and that our support of a pigeon shoot ban is not an attempt to take away guns or ban hunting or some sinister first step toward these things. We just want pigeon shoots and turkey bale shoots to stop.

And if you are on “our side”, the “animal side”, and you do want to stop hunting or ban guns, do us a favor and fight that battle another time, openly and honestly. Let the fight to ban pigeon and tethered shoots be about one thing: ending pigeon and tethered shoots. Let your legislators know that a vote to ban these shoots is a safe vote and that they don’t have to fear the NRA or other out-of-state fringe groups. Let them know you will remember that they made the right decision to support a reasonable ban of an unreasonable practice and that they aren’t acting out of fear of retaliation, they are responding to their hometown constituents who have simply had enough.

ps: Want to learn more about pigeon shoot “wringers”? Check out the book Wringers, a 1998 Newbery Honor Winner for children's literature (click image for Amazon link). Consider purchasing a copy for your child and his or her classroom. Talk to your children about what they think about using kids as wringers and consider having your child write along with you to your elected Representatives and Senators. Someday, your kids will be voters, too.

Remember, there are strong special interest groups, many from out of state, like the NRA, who are trying to make our legislators vote to protect pigeon shoots. They say pigeon shoots and tying tame turkeys to hay bales are activities "steeped in tradition". Steeped in something, to be sure, but it's not tradition. They claim this is about guns or hunting rights (check out a histrionic NRA alert about the threat to hunting for yourself here). But you can read the bills yourself and see that those rights are specifically protected in these bills.

They claim the support for these bills comes from "out of state animal rights extremists". A funny claim on an NRA page listing a home address of Fairfax, Virginia! Well, I may have been born in Virginia but I've lived in Pennsylvania for the last thirty years and I'm no extremist. I just recognize when it's time to bring a mistake to an end- and I have a sense that many, many disgraceful mistakes or outdated practices have been defended in our history by those claiming "tradition" or "heritage". I bet you can think of a couple yourself.

Pennsylvanians know a red herring when they see one. Now we need to make sure our Representatives and Senators know the difference too by respectfully and forcefully asking them to support these bills and bringing an end to these money driven, idiotic spectacles!

Please contact your Representative and Senator right now and tell them (politely, please) it is time to end the national embarrassment of pigeon shoots in Berks and Pennsylvania!

Read HB 1411 here and SB 843 here. Seriously, these are the shortest and most straight forward bills you will ever see.

If your Representative or Senator is a co-sponsor (click on the bill links above and the co-sponsors are listed), please thank them and tell them that you appreciate them taking a stand on this issue. If they are not, tell them you would appreciate having them sign on as co-sponsors and that you expect them to support these bills with committee and general votes.

If your Representative or Senator is on the Judiciary Committee in the House or Senate, their support is particularly vital right now.

Fighting Like Cats and Dogs: Why the Biggest Problem Facing Animals is Animal People

Please read the following statement: “Person X is a puppy miller’s best friend in Pennsylvania.”

Who do you think Person X is and who do you think made that statement? Given the recent round of bare knuckle politics surrounding the passage of PA House Bill 2525, the “Puppy Mill Bill”, you might think is was said about a lobbyist for the commercial breeding industry or maybe one of the few politicians who actually voted against HB 2525. You would be wrong.

This statement was made by the head on one animal welfare group in Pennsylvania about the head of another animal welfare group in Pennsylvania.

Many people think that the biggest barrier to animal welfare progress in Pennsylvania comes from unsympathetic elected officials, the farm lobby, the NRA, sportsmen’s groups, or even people who just don’t like animals and think all of us in animal welfare are simply nuts. I believe the biggest barrier, time and again, has proved to be the fractiousness of our own side and the often vicious attacks by animal welfare advocates against other animal welfare advocates.

What prompted the statement about Person X above? The fact that she would even speak to those representing the commercial breeding industry at public government hearings on HB 2525 and related legislation. Not for taking them out to dinner. Not even for agreeing with them. But for speaking to them.

During the last round of legislative efforts there were groups who staked out very specific positions. When those positions were not exactly shared by others, even other animal groups who simply wanted variations on the same positions, there were personal attack campaigns against those groups and individuals representing the groups. If a person made the mistake of defending the ethics and commitment of others under attack, that person would then find themselves equally attacked. Believe me, I know. I’ve made that “mistake”.

And I’m not talking about the usual stuff that comes with the territory when your job is to decide who may adopt from you or which animal will live or die today. Anyone in sheltering knows that by doing our job well, someone will likely be made unhappy. I’m talking about very direct personal attacks and efforts to damage individuals and reputations. Blind copy email campaigns that would make those nasty robo-calls in the last election seem tame. The leaking of confidential personal information to bosses and boards of directors. Attempts to interfere with the operations and events of other organizations. Often, with the implied understanding that if you would just back off and take the right position, all the trouble would abate.

In the real world, this might be considered slander, liable, harassment, or extortion. “You’ve got a real pretty little animal shelter here. It would be a real shame to see anything happen to it, like maybe a fire. A real shame…”

In the real world these attacks would be seen as the Mafioso thuggery that they are. But in the animal welfare world, we are all expected to chalk it up to these thugs “just caring too much about the animals.”

And in the real world, it is precisely this back-biting, in-fighting, and blind certainty that has done more to slow animal welfare progress than anything other factor.

In animal welfare, we should be able to bulldoze our way to any place we want to go. There are probably more members and supporters of animal welfare groups in Pennsylvania than just about any other type of group- we rival the registration in political parties. There are hundreds of animal welfare groups in Pennsylvania alone, many like the Humane Society of Berks County with thousands or tens of thousands of active donors, volunteers and supporters. Pet ownership might be the single biggest common factor in this State, greater than income bracket, race, or party. If that’s so, why the hell can’t we wield that power for the immediate benefit of animals?

Because it seems that every single one of those hundreds of groups is so certain that it is the only one which is right. Every person involved, even peripherally, in animal welfare is positive that his or her personal view of the problems and solutions is the only true way. And God help you if you disagree. Especially if the person has a blog.

Want a new law? Great! Ask ten different organizations to give you a top ten. If the new law has nine out of ten things from each list, you can bet that the one thing not included from someone’s list will be the fodder for a nasty campaign where the entire process if faulted and those who don’t share the urgency for that tenth item are branded as caring less about animals, or not understanding the issue well enough, or of being “a puppy miller’s best friend in Pennsylvania”.

Until we can come together on the broad areas of agreement and not allow everything single little issue or personal agenda serve as the uncrossable Rubicon every single time, we will see the welfare of animals in Pennsylvania continue to improve in fits and starts, as it has for decades.

Now, I know some of you reading this may have sat through a few meetings with me and are rolling your eyes at my call for singing Kumbaya. I admit it, I’m passionate and forceful in my advocacy for the positions HSBC feels are important and I fight tooth and nail to get those positions considered and adopted. But when it comes time to compromise and create something that will do the most good for the most animals at the fastest pace, I do it. I do it because it is the most effective way to get things done, even if I can’t get everything I want done now, and because the alternative is getting nothing done.

Fortunately, most other animal welfare organizations share that view and recognize that we are one among many and all are doing what we can and what we think best. The HSBC’s slogan may be a little cheeky (The Leader In Animal Welfare) but the affirmation that our goal is to break new ground and to find novel approaches, and to, yes, even lead, doesn’t mean we belittle or dismiss the efforts and accomplishments of other organizations, as some may. All of us can, and should, be leaders in animal welfare. However, a leader with no one following is just taking a walk. And for too long we have all been taking walks. While some organizations continue to strike out alone, the HSBC, cheeky slogan aside, has actively embraced the partnership of other organizations. Through direct interaction, healthy rivalry and sometimes just blatant theft of our neighbor’s great ideas, we’ve been made a stronger and more effective organization.

Our partnership with individuals and organizations with whom we have sometime clashed or not seen eye to eye has resulted in some of our greatest successes and ultimately our greatest changes in course as we have been better able to see our mission through other’s eyes.

But the greatest promise for the future is a turning away from responding to the nasty attacks and taking part in petty squabbles that are so easy (and enticing) to engage in and instead strengthen the bonds among friends. The influence of friends is so much more powerful than the pressure of those who consider themselves our enemies. I know that as the HSBC has worked more closely with others we have been changed for the better and I like to think we’ve rubbed off on some others in a beneficial way, too.

But those who are so certain of their perfection and rightness, who represent themselves as the only way, who seek to diminish the contributions and commitments of others, will find themselves increasingly diminished as others simply move on without them. The old politics of histrionics and bullying are losing their appeal and impact. And while I do not question the commitment and contributions of those individuals who seem to gravitate toward those tools, I am among the growing crowd who are simply weary of it.

The HSBC is working with so many right now: Individual shelters from around PA and the nation, Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association, Federated Humane Societies of Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School, Pennsylvania Animal Response Team, Humane Society of the United States, State and local government agencies , and local human welfare agencies. When so many can find so much to agree on and work toward together, one can’t help but wonder why some seem to be forever in opposition to and outside of these partnerships and working groups. Is there no common ground to be found? None?

