News
Rumblings of Missouri Prop B repeal or fix
The passage of the HSUS-backed Proposition B in Missouri is less than a week old and lawmakers and others are hinting at a possible legislative fix to thwart it. Prop B – which restricts the way professional dog breeders do business – lost by a narrow margin.
State Representative Barney Fisher, Vice Chair of the Missouri House Agri-Business Committee, says there may be some holes in Prop B. “A lot of times when issues end up on the ballot, they end up with flaws or holes and then we just have to,” says Fisher,”We just have to spend the time and effort to correct them.”
Fisher – a Republican from Richards – says lawmakers very likely will take up the Prop B issue in the next session – AND – try to keep out-of-state groups from putting proposals on the Missouri election ballot to begin with…
“Not just the General Assembly but the people of Missouri are growing a little weary of out of state groups using their influence and money coming into the state of Missouri and other states and using their money and influence to affect our elections up to and including the ballot issues, our laws and our constitution.”
Fisher says Proposition B is unnecessary.
“We’ve got plenty of law from the Animal Care Facilities Act from 1994 which created the Animal Care Facilities Division in the Missouri Department of Agriculture. And, we have plenty of law. The problem – it’s an enforcement problem.”
Fisher says the issue is unlicensed breeders in Missouri who, like meth dealers, don’t set up on the town square.
“They go try to hide out in the countryside where they can avoid detection. If it’s in somebody’s mind to violate the law they’re gonna violate the law especially if they can make money at it.”
The Missourinet contributed to this report
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It’s FALSE to say that unlicensed breeders are the problem! The lies coming from the pro-ag animal exploiters ARE SICKENING! Everybody knows somebody who has bought a sick dog from Missouri. It was time to make it A CRIME!
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If Proposition B is truly “fixed”, no pun intended, it cannot include measures that restrict OUR access to the ballot.
I reluctantly take issue with Representative Fisher’s claim that people want the issue of ballot access addressed. Actually thousands of e-mails were sent to the legislature AGAINST impeding the citizens’ access to the ballot provided by our Constitution. We the People reserved these rights to ourselves and the legislature should not back door the people’s right to access those rights.
In every “bad” case from Prop B to the minimum wage initiative, the opponents of the issues waited far too long to take any actions to stop them or to help educate voters. The opponents of Prop B did a very good job of getting grassroots engaged and educated but a little too late. As we all know, almost doesn’t count.
If the organized groups who opposed Prop B and the minimum wage initiative had spent some funds up front when people were being sold the bill of goods to sign the petitions, that might have staved off the assaults. Tell people about the bad stuff that is in the petition BEFORE it gets on the ballot. Don’t just wait for a vote.
Failure to take timely action or afraid to speak out as most business groups were on the minimum wage because they were afraid of repercussions is no reason to attack the people’s access to the ballot.
Man up and fight bad stuff from the beginning!
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As our MO Bill of Rights states: Section 2. That all constitutional government is intended to promote the general welfare of the people; that all persons have a natural right to life, liberty, THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS AND THE ENJOYMENT OF THE GAINS OF THEIR OWN INDUSTRY; that all persons are created equal and are entitled to equal rights and opportunity under the law; THAT TO GIVE SECURITY TO THESE THINGS IS THE PRINCIPAL OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT, and that when government does not confer this security, it fails in its chief design. REPEAL THE BILL!!! It does nothing but shut down legal businesses—those that are already following the laws. Puppymills will still be rampant in this state.
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Pam—-HOW DO YOU KNOW FOR A FACT that those “sick” puppies came from the LEGAL facilities??? They came from the ILLEGAL places that this bill will do NOTHING about! It’s like passing a law that meth is illegal—-oh, wait IT IS! Yet people are still making/distributing it! Puppymills are still making/distributing puppies ILLEGALLY and they will continue to do so! They are still committing CRIMES and will even with Prop. B!