We should no longer be asking how someone else is wrong. We should ask, “What is the problem we can agree on, what are the possible solutions we can agree on, and will those solutions actually work?” When we choose as donors and volunteers to support efforts of others, we should question whether someone seems to spend more time talking about how wrong someone else is rather than talking about what their solution is (including the HSBC). Let’s not just ask, “What have you accomplished?” Let’s ask, “Have you prevented others from or assisted others in getting things accomplished?” And let’s set aside the tired, failed architecture of the past hundred years of animal welfare with all its faults and recriminations, and decide it is time for a new way forward.

Pennsylvania is a very big place with many individual strengths. If we can unite these strengths in a single direction, those strengths become a force. With that force we can all, together and side by side, lead animal welfare forward. And we welcome others to walk with us. Or not. But either way, we’re walking forward with the friends we have.

ps: Want to ask me those questions or any other? I'd welcome the opportunity. If you run into someone with something less than kind to say about the HSBC, please remember that I am here to answer any question and address any concern. Please call or email me at 610-921-2348, ext. 10 or kminor@berkshumane.org.

That's what I thought this morning as I paid for my coffee and glanced down to see the headline in the January 24, 2009, Reading Eagle which read, "Appeal of ruling against dog law rejected."

We were right. It certainly seems a victory for the Humane Society of Berks County. We had campaigned against this ordinance, which had the potential to not only impact regular dog owners in the City of Reading but could have cost us from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year if enacted. We are, after all, the City's largest owner of pit bulls and there was no provision to exempt us from the $50 to $500 license fees required under the ordinance. More than that, the ordinance was ineffective (as demonstrated by data), unfair and burdensome (as attested by citizens), and, in our opinion, unconstitutional. Apparently that opinion was shared by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

When increasing mountains of data showed that this ordinance was not effective, I was as shocked and concerned as any. I had been one of the ordinances biggest cheerleaders when I first arrived at the Humane Society five years ago, quoted in newspapers and touting it to animals control agencies across the country. On the face of it, this was a smart, effective way to handle the serious public safety problem of dog bites. How could I and everyone else have been so wrong?

But I was and we were. We had forgotten that correlation does not equal causation. The data showed that the rising and falling bite epidemic was a result of other factors than the breed of the dog. In the same way that we know that high crime in a neighborhood populated most heavily by this race or that one doesn't indicted the entire race, we had proof that the supposed "bad breed" had less to do with the bites than several other more dominant factors: sterilization status, whether the dog was licensed, where the dog was housed, or the relative percentage of one breed compared to others.

With such clear cut data, how could the Humane Society do anything other than work to change, improve, even overturn, the ordinance? And that we did. At first quietly, then louder, then from a fighting stance.

But the fight over this ordinance was costly. It strained and broke a once strong relationship between the Humane Society and the City. We were a law enforcement agency faced with one of two choices. We could enforce an ordinance we knew didn't work and began to believe was unconstitutional. Or we could refuse to enforce a law on the books. We chose the latter on ethical grounds but that made the decision none the easier.

That then put the City in a hard place. Can you have a sub-contractor providing you with animal control services and responsible for enforcing your rules publicly refusing to follow your own ordinances? Of course not. While there are few political arts purer than the art of revisionism, there can be little doubt that this was a root cause behind the very mutual divorce of the City and the Humane Society as animal control service recipient and provider.

As a result, the City now pays significantly more for animal control than before, not to mention the legal fees it incurred to fight on in vain and ultimately lose the appeal to keep the flawed ordinance.

Worse was the personal turn the fight took on as good, caring owners of safe, trained (and sterilized) pit bulls felt under siege from a public and a City government reeling from a rash of bites and looking for something, anything, that would stop it. Those of us expressing our opposition were, sometimes very directly and pointedly, accused of not caring about little girls and boys being mauled in the street by pit bulls. My own three daughters (4, 6 and 8 years old) certainly begged to differ with that characterization of their Daddy. It is no wonder that there are still some hard feelings and bruised egos over this whole mess.

All that should now be past. The court have ruled. But that does not mean that there is not still a problem facing our community of preventable dog bites. The Humane Society of Berks County put forward a specific and detailed plan for how we could start to find a better way and how to improve the health, welfare and safety of the humane and canine citizens of the City. This plan was fact based, reasonable and key points were endorsed by the Reading Eagle's Editorial Board. It was rejected by City government.

Maybe now it is time to revisit the subject, work together, and make the tough choices that will make Reading as safe as we all want it to be. The Humane Society of Berks County is here and willing to help, if there is a will to get beyond the struggles of the past and work together to forge a better and safer future.

While there has been a lot of talk about how the economic downturn is impacting Main Street and Wall Street, not as much attention has been given to how it is impacting “Non-Profit Street”. Believe me, it’s impacting us, too.

In fact, we saw the impact early. Corporate donations dropped in 2007 as businesses pulled back on their charitable support. Trust distributions, which provide income from investment portfolios, began to decline along with the stock market. Combined, these two funding sources dropped dramatically in the past year. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that the Humane Society of Berks County is kind of like someone who lived through the Great Depression and never forgot what it was like. That’s because several years ago the HSBC went through a string of financially terrible years. Estates and bequests, the life blood of the organization to that point, all but dried up. Hours, staff and services had been cut, further weakening the HSBC’s ability to raise vitally needed funds. That didn’t seem like good news then, but it sure does now.

That’s because it caused us to take a comprehensive look at how we were funded and how we were handling the funds that we received. First, we needed to get out of the financial mess we had been in and, second, ensure that no loss of a single revenue stream could ever impact us so dramatically and negatively again in the future. With that in mind we very carefully analyzed both our budget and our future so that we could create a long range plan for the HSBC that would further our mission and help more animals, and then figure out how we were going to pay for it.

The result was a diversification of our funding streams, an improvement in the way we were fundraising, and the elimination of revenue streams and fundraising efforts that were costing the HSBC more than they were returning- both in funds and in “mission return.”

To diversify our funding streams we worked to increase the number of supporters providing financial assistance to the HSBC, as well as the ways they could choose to give. Through improved direct mail appeals, internet fundraising, annual giving and planned giving societies, and improved events we were able to increase our donor base by nearly ten-fold in four years. We made our special events better and more cost effective, ensuring that our supporters not only had a better time at them, but that more of the money they donated in support of the events went to the animals. And we made hard choices to eliminate some fundraising efforts that were costing the organization too much for the financial return they offered.

We also evaluated our programs to make sure that they were helping animals and people without causing actual financial damage to the organization, let alone doing harm to the animals. Most notably, our role of as Reading’s and the State’s “dog catcher” was costing us- in other words, costing you the donor- three dollars for every one dollar we received in payment for the service. Not to mention we were playing a role in an antiquated animal control system that helped cause problems like uncontrolled euthanasia rather than helping to prevent them. By turning our efforts from dog and cat catching services to providing veterinary services to those in need, expanding programs like Ani-Meals On Wheels, PetNet, and the Free To A Great Home adoption program, we were able to increase the number of animals being helped, decrease the number facing homelessness and euthanasia in the first place (which should be the ultimate goal, after all), change the way in which animals services were provided and funded in Berks for the better, and generate new operating revenues that were more broadly and sustainably supported.

In the end we had a stronger organization helping more animals and people with better staff and services, expanded hours and additional and improved facilities. And we were less at the mercy of any one financial problem putting a choke hold on our ability to perform our mission. So, despite the recession, we have been able to continue to do our job without the major staff, hours, and service cuts we would have faced in the past.

We have certainly had to make cut backs. We have frozen hiring and wages, we have cut back on expenses that are not absolutely vital to helping the animals, we have relied more heavily on volunteers and extra staff help for projects that might have been done by contractors in the past (so ignore any bad spackle jobs you see), and we have gone through our budget with a fine toothed comb to trim fat wherever we could (not that there was much to begin with!). We want to make sure that in the face of decreased funds from corporations and trusts and increases in the need for our services because of the recession we are in, we are making the most of every penny we receive in support of our mission.

And the simple fact is that you are more important than ever to our ability to provide these services. Your donation, no matter what the size, is even more vital as we try to offset the losses we face in other funding streams. We need you to have confidence that we are spending your money wisely, and that we are providing the “mission return” you expect for your money.

Almost five years ago when we were facing a financial crisis people said, “If only we could find someone to donate a million dollars to help the animals.” But we knew that wasn’t likely to happen. So we asked ourselves, “What if we could find one thousand people to donate $1,000? Or ten thousand people to donate $100?” That is what we have tried to do and maybe you are one of those ten thousand people who now help the Humane Society each year. If you are, it means you are one of many who are sharing the burden and are helping us to do what no single person could.

Now that the entire nation is facing a financial crisis those many helping hands are more important than ever. We hope that you will not only continue to be there for us so we can continue to be there for the animals. We hope that you will appreciate the lessons we learned from our grandmothers who lived through the Great Depression: Do what you can do well and try to do it better, don’t borrow for things you don’t need and won’t help you through hard times, and don’t spend other people’s money like it’s your own. And count on friends and family to help you in times of need.

I truly hope that the Humane Society of Berks County and the animals we help can continue to count on you and all of our friends and family in this time of need.

p.s.- Sorry for the long message this time. Serious issues like these don't lend themselves to sound bite explanations.

If your Representative or Senator was a co-sponsor of the recently passed Puppy Mill Bill (HB 2525) , please express your thanks and support (they like hearing from us when we're happy with them, too!). While you are at it, ask your Senator to co-sponsor HB 2532 (click here to read) so we can get another great bill passed into law!

Please notify the HSBC if there are any errors. No votes in committee are votes to prevent the bill as written from being moved to the full House for a vote. No votes in the full house are votes against the final bill.

After years of need and months of hard work on the part of advocates and supportive members of the legislature, dogs in Pennsylvania have a victory: the new Dog Law has been passed by the House and Senate and will now become law!

Thank you to all those who called, emailed, and rallied, from all of us at the Humane Society of Berks County. You have helped make life better for dogs in Pennsylvania and have helped to remove the stain of cruelty that has plagued our Commonwealth for too long.

There is still one more thing to do. You must hold the State accountable for enforcing this new law. For years the government has said that the problems we all knew were very real in puppy mills, mills which were allowed to remain open, were the result of weak laws. Now they have what they asked for. Will we see real action?

Passing a law has never made a difference. Enforcing a law does. Now that you have developed relationships with your legislators on this issue, ask them to live up to their oversight responsibilities and ensure that this new law is enforced. Also, ask them to ensure that the State is there to provide financial support for the only places that the dogs seized from puppy mills can go: Pa's non-profit, charitable animal shelters.

Now, if we can just get them to pass that tethered turkey and pigeon shoot ban next year...

There is an ugly rumor going through the halls of the Pennsylvania Senate. It's that you and I don't care enough about the health, welfare and lives of dogs in Pennsylvania for the Senate to act in the remaining five days of this year's legislative session.

Why? Because some in Harrisburg don't think enough people came out to the puppy mill rally held on September 15 and that this is proof that people don't really care about this issue in Pennsylvania.

I won't even get started on the arrogance it takes to say that our elected officials, sent by us to Harrisburg to be our representatives, require us to take off work and drive perhaps hundreds of miles round trip in this economy and with these gas prices in order to prove we care about an issue that has generated more public support and outcry that just about any ever. OK, maybe I got started on that a little.

But the fact is, there are only a few days left to pass Senate versions House Bills 2525 and 2532, both of which finally passed nearly (HB 2525) or completely (HB 2532) unanimously. Despite all the work of those who drafted, and re-drafted, and re-drafted again, this legislation; shepherded it through committee votes; and made it acceptable to a wide diversity of constituent groups while protecting it from frivolous attempts to derail it or simply run down the clock; it comes down to just a few days left before the Senate goes home for the general elections.

I know I (and others) have sent you an awful lot of these alerts and every one has talked about why your call or email is important right now. I have meant it every time and because of your calls and emails we actually managed to get this legislation approved in the House, even when there were times it looked DOA.

You and I, by making our voices heard, beat out the puppy mill lobby to get these bills passed in the House. We overcame the bizarre, whispered assertions by some that HB 2525 is a stealth first step at banning hunting-- which is like saying that a stronger law against abusing children is a first step to banning the belt industry. There are actually those whose paranoia would allow dogs to suffer because of some imagined threat to hunting rights. Don't believe me? See for yourself by clicking here or Googling.

Yes, we have come a long way by passing these bills in the House but we still have inches to go. Right now, it all comes down to a few days. It's like the last two minutes of a football game when you are down by one- it doesn't matter how hard you played to that point. You need to get in the end zone (fellow Eagles fans, you know what I'm talking about). The dogs of Pennsylvania need you right now to help get this legislation into the end zone.

This legislation will die if you do not contact your State Senator today and tell him or her how important it is to pass Senate versions of HB 2525 and 2532 in the remaining days of this session. Forward this email to friends, family and co-workers, and ask them to take two minutes to contact their State Senator and tell them how important this legislation is.

Don't let anyone think that after six months of hard work, rallies, petitions, and thousands upon thousands of constituents calls and emails supporting this legislation they can simply decide that because there wasn't a big enough crowd at the Capitol last week they can ignore the will of the majority of Pennsylvanians.

This legislation was over a decade in the making. If it doesn't pass now, there is no guarantee it will be re-introduced next year. And tens of thousands of dogs will face living in tiny, stacked, filthy cages; bred non-stop without ever seeing a veterinarian or getting a walk; and ultimately face being shot and thrown in the compost pile when their use has come to an end.

There are a mere five days left for your Senator to vote on this legislation before they go home to work on getting your vote in exactly six weeks-- in the general election. Don't let them leave Harrisburg without knowing clearly that now is the time to pass this legislation. You must make the calls and emails. You must help flood their offices with calls and emails today, immediately. You must take two minutes to forward this plea along to others and beg them to contact their Senator right now.

We all know that that the scale of animal cruelty offenses can range from the minor infraction to massive offense. In recent months there have been puppy mill busts resulting in 1,000 dogs seized in West Virginia to scores or hundreds seized in Pennsylvania. And while we all are thrilled to see these dogs liberated from their hell of perpetual breeding in puppy mills, we must also recognize that every one of these large cases represents a failure to intervene before a situation got that bad.

All the cases resulting in hundreds of deaths had to start with one death. All the cases resulting in hundreds of citations had to start with one violation.

Now, we all know the reality is that we often don’t hear about these cases until it is too late. Until dogs are dying of disease and neglect and the situation cannot be salvaged. Nonetheless, shouldn’t our goal be to intervene at the first sign of cruelty and at the first tiny violation-- before the kennel operator starts down that slippery slope leading to catastrophe?

The “big bust” makes all the local newspapers and TV and maybe even the national feed or the cable shows. But they also result in more suffering on the part of the animals than if they had been rescued weeks or months earlier when conditions were less severe and less newsworthy. They may result in more obvious slam dunk cruelty cases but wouldn’t we rather intervene at the stage when a warning might suffice if it will save lives? And in Pennsylvania, every one of those “big busts” comes at the expense of some animal welfare agency, supported by donor dollars, not tax dollars.

There is no such thing as “a little cruelty” and we shouldn’t wait for the obvious major cruelty to take action. State Dog Wardens who inspect Pennsylvania’s kennels may have their hands tied by outdated laws when it comes to taking rapid and serious action against bad, or even just lacking, kennel operators. But it only takes a single cruelty conviction to start the ball rolling to get a kennel’s license revoked. Not hundreds. Not dozens. One.

In Berks County, a little cruelty is enough. We will not wait until it’s too late, when dogs are dying from disease, injury and neglect. We’re going to take action when the crime is less “sexy” and shocking but a crime nonetheless. Failure to provide veterinary care for an obviously sick or injured pet is a crime. Making an animal live in filth or in a cage that is too small is a crime. We should not wait until that injury results in the loss of an eye or the sanitation and inadequate caging leads to crippling deformities.

In Berks County we work with our police, dog wardens, judges, district attorneys, and the public to identify even the minor crimes and little cruelties and intervene before they become high crimes and abominations. We must enforce the laws as written, we must advocate for stronger laws, and while we must not persecute, we should never hesitate to prosecute when it is warranted- even a little.

If you are travelling today in Maxatawny Township, Berks County, you’ll find there is a little more silence than there was a month ago. Why? Because the owner of A & J Kennel, faced with an order from a State Dog Warden to get flea bitten dogs relatively inexpensive veterinary care, chose to do something else instead.

He shot eighty dogs and buried them in his compost pile. Problem solved, barking silenced.

Here’s the best part: it is perfectly legal to do what he did in Pennsylvania. In fact, it’s not just commercial kennels. Animal shelters are permitted to do the same thing. Under the current dog law, humane lethal injection isn’t required, nor is the supervision of a veterinarian. Any kennel owner can solve their personal dog problem by just shooting it.

Many of the opponents of House Bill 2525, the pending revision to Pennsylvania’s Dog Law known widely as the Puppy Mill Bill, make the case that most of the high profile cruelty cases and the films shown recently on Oprah showed conditions that are illegal under current law. And they are right.

But that current law also allows those kennel owners to shoot their dogs when they become a medical or legal or financial inconvenience. I wonder what these opponents will have to say about that inconvenient provision in what they claim to be our current “adequate” law. My guess is we will get silence.

House Bill 2525 would have made A & J Kennel’s actions a crime. It could have resulted in faster action, more severe penalties and, maybe, saved the lives of those 80 dogs. How many times will this tragedy need to be repeated before dogs receive the basic, simple protections offered under HB 2525?

Unfortunately, it seems that the loudest voices right now are those seeking to block HB 2525 for whatever ills, real or imagined, they feel this law would create. Well, one thing we know HB 2525 would have done is make shooting these 80 dogs a crime.

But the silence from legislators who beg the need to “study the issue”, “caucus with constituents”, and “consider all sides” means we may not get HB 2525 past those in the legislature who are standing behind puppy mills.

In Berks County we have had several Representatives stand up and make their voices heard: Representatives Caltagirone, Kessler, Mantz, Reichley, and Santoni made their voices heard by either co-sponsoring HB 2525 or voting for it in committee, and we thank them for making the right choice and making their voices heard. Representative Cox made his voice heard by voting against HB 2525 in committee. While the HSBC strongly disagrees with his vote, we at least recognize that he made his opinion public.

From the rest of our Representatives? More "study", more, "caucusing", more "consideration". More silence.

As long as we have silence we will never see HB 2525 come to pass. We need to hear the voices of our Representatives and Senators. We need to hear the voices of our citizens, constituents and supporters. We, as animal welfare organizations, must make our voices heard, too. And we need to demand that no one remain silent about his or her position on HB 2525 any longer.

Find your Representative’s contact information here. Thank Representatives Caltagirone, Kessler, Mantz, Reichley, and Santoni and the other supporters of HB 2525. Urge Representative Cox to reconsider his opposition. Ask any “undecided” Representatives to break their silence now.

I'm starting to think that the reason for this colder than normal May might be that hell is freezing over. Because to those of us who have spent our careers working for animal welfare, that's we thought would need to happen to bring an end to Pennsylvania's puppy mill industry.

But that chill puppy "farmers" are starting to feel is the possibility of meaningful change to Pennsylvania's dog laws that will require significant improvements to the housing and care of dogs in commercial breeding kennels. Thanks to Governor Ed Rendell, proud father of Golden Retrievers and the first governor brave enough to attempt to take on the weirdly powerful puppy mill lobby, and Oprah Winfrey, a fresh level of attention and shame has been cast on Pennsylvania.

Previous attempts to make changes to Dog Law have been blocked by legislators who have stood at the side of the puppy farming lobby. They embraced the icky and outdated notion that puppy mills are a "standard agricultural practice" and that our dogs are no different from factory farmed beef, poultry, or pork. Maybe this is because the Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement falls under the control of the PA Department of Agriculture, something the Humane Society of Berks County has long felt demeans the importance of companion dogs in today's society.

But whatever the reason for this flawed perception by some legislators, the simple fact is that no matter what you think about the meat industry (I admit it, I'm no vegetarian) the vast majority of Pennsylvanians believe there is a fundamental difference between our companion dogs and a chicken. And we should reflect that difference by requiring a few important changes like those called for in House Bill 2525.

House Bill 2525 won't ban large scale commercial dog breeding outright. Unfortunately, no amount of political will and popular outcry will make that happen right now. But it will require the bare minimum that we should expect of breeding facilities: larger kennels, proper exercise, temperature control, proper and regular veterinary care, better record keeping, and other no-brainers that have been fought against tooth and nail in the past by puppy farmers.

This may not seem like much but it is enough to both improve the lives of dogs in these facilities, to decrease the profit puppy farmers make on litters and perhaps make them move on to a new "crop". Puppy mills can only exist if they can be operated cheaply enough to make a high profit, by sticking a dozen dogs in a wire rabbit hutch for their entire lives, by not providing medical care or heat or air conditioning or exercise, and by taking unwanted dogs out back for a bullet in the head when they need to "cull the herd".

In the past, efforts to make changes have been stymied by strong opposition lobbying, in-fighting and sniping among animal welfare groups, back room deals that cut out important constituents, and a lack of focus on the real problems and solutions. But with the combined support of Governor Rendell, Oprah, the Humane Society of Berks County, the HSUS, the ASPCA, local animal welfare organizations, and YOU, we have a very real chance of getting this legislation passed, signed and in effect this year.

Is it a perfect bill? No. But if we are to get any action taken that will help dogs in puppy mills, we must embrace this effort at this time with this bill.

Despite rumors to the contrary, this bill will not impact hunters who kennel hunting dogs, animal shelters, vets or boarding kennels. It targets large scale breeding operations. If the large scale kennels are doing a good job, they have no worries. If not, HB 2525 will allow dog wardens to take off legally imposed gloves and give them the tools they need to prosecute puppy millers. It will also allow them to revoke kennel licenses and shut puppy mills down, not just hand out piddling little fines for violations that shock our senses but under current law result in fines of a few dollars.

Below you will find links to locate and contact your elected Representative and Senators. Email them or, better yet, call them and ask them to not only support HB 2525 but to sign on as a co-sponsor. If one of your Representatives is on the Agriculture Committee (see below), make it clear (politely, please!) that you expect swift movement to vote this bill out of committee for a full vote of the House.

UPDATE (6-26-08): HB 2525 voted out of committee. Now needs to be approved by full House!

UPDATE (07-04-08) Through the cowardly leadership of Chester County Representative Art Hershey, a handfull of Representatives thwarted the overwhelming majority of Representatives by putting forward over 100 amendments (such as PROHIBITING access to water for more than a couple hours a day) in an attempt to derail the bill. They succeeded in pushing off a vote on the bill until the House returns for a shorter Fall session. Don't let this bill die a slow death because of the despicable actions of a few Representatives who seem to be the only people on the side of those profiting from the torment of dogs. Call your Reps now and leave messages telling them you expect action when they return.

And remind them that you will vote this November on animal welfare issues and that you will pay attention to how they vote on this bill. The HSBC will be tracking the votes and letting you know who voted for Pennsylvania's dogs and who voted against them. This shouldn't be a partisan issue, it should be an issue of right and wrong and officials from both sides of the aisle should join together.

Help to end Pennsylvania's national embarrassment. Please call your elected officials right now.

While it might be premature to pronounce the era of the dog catcher dead, across the nation animal welfare organizations are steadily handing the responsibility for being the dog and cat catcher back to the municipalities who are, and should be, responsible for that service. Although animal control is a government function, for decades animal welfare organizations have taken on the job.

Often this role started out in a well meaning enough way. SPCA's and Humane Societies voluntarily took over animal control rather than see the cruelty and abuse often suffered at the hands of private and municipal animal control. Before long, many States and municipalities began to rely almost exclusively on non-profit, charitable organizations to provide these services in place of police or municipal employees- and to subsidize the expense. You may not be aware of the fact that in Pennsylvania the average animal shelter providing animal control services subsidizes 75% or more of the cost of that service. Local and State government quickly figured out that they could count on us to foot the bill and direct tax dollars to other "more important" services.

We are not talking small sums here. The estimate provided by a national municipal management association to provide proper animal control services to a community is $4 to $10 per person, per year. That means that in Berks County the bare minimum that should be getting spent by government is 1.2 million dollars a year, based on our population. Between State and municipal funds devoted to animal control in Berks County, less than $200,000 a year (at most) is provided by government for these services. That's only about 15% of what municipal managers themselves say should be spent at the very least.

Where does the rest of the money come from? From you and from all the charitable donors who give to animal welfare organizations who provide animal control. It also comes from the animals. Those hundreds of thousands of dollars spent to keep townships and cities from having to spend money on animal control and public safety could be getting spent to sterilize animals, adopt animals, provide veterinary services and education, and more.

That's why the big conversation at animal shelters around the country and at national animal welfare conferences is about finding the best way to help animals and place the burden for paying for government services where it belongs- on the government. Increasingly, the conclusion being reached is that it is time to divest ourselves of the job of dog and cat catcher for local government and for the State.

That is the conclusion reached by many, many shelters. Large and well respected shelters like the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New York City and the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Philadelphia. Small and well respected shelters like the York County SPCA right here south eastern Pennsylvania. And now, by the Humane Society of Berks County.

We couldn't just dump all our animal control contracts without ensuring that the animals had someplace to go. But we couldn't go on aiding and abetting a failed system that, in the end, results in more death and misery because it lets our government off the hook for a societal problem. So, we declined the State dog control contract in 2008, choosing to take no money rather than taking fifteen cents on the dollar- and being treated like we should be grateful for that. We offered services at rates closer to the real cost (but still only 25 to 30 cents on the dollar), knowing that penny pinching governments would finally face the real cost. And knowing that our time offering animal control would swiftly end when they did.

That's why we didn't even include any animal control funding in our 2008 operating budget when our Board of Directors passed it last fall. We knew that most local governments still wouldn't buy the cow, even if the milk stopped being free. Some governments choose to go the way of offering their own services. Some find new partners at other organizations that are more comfortable with the status quo. We're happy to allow them to do whatever makes sense for them.

What we will do is fulfill our mission by continuing to create innovative, award winning adoption programs that are being modeled around the country and right here at home. We will continue to develope nationally recognized emergency programs that help more animals and people. We will continue to use the best academic research to determine and attack the root causes of pet overpopulation, abuse, and homelessness.

Many organizations struggle with this decision, as we have. Is it the right thing to do? Where will that displaced income come from? What will people think? We know the answers, if we just have the courage to admit it. We know we shouldn't be bailing out the government at the cost of animal lives. We know people don't give us money to subsidize animal control services, they give us money to save lives. We also know that if people really knew the cost in lives and resources they'd demand to know why we waited so long.

And because we won't be taking the financial scraps offered by the government, we can be even more active in fighting for good animal welfare legislation like the dog tethering bill and fighting against bad legislation, like Reading's Dangerous Dog Ordinance. We can ask hard questions of those in power. For example, if we care about our dogs so much in Pennsylvania, why is the Bureau of Dog Control part of the Department of Agriculture, as if our companions animals were chickens or cattle to be farmed and harvested? Why can't dog wardens cite kennels for animal cruelty? Why doesn't the State put one penny of tax money toward dog control work that protects our pets and our people, instead choosing to nickel and dime the effort through dog license sales? It's hard to ask these questions of the government- if you rely on it for a pay check.

We'd rather find our resources elsewhere and seek our aid from those who truly care about animals. Not politicians trying to find the lowest bidder, cheapest services, the best sound bite, or the most politically expedient approach. We know that this might come with some hard feelings or maybe a sudden rise in "surprise" inspections, but it's worth it. We know who our friends are and we know who it is who's really helping us to make a difference.

In other words, we'll keep turning to you to help us change and save even more lives. We know that people who really care about animals don't want to do what is easiest and cheapest, they want to do what is best, even if that's hard. And we're right there with you.

The Humane Society of Berks County urges the City of Reading not to pursue this case and this well intentioned but seriously flawed ordinance any further. We have no doubt that a competent attorney will be able to bring a compelling case before the PA Supreme Court that will result on this ordinance being struck down for a broader variety of reasons. While the Humane Society understands the natural desire to want to do something in the face of a rash of dog bites, this ordinance was the wrong tool.

It targeted an entire population based on the actions of only a few. It had no requirements for determining if the criteria used was or remained valid over time. It started and has remained clearly intended by many as a means of controlling one particular breed, pit bulls, not any random "aggressive breed". Ultimately, it's extremely punitive licensing fees (fees that were outside the ability of many working families to pay)were required only of those owning a particular breed, resulting in a defacto and illegal breed ban.

All this aside, we don't need it to get bites down. Despite a major upturn in bites in the first part of 2007, increased enforcement of existing State and local dog control laws drastically reduced bites, not just by the pit bulls who would have been impacted but by all dogs of any breed. In the first seven weeks of 2008, even with the prospect of the ordinance completely off the radar until 2009, bites are still down 20% over last year and pitbull bites are down 66%. With good enforcement of existing laws, bites can be curbed without the threat of a Draconian breed ordinance.

It has been widely reported that the Humane Society of Berks County has called for a huge license fee for unsterilized dogs in Reading. As is often the case with positions of subtlety, this is accurate in the most selective of contexts. What the Humane Society has said is that IF the City insisted on keeping its ordinance, we believe that the restrictions should be targeted at the populations of dogs that are statistically vastly more likely to bite than any individual breed, even those scary pit bulls. These include (in order of percentage of total bites in Reading in 2007): unsterilized dogs of any sex (at least 71% of bites), any male dog of any breed (at least 67% of bites), unlicensed dogs of any breed or sex (at least 61% of bites), or unsterilized male dogs of any breed (at least 58% of bites). You would need to go through all these populations before you get down to a breed group like pit bulls (39% of bites). We believe that there is no reason to jump over these demonstrably more "aggressive" populations in order to target a breed-- unless the whole point is simply to target the breed.

So, pit bull owners, take this opportunity to prove the proponents of this ordinance wrong. If you haven't already, get your dog sterilized, always walk it on a leash, don't leave it outside unsupervised, keep it licensed, take your dog to a qualified obedience program, make sure that your dog is a model canine good citizen, and help the Humane Society and the City of Reading aggressively target the bad owners of dogs they have made bad- whatever their breed.

If you don't, you'll probably see some clever, new version of the ordinance rear its head soon.

Pigeon Shoot Ban Update!

Update (1-7-09): It has been reported that one of the three remaining pigeon shoot locations in Berks County, the Strausstown Gun Club, has decided to stop holding pigeon shoots and has dismantled its shoot facility! This is great news and if it is true and remains the case, we applaud Strausstown for their decision! If you are a sportsman, consider letting Strausstown know much you support their decision to join the rest of the modern hunting community.

That still leaves the Pikeville Gun Club, Oley, and Wingpoint Sport Shooting Club, Hamburg, as the remaining organizations who have not announced that they will no longer hold shoots. We hope that they will reconsider and help us end Berks County's national embarrassment.

Update (11-25-08): While a ban was not put through in the past legislative session, the recent elections have resulted in changes in leadership in the House. We must re-double our efforts to convince the new leadership that the time for a ban on this unsporting, profit driven practice is now, and we need to convince our Berks Representatives and Senators that the solution should come from Berks! Ask your Senator and Representative to consider the ban and consider language that will work for both sides of the issue.

There are those who are concerned that this is a first step to banning hunting and guns, so they won't even admit their own repugnance toward pigeon shoots. There are those who want to ban the pigeon shoots but may, in fact, have a broader agenda and won't give in to langauge that might make that agenda harder for them in the future.

It is time for us to work around the extremists on both ends of the spectrum and join with the vast majority in the middle who can agree that this fight is about this one thing and one thing only- pigeon and tethered shoots. It is time for reasonable people in the middle to find a reasonable and acutely limited common ground on which we can all agree!

One thing is for sure. Animal lovers and real hunters both find pigeon shoots unsporting and way out of the main stream. I bet if the animal people will say they really won't use this issue as a future springboard for an anti-hunting agenda, the hunters might tell their fringe folks to climb down off their supposed Second Amendment concerns to meet in the middle. After all, some of us animal folks love the Constitution, too.

Update (7-29-08): Largest Pigeon Shoot in the United States will be held this weekend in Berks County at the Strausstown Gun Club (click here for WFMZ 69 news story). Contact your Senator and Representative now and ask them to support Senate Bill 1150 and House Bill 2130 (click here for a locator). End our national embarrassment!

Update (3-19-08): PA Senate Judiciary Committee temporarily postpones action on Legislation to Stop the Use of Live Animals for Target Practice

Although the Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary Committee had designated March 18 for consideration of Senate Bill 1150 to prohibit the use of live animals or fowl for target shoots, extended debate on a different controversial bill to amend the state constitution resulted in postponing debate and consideration of SB 1150 at the committee meeting.

Rather than risk having SB 1150 fail because of lack of proper consideration, the bill’s prime sponsor, Senator Pat Browne (R-Lehigh), requested Committee Chairman, Senator Stewart Greenleaf (R-Montgomery) to reschedule SB 1150 for the next meeting of the Committee, at which time Senator Browne believes the bill will be approved by the Committee.

Most importantly, your telephone calls and emails to the Committee members have helped to pave the way for SB 1150 to be approved by the Committee when it is rescheduled! The momentum remains with us thanks to your efforts!

One of the most important things that you can do is to acknowledge that hard work of legislators who are willing to introduce and push to passage bills in the face of stiff opposition. Senator Pat Browne is that kind of legislator. Please take a moment to send him a note thanking him for introducing SB 1150 and for his continued efforts to achieve committee approval and final passage of this bill.

As we saw this past week when the NRA tried to thwart our efforts to pass SB 1150, through email alerts from a variety of humane and animal advocate groups around our state and nationally, for the first time since this issue has been in the legislature we were able to surpass the opposition calls and emails to legislators generated by NRA efforts! You can help to sustain this momentum by helping to increase our numbers to be able to generate calls and emails at a moment’s notice. Please forward this message to other animal advocates and encourage them to take action and to join our email alert list.

As always, thank you for your support. SB 1150 could not have made it this far without you!

On Tuesday, March 18, 2008, the Senate Judiciary Committee will finally vote on SB 1150. To pass, this Bill needs every single vote and the seven co-sponsors of SB 1150 needs to be present or send in proxy "yes" votes to ensure it passes out of Committee. Please, take a few minutes to click on the link to the members of the Judiciary Committee below and email them to urge them to support this Bill!

Then please contact your Senator (if they are not on the Committee) and tell them you expect them to vote for SB 1150 when it come up for a full vote of the Senate.

Senate Judiciary Committee

Greenleaf, Stewart J., Chair (Co-sponsor, thank you!) White, Mary Jo, Vice Chair (Ask to support!) Costa, Jay, Minority Chair (Co-sponsor, thank you!) Scarnati, III, Joseph B., ex-officio (Ask to support!)
*Majority* Browne, Patrick M. (Prime sponsor, thank you!) Earll, Jane M. (Ask to support!) Gordner, John R. (Ask to support!) Orie, Jane Clare (Ask to support!) Piccola, Jeffrey E. (Ask to support!) Rafferty, Jr., John C. (Co-sponsor, thank you!)	*Minority* Boscola, Lisa M. (Co-sponsor, thank you!) Fontana, Wayne D. (Co-sponsor, thank you!) Stack, Michael J. (Co-sponsor, thank you!) Stout, J. Barry (Ask to support!)

Fifteen minutes of your time now could finally put an end to this cruel and archaic "sport". For more information on SB 1150, what it will and will not do, and to contact Berks County Senators, read the archived message below. Thank you!

Berks County is one of the last places in Pennsylvania to still hold pigeon shoots. Pennsylvania is one of only two States in the United States to legally allow these shoots and the only one where they are still taking place. And right now Berks County can help bring this shameful and unsporting practice to an end.

The Pennsylvania Senate may soon be bringing SB 1150, which bans pigeon shoots, to a vote. It will be a close vote and many of our elected representatives have not yet taken a public position on SB 1150. We need your help now in order to convince undecided Senators to support the bill. Just a couple of Senate votes could be all that stands between this bill being defeated or becoming law. Shouldn't those Senate votes come from right here in Berks County, the last remaining stronghold of organized pigeon shooting?

Pigeon shooters claim it is a secret attack on gun rights. Where does it say that? I'm a gun owner. I don't see anything about taking my shotgun away.

Some "sportsman" clubs say that this is an attack on hunting rights. Where does it say that? The hunters who support the Humane Society of Berks County don't see anything about taking away their right to hunt. They see the provision that specifically prohibits this bill from doing anything to hunting regulations.

Some say that pigeon shoots are good old fashioned hunting. The Pennsylvania Game Commission disagrees. A Commission spokesman, Jerry Feaser, said that pigeon shoots are not what the Commission "would classify as fair-chase hunting."

Best of all, those who actually hold these pigeon shoots in Berks County are finally saying what they are really all about: "gambling, pure and simple." I'm not making this up, read it for yourself here.

Some of our elected representatives say they need to check with the pigeon shooters to see what they think about a ban. The last time I checked, our elected representatives represented everyone in their districts, not just the extremely few people who profit from the continuation of this antiquated and absurd "sport".

It's time that we, the vast majority of people, tell our elected representatives that the time to pass this bill into law is now. This is not a fight between hunters and animal welfare advocates, or between Republicans or Democrats. There isn't some fringe bunch of do-gooding pigeon huggers trying to get some crazy law passed. It's about moderate, mainstream people of all stripes, like you and me, who want to join the rest of the United States and end these pigeon shoots now.

Our elected officials don't want to hear from lobbyists on both sides about this issue. They want to hear from us, their constituents. So, let's tell them what we think and why the should support this no-brainer of a bill.

And let's tell the pigeon shooters who flock here to Berks County from around the country because it's the only place in America they can indulge their petty desire to shoot caged birds that we don't want them- or their dirty gambling money.

Please, take five minutes out of your day right now to help make that happen. Together we can get this bill passed.

You can make a difference in two minutes! Email your Senator now (you can cut and paste the sample message below or write your own).

Don't know who your Senator is? Below is a link to a Senate District locator using your zip code.

"Dear [Senator]: If you haven't already, please cosponsor S.B. 1150, the bill to ban pigeon shoots in Pennsylvania. It is time to stop permitting these cruel and unsportsmanlike events in our state. A handful of these events still take place in Pennsylvania. I ask that you join effort to bring this antiquated, cruel, and unsporting practice to an end Statewide. Sincerely, [Your name & address]"

Have another two minutes? Place a personal phone call to their office urging them to support SB 1150.

And if you have 5 more minutes, consider looking up your State Representative to let them know that you haven't forgotten the House version of this bill (HB 73).

From out of Berks County or Pennsylvania? In PA, please contact your Senator and Representative to encourage their support. Out of PA, contact the above Senators and tell them that you welcome PA into the family of States that has banned pigeon shoots!

The close of each year comes with its share of endings and beginnings. The Humane Society of Berks County has had another busy and I am very happy about the new friends, relationships, accomplishments and recognitions coming to the HSBC this past year: Two new staff veterinarians, our staff being added to the boards of two major Pennsylvania animal welfare organizations (Federated Humane Societies and Pennsylvania State Animal Response Team), an invitation to present at the American Humane Association’s national conference in Washington, D.C., the opening of our spectacular Cat Adoption Center, the biggest years ever for our Walk and Arf’s Art Auction, reaching our goal of 100% pre-adoption sterilization of pets, expanding Ani-meals On Wheels…the list goes on.

We were only able to accomplish these things with the support and commitment of our volunteers, staff, board, and donors. Through their time, effort, and funds, we were able to build upon the hard work of the last few years to prepare the HSBC for a leap into the vanguard of animal welfare efforts in the United States. We asked our friends to help us and you have. The Humane Society is poised to make even bigger strides in 2008, strides that will improve the lives of animals and their people in Berks County and beyond as well as serve as a model for what a little, local animal welfare organization can accomplish. In 2008:

As huge as these things are, there are even bigger things on the horizon that will make an even bigger impact on the lives of animals and help make the HSBC a leader in animal welfare in Pennsylvania, not just Berks County. We’ll keep you posted as these opportunities begin to take shape. Of course, all this means that we’ll need even more friends and even more support to make these things a reality for the animals in our care. We’ve learned that we can’t do it alone but that we also get the support we need when we ask for it from those who care about our mission to save animals as much as we care about it.

Of course, with beginnings come endings. After a fantastic two year relationship with VCA Animal Hospital as part of their Adoption Health Guarantee Program, we will be transitioning to a new kind of post-adoption partnership. We cannot thank them enough for being there for our animals and we look forward to a long, if different, relationship.

Another ending is the end of the HSBC’s participation in the Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Dog Law Enforcements Dog Control Contract in 2008. This contract paid the Humane Society and other agencies money out of dog license sales to be the dog catcher in parts of Berks County. Unfortunately, the amount received was grossly less than the service provided cost and as much as thirty cents of every charitable dollar received by the HSBC was going to subsidize State and local animal control. On top of all this, the contract was with the very agency with oversight and regulation powers over our organization putting the HSBC in the awkward position of negotiating contracts with the very people with the power to lock our doors. Additionally, the State contract provided no protection to stray cats or other animals. The HSBC believes all animals deserve to be protected, not just dogs. The HSBC reached the difficult conclusion that contract served to drain the organization of the resources our donors gave to our mission, provided inadequate protection for animals, and gave a huge incentive to local government to abdicate its responsibility to provide residents with high quality, comprehensive animal control services for all animals.

Although the HSBC will still rescue every injured stray animal, will still investigate and prosecute every reported case of animal cruelty, and still accept every stray and homeless pet at our facilities, we will only provide animal control services to municipalities who will contract us to do the job right and for a fair fee. We will no longer use your charitable money to subsidize pauper’s wages paid to provide municipalities and the State with an way to avoid providing services that are standard elsewhere in the country. And we will pay for all those services through charitable donations so it is clear that saving animals is our mission not our “job”.

We have asked those receiving our services, including the County and the City of Reading, for financial help in making sure the HSBC is a safe haven for stray, abused and homeless pets. We have received some hopeful signs from some corners. We also received such a resounding silence from others that we are beginning to think that our organization might only be a valued partner at other’s convenience and at other’s prices. The Humane Society of Berks County won’t do less than we can do or less than we know is right just because other can’t or won’t help us.

As strongly as we believe in and have pursued partnerships, we also know that when the time comes to stand up and do what’s right for animals and their people you sometimes stand alone.

Thank you for a great past year and thank you for the great year to come. I know that together we will continue the fight to protect animals from abuse, neglect, illness, and homelessness and that, together, we will win that fight.

Every single day at the Humane Society of Berks County we save animals, one at a time. We do it with the help of volunteers and donors, who give of their time and sweat to help the HSBC undertake its mission to help animals and people in need. But to really help animals in a big way, thousands at a time, not just one by one, we need the help of a group that is sometimes overlooked as the greatest asset animals and animal welfare organizations have: our elected representatives and judges.

Unfortunately, sometimes this very same group can be the single biggest obstacle to helping animals we face.

The HSBC is a non-political organization. We talk to and work with all of our elected officials. We are blind to political party or affiliation. We only care about helping animals and working with those who have the power to make a difference across Berks County, Pennsylvania, and the United States. And we wouldn’t want it any other way.

Of course, even if we did want it another way, we couldn’t have our wish. As a 501c3 charity, we are prohibited by federal law from endorsing or opposing candidates for elected office. We can’t tell you who we think are “good” candidates or “bad” candidates when it comes to animal issues. We can only tell you where we stand on the issues and what specific legislation will mean to us. It’s up to you to walk into the voting booth and make the right choice- the right choice for animals.

If you don’t think that your vote matters to animals right here in Berks County and across the country, you are wrong. Why is Pennsylvania the only state in the Union to still legally allow live pigeon shoots? Because the last time legislation was introduced just a handful of representatives defeated it. Our elected representatives. Why does Pennsylvania have the dubious reputation of being a puppy mill hot spot? Because dog law enforcement has had their hands tied by agricultural rules intended to protect farmers but are used as a shield for puppy mills. Who needs to change those rules? Our elected officials. Who has abdicated Pennsylvania’s responsibility to provide proper animal control services for our two and four legged citizens, placing the burden on animal welfare agencies like the HSBC (and costing us thirty cents of every dollar you donate)? Our elected officials. And when animals are beaten to death, set on fire, thrown out of fourth story windows and the culprits receive fines, probation, or less, who hands down those light sentences? Our elected judges.

And the biggest shame is that most of our elected officials are kind, caring people who want to do what’s best for everyone- even animals. Unfortunately, it only takes a few who answer to big special interests that don’t care about animals or who don’t care about animals themselves and don’t see what the big deal is or just don’t take you and your concerns seriously because you are only talking about animals, to ruin it for all animals.

It’s time for you and me to show candidates for office that we are a special interest group. A group with a special interest in the humane treatment of animals. We need to ask candidates some hard questions and demand answers. Questions like:

We need to demand answers to these questions and others. We need to support candidates who are right on animal welfare and oppose those who are not. We need to show candidates that there is a price for being on the wrong side of animal welfare issues. And it’s not just enough to vote—we need to get out and tell others what we think and urge them to join us. We need to push for and support candidates who represent us and our beliefs. In districts where there is no race between political parties, we need to support pro-animal welfare candidates in the primaries. It is time for us to stop being ignored and for animals to stop facing homelessness and neglect because of the indifference of those elected to represent us.

The Humane Society of Berks County can not and will not endorse or target any candidates. However, we will do what we are allowed to do: We will tell our supporters-- our 10,000+ active donors and supporter this year alone-- what our positions are on a variety of animal welfare issues. We believe that pigeon shoots should be banned immediately. We believe that breed specific legislation is bad for dogs and bad for public safety. We believe that government should pay for animal control and “dog catching”, not charities. We believe that dogs deserve better than being viewed as a farm commodity. We believe that dogs should not live their lives tied outside. We believe that those convicted of animal cruelty should face the full brunt of the law like other violent criminals do. We believe that every candidate for office should visit an animal shelter in their community so they can see firsthand what animals face every day across the country- and across Berks County.

And we believe that you should hold politicians and judges accountable (and reward them when they deserve it) for their actions and inactions. When you vote, you can do more to help animals in a few minutes by asking these simple questions and voting your conscience than a shelter can do in a year. On Tuesday, November 6, you can do just that.

Would you like to learn more about what you as an individual can do to make a difference? The HSBC is partnering with the Humane Society of the United States and others to help those who care about animals and animal welfare to learn how they can make a personal and significant difference.

If you would be interested in attending a meeting to learn more, please contact me at kminor@berkshumane.org. If we receive enough interest from our supporters, we will have an informational gathering.

The purpose of this gathering can best be described as an opportunity to learn about a pilot project of the Humane Society of the United States to recruit citizens concerned with the humane treatment of animals into an Army of the Kind network, motivated and educated in the public policy processes of how to successfully pursue animal related issues. It will include printed material with detailed information and step-by-step procedural suggestions of actions that have proven to be effective in past campaigns on behalf of animals.

If I had to pick a single guiding principal that has led to the many recent successes of Humane Society of Berks County, it is our aggressive pursuit of great partnerships. It seems like a no-brainer in an industry that is all about forging new relationships between people and animals.

However, animal welfare organizations have a very well earned reputation for not playing well with others. Often, shelters don't just clash with those who disagree with our core principals, we often clash with those who share them. Other shelters, rescues, the veterinary community, volunteers- animal welfare types are sometimes better at discovering what separates us than they are at locking onto shared goals and values. There's a real tendency toward a splintering, go-it-alone approach.

But let's be perfectly honest, no cat ever rescued itself from abuse, no dog ever screened an adopter and then drove itself to its new home, and no rabbit ever wrote a check to pay for its care and feeding. It's people who do these things and its people we need to forge effective partnerships with. Everything we do at the HSBC is based on that premise. All of our greatest successes have been tied to our partnerships and friendships:

The list goes on and on and continues to grow. We don't just pay lip service to our partnership efforts, either. When we make the decision to partner with a person, a group, or a corporation, we mean serious business. The HSBC is a devoted companion, an active partner, and a fierce ally to our friends and that devotion is returned in kind.

Our partners have helped us to save more animals, offer more services to those in need, change more lives, and even pay for more of it, than we ever could have done alone. We take our efforts to find others to help us to accomplish our Mission and Vision as seriously as we take the Mission itself. By doing so we not only get vital support, we actually share our Mission with others. Our Mission becomes the Mission of many.

The funny thing about partnerships and success is that the more you have of each, the more you discover that you need to do-- and can do. Then you realize just how many more partners and resources you really need. That's why we need you. You are invited to join us in that Mission and make it yours. Join the 10,000 others who have donated time, resources, or money to the HSBC in the past year. You'll be in good company and we'll be proud to be judged on that.

Postscript: The Humane Society of Berks County's partnership efforts recently received a great compliment. The HSBC has been asked to present a workshop on effective partnerships at the American Humane Association's national conference in Washington, D.C. in September, 2007.

Humane Society of Berks County executive director, Karel Minor, and Humane League of Lancaster County president, Joan Brown, will co-present "Combine and Conquer: Establishing Effective Partnerships That Further Your Mission".

Special Update: Visit Press Releases page for Reading Eagle editorial endorsing HB 73 and press release about the joint policy statement.

Urgent action is needed on an important Judiciary Sub-Committee vote on Pennsylvania House Bill 73. This bill, introduced by Representative Frank Andrews Shimkus, and co-sponsored by 37 other Representatives (including Berks County's Thomas R. Caltagirone), would ban pigeon shoots in Pennsylvania. The Humane Society of Berks County endorses this bill and asks that you make your voice heard in support of its passage. Similar bills have been defeated in the past. However, in growing numbers our Representatives are recognizing that the time has come to end this cruel and unsportsmanlike practice. You can help make the difference this time.

Until recently, those opposing pigeon shoots were seen and characterized by the pro-pigeon shoot lobby as placard-carrying animal extremists. Our elected representatives in some of the more conservative districts, like some in Berks County, tended to view those opposing pigeon shoots as fringe voices being whipped up by outsiders. However, in increasing numbers, perfectly reasonable people, people like you and me and our neighbors and families, are beginning to conclude that pigeon shoots in Pennsylvania should finally come to an end.

This is not an anti-sportsman position. Most of us are, know, are related to or married to, or are friends with hunters. Even HSBC staff, volunteers, and board range from vegans to fishermen to hunters. We may not agree on everything all the time, but we have one common mission: to protect animals from homelessness, cruelty and neglect. Sometimes that common mission leads us to agree that a legal practice should come to an end. Pigeon shoots are such a practice. Hunters and vegans alike should be able to agree that shooting a captive pigeon as it flies out of a box is cruel at worst and unsportsmanlike at the very best.

The opponents of the proposed ban make very strident claims. They say that this is a first step toward doing away with the Second Amendment, taking away our guns, banning hunting and fishing, and ending a proud Pennsylvania “tradition”. That is just silly. I am a gun owner and I staunchly defend my Second Amendment rights. I was raised by fishermen and fisherwomen and, yes, I fish. I could not support this bill if I thought it was the first step in a conspiracy to prohibit me from doing these things. As far as ending a great “tradition”: I’m sure we can all think of a few great “traditions” in our country’s history that were best put behind us.

This is about taking a reasonable position against a cruel and unsportsmanlike pastime, and we need your help and the help of your neighbors, families and friends to get it done. If only a few “animal nuts” raise their voices, this bill will likely die. But if a broad cross-section of people who recognize when it’s time for a change raise their voices, our elected representatives will take notice.

I met with my State Representative recently to tell him how I felt about this issue. He said that he was on the fence because half the calls he had received about HB 73 were for it and half were against it. I believe that this is because he has only heard from those on the far ends of the debate. I believe that there is a huge "silent majority" in the middle who have not yet told him how they feel. If you are a part of that silent majority, make your voice heard now. Let your Representative know right now that you think the time for rounding up hundreds of wild or captive-bred pigeons, shooting them as the fly out of a box, and having people-- sometimes children-- shoot them or stomp them as they lie wounded on the ground, has come to an end.

I know that “activism” isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. So we have tried to make it easy for you! At the bottom of this page is a link that will take you to a link to the draft Bill 73 so you can read it for yourself, a link to the NRA website so you can read the opposition’s position for yourself, and links to key Pennsylvania Representatives for this issue. You can tell them how you feel using our sample email text. If you live in a different Representative’s district or just aren’t sure who your Representative is, there is even a link to search by ZIP code. Once you have contacted your State Representative, please email people you know, even people who are not “animal people” and tell them why this is important.

Please contact your Representative today and ask him or her to co-sponsor and support HB 73. Don’t let the opportunity slip away from us once again. Thank you for helping to make a very real difference in Pennsylvania.

The HSBC is commited to making our positions on issues clear, our basis for reaching those decisions transparent, and presenting the "other side's" arguments. We deal with complicated issues and we consider them extremely carefully. You may not agree with us every time, but we hope you at least agree that we do not take ill-informed, poorly evaluated positions.

Taking Action Is Easy! You can help get this bill passed in less than two minutes. Find your Representative from the list below. If you do not know who your Representative is, use the "Find Your Rep" link to locate by County or ZIP code. Below you will find sample text for your email to your Representive. You may send your Representative a message in your own words or cut and paste the sample text below (use the simple instructions below if you aren't sure how).

Sample Text: "Dear [Representative]: If you haven't already, please cosponsor H.B. 73, Rep. Shimkus' bill to ban pigeon shoots in Pennsylvania. It is time to stop permitting these cruel and unsportsmanlike events in our state. A handful of these events still take place in Pennsylvania. I ask that you join Rep. Shimkus in his efforts to bring this antiquated, cruel, and unsporting practice to an end Statewide. Sincerely, [Your name & address]"

Do you have two minutes more? Hearing what you have to say is even more effective than reading what you have to say. After you send your email message, call your Representative on the telephone! Please don't forget to forward this to friends, family and co-workers!

The HSBC is commited to making our positions on issues clear, our basis for reaching those decisions transparent, and presenting the "other side's" arguments. Visit our Blog (click here) to read more about how we reached our position on this issue and others. We deal with complicated issues and we consider them extremely carefully. You may not agree with us every time, but you should at least agree that we do not take ill-informed, poorly evaluated positions.

Here's what the Representatives are saying to thier Consituents about HB 73:

I thank you for your input on House Bill 73. We are going to hold hearings on this bill and have placed this legislation with the Crime and Corrections Sub-Committee. Please know that I appreciate the fact that you took the time to inform me of your position on this legislation. By hearing from the citizens of Pennsylvania, the legislature is kept better informed and in touch with the taxpayers of Pennsylvania.

Representative Sam Rohrer. Representative Rohrer voted against a similar bill in 1993:

Dear Holly: Thank you for your email in regard to banning pigeon shoots. As you may know, this sport has been one of controversy for a long time. Sports of this sort were always viewed as a matter of local decision making when it was conducted within the confines of the broader Pennsylvania Game Commission rules and guidelines for hunting that prohibited cruelty to animals. In addition, due to so much public involvement, very few localities, if any, conduct these activities. Therefore, I personally see the necessity of pursuing other legislation to be more critical. I will be glad, however, to talk to Rep. Shimkus to determine his thoughts. He perhaps has information of which I am unaware. Sincerely, Rep. Sam Rohrer

Have you gotten a response from your Representative? Forward it to us and we will post it. We will also track thier votes and post them so you can see where they stand on the issues.

But it wasn’t born yesterday.

At the Humane Society of Berks County we are very proud of our growth over the past couple of years. We have adopted more animals than ever before, upgraded our facilities and programs, improved training, and have put together a team of the best staff and volunteers anywhere. We are also proud of the fact that these accomplishments have been recognized by our donors. Through their support we are well on our way to getting off the treadmill of fundraising ups and downs that lead to always going one step forward and two steps back (But keep those donations coming, we still have a long way to go!).

One area in which we have made particular strides is the quality and scope of our Animal Protective Services. This is the department that rescues injured stray animals, enforces Pennsylvania’s cruelty statutes and animal laws, and provides animal control service to municipalities. In the past two years we have increased our number of State trained and sworn Humane Society Police Officers to five* (making the HSBC one of the largest forces in the State* as of publication date), we have expanded our “on-the-clock” officer coverage to seven days a week, and we have expanded our “on-call” services. We have implemented one of the best and most detailed data tracking systems in the State and we have taken charge of the effort to coordinate emergency services during a catastrophe through the Berks County Animal Response Team. As a result, the animals, residents and municipalities of Berks County are getting the most effective, efficient, and highest quality animal protection services ever.

There is just one problem: The HSBC isn’t being paid to do most of this.

Most people don’t know that the State requires us to cover the costs of expensive mandated training for our officers, all legal expenses for getting officers sworn in by the courts, the cost for required continuing education, and all personnel, vehicle, and associated expenses. We even have to pay for the printing of the citations we use to enforce the State’s laws. We receive no funding to provide these services. We don’t even get a portion of the fines redistributed back from the State the way “regular” police departments do when they write a ticket. Despite this, the HSBC investigates about 1,000 complaints a year. Why do we do it? Because if we didn’t do it, no one else would and the animals would suffer. You might ask: Why doesn’t the State pay for it? The answer: Why should they when we do it for free? They weren’t born yesterday.

Most people don’t know that the stray dog control services in Berks County that would be provided by a State Dog Warden in other counties are provided by the HSBC and the ARL under contract with the State because there is no State Dog Warden based in Berks County (since publication the State has added on Dog Warden to be responsible for Berks County). Most people don’t know that this contract is paid for through portion of the funds generated by dog licenses each year and that the license fees and our share of the fees have not increased in years. The HSBC and the ARL each receive about $50,000 from this contract to provide 24 hour-a-day, 365 day-a-year pick up (HSBC provides 24/365 service, the contract only require weekday business hour service) and housing for thousands of stray dogs throughout the entire county each year. Just dogs- no other animals are covered. The actual cost of this service at the HSBC alone is well over $300,000 a year. Why do we do it? Because if we didn’t do it, no one else would and the animals would suffer. Why doesn’t the State pay more for it? Why would they when we do it and they can pay twenty-five cents on the dollar for the service? They weren’t born yesterday.

Most people don’t know that the HSBC takes in every stray brought to it each year- dogs, cats, pigs, goats, birds, lizards- and provides them with food, housing, and medical care. That’s three thousand, eight hundred thirty-eight stray animals in the past year. For the past two years we have been extending our dog control agreement with the State to include pick-up of all confined stray animal in our service areas, not just dogs. We think every pet deserves rescue. However, with very few exceptions, virtually no municipality pays any extra fee for this 24 hour-a-day, 365 day-a-year service that we provide to their residents. Why should they? They know we have to at least provide the bare minimum of service to them under the State dog control contract. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? The municipalities weren’t born yesterday.

Let’s not even go into the rabies enforcement work the HSBC has taken on because no one else will. Most people don’t know that bite quarantines range from ten days to six months and quarantine is not paid for by the State- even if there was room in the shelter to provide it. Most people don’t know that testing for rabies involves testing the brain tissue of suspect animals. I’ll leave it to your imagination how our staff has to go about getting that brain tissue so it can be sent to the State health lab. It is not pleasant for them, let alone for the animals who must obviously be euthanized (again, by HSBC staff) to collect the sample for the test. Is the HSBC compensated for providing this vital public health service hundreds of times a year? No. In fact, the HSBC has to pay the shipping bill to send the samples to the lab. That’s not just unfair, that’s plain ridiculous.

What does this mean to the HSBC, our animals, and you, the donor? It means that we are diverting your charitable donations, given to provide medical care, food, housing, and adoption services to homeless animals, to our Department of Animal Protective Services so that we can provide the cruelty law enforcement that the State should be doing or paying for, the animal law enforcement that the municipalities should be doing or paying for, and the stray animal pick up and housing of thousands of animals that the State and municipalities should be doing or paying for. Money that could be going to helping homeless animals find homes and sick animals be made well is getting spent on services that the State and municipalities would (or should) have to provide if we weren’t here to do it cheap or for free! Is that fair? No.

Nationally, the estimates for providing proper animal control services to a community comes out to between $4 and $11 per person. For a community the size of Berks County, that means the minimum that should be spent is about $1.5 million dollars a year. If you take the total money received from the State, County, and municipalities each year by both the HSBC and the ARL to provides these services, the total is less than $150,000. That’s less than 10% of the very bottom of what should be getting spent in Berks County each year. You can bet more than that is being spent on these services by both of our organizations but it’s coming out of the mouths of other animals.

Is that fair? No, it isn’t, and the Humane Society of Berks County wasn’t born yesterday, either.

This year, the HSBC decided to make some very simple changes. We decided that we would ask the municipalities of Berks County to do two things:

First, if they wanted us to continue to go above and beyond the requirements of the State's dog control contract and provide 24 hour-a-day service for all stray animals (not just dogs during regular business hours, which is all the contract requires) they must agree to pay a small additional fee. That fee, in most cases, is less than three dollars a day to start. Three dollars a day for 100% animal control, animal law enforcement, and stray pick up service.

Second, if the municipality does not want to pay for full services for their residents and animals, they have the option to just pay for the HSBC to hold and care for stray animals brought to the shelter and not claimed by the animal’s owner. That fee is just $35. Neighboring counties charge as much as $100 per animal. The HSBC thinks that $35 is pretty reasonable and it gives the municipalities, their residents, and their animals full access to our stray boarding services on a pay-as-you-go basis.

If each municipality took advantage of these options, the HSBC would bring in an additional twenty to forty thousand dollars this year. That’s money that wouldn’t be diverted from our adoption and medical services. Unfortunately, only three municipalities in the entire County chose to take advantage of these services (City of Reading, Muhlenberg Township, and Leesport Borough.* After publication an addition three accepted the additional service). Three out of about eighty municipalities. I guess the municipalities just decided that they’d rather pass the buck to the State and State is going to stick to business as usual. To all those who are taking advantage of the HSBC’s services and charitable donors (donors like you) without paying their fair share- or any share- I say: It is unfair, it is wrong, and you are doing a disservice to the animals of Berks County and to your residents who expect you to provide needed services without taking advantage of charities.

You, the reader, can help. Call or email Reading, Muhlenberg, Leesport, and the Berks County Commissioners and thank them for taking the lead as responsible municipal citizens. Then, call the municipality you live in and tell that you think they should be providing these services to you as a resident and that they should not be taking advantage of a charity to do so. Tell them you think that $3 a day and/or $35 per unclaimed stray is not too much to spend. Tell them that animal welfare issues drives your election choices and that you will remember the decision of your supervisors the next time you vote.

Shelters provide these services because no one else will. But what if we weren’t here to provide them? What if shelters in Berks County did what shelters across Pennsylvania and the U.S. are doing and closed their doors to strays because they cannot afford to take them in any longer? I don’t want to find out. I want the HSBC to be here, to be strong, and to share the burden with those who benefit from our services. Please help us do that by making your voice heard today. I know that as long as our local and State governments think they can get away with taking something for nothing, they will. Who can blame them? After all, none of us were born yesterday.

Archived Director's Message Page

Pigeon Shoot Ban Update!

Senate Judiciary Committee