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Truth is many were fighting prop B since last January. The sad fact is most people involved in animal agriculture do not have millions of donated dollars to advertise. It is truly a labor of love and in this economy with rising feed prices most are just barely hanging on. It is a horrid situation that animal agriculture should even have to find the time and money to conteract lies being spread by the HSUS. Many who voted for B did so thinking that it was not all ready law that animals must be provided food, water, exercise, shelter and vet care. These are the main things that the AR crowd pushed as is this “to much to ask.” This is the way it was presented on the ballot. This is in no way moral or right. Just because a organization has millions to spend and lied/cheated to get it done does not mean it should be allowed to stand. If it does our Mo economy will be crippled then many of the same people who voted this in will be wondering why. Two short days after this passed the chicken industry become the next target. They are starting by using the same old crammed in a cage its whole life like the puppy mill dogs line. It did not take them long to show their true colors.
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After thought! If you all were watching the Mo map election night I am sure you noticed some irregularities. Around 11:30 we were showing all turned in except one section by kansas city plus 4 rural sections. All of St. Louis was colored in. Then in the last leg of the election after all blocks were colored in as being turned in St. Louis suddenly had more votes! At this point before the mysterious votes were turned in Prop B was still failing. Once the mystery votes were turned in Prop B suddenly got a megga # of yes votes. For those of you who are unaware early friday this section of st. louis reported computer issues. This section during that time also was reported to have bused in mentaly disabled voters. At this time many in Mo started screaming voter fraud. This is still under investigation. If you study the #’s you will see that many of those counties have more people registered to vote than they have over the age of 18 living there. That they had the highest voter turn out in the state. More so than normaly shows up for a presidental election. Voter fraud has been a issue in St. Louis for many years. I along with most in the rural communities expect our legislature to take care of this. Lying, cheating and misleading to get some thing done in our state should in no way be accepted.
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Carl, the point of citizen iniatives is exactly that–citizens of whatever state is involved. Not giant money from out of state contributors making our laws. Or the fact that many thousands of those signatures were gathered by out of state paid circulators. The HSUS spent $300,000 alone paying people to beat the bushes for signatures. Funny thing is the proponent of this issue still braggs about their strickly “volunteer” effort. I say BS, probably 2/3 of the signatures were from Paid circulators.
Missouri’s laws need to be changed to include only Missouri citizens gather these signatures and even perhaps make it illegal to pay. It works in other states and the ballots are not so clogged with frivilous issues. -
This law is unconsituitional and will not stand up to the light of day in the MO courts,breeders ban together and ask for donations and fight ,fight.All breeders in the US need to send money to MO to defeat this law or they will be next. HSUS has no right coming into MO to tell the legal residents how to live.Wake up before its to late!!!
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Wouldn’t we all have been further ahead if the great HSUS had spent the $3 million plus it spent lobbying for PROP B instead to help all the poor abused dogs and cats in MO and in prosecuting and offering rewards for those who turn in the true puppy millers? O.K., now all those in favor, dig deep in your pockets to fund it! Don’t expect the HSUS to pay for it. They succeeded in what they set out to do. They’re already out targeting other states, cramming their animal RIGHTS views down more unsuspecting people’s throats.
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Get real. Dogs are NOT livestock. They are raised to become members of someone’s family. To be healthy and happy (not an unreasonable goal), they require human interaction, socialization, regular preventative veterinary care, humane housing, clean water, decent food, selective breeding (consistering genetic healthy, temperament)….In addition some effort should be put forth to determine a dog’s worthiness to breed other than possessing a uterus and testes. The list goes on. Someone, please, tell me that having 50+ dogs is consistent with the above requirements. Better yet, SHOW ME. Yes, there are illegal dog breeding businesses, but they can only operate under the radar for so long. If they don’t turn a profit, the effort is abandoned. Prop B is reasonable, straight-forward and the people recognized it as such. And since when are outside monies not poured into state politics? Seriously.
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Senators, etc. are supposed to be servants of the people. do you freaking job and serve, don’t dictate. I have said for many years that a vote in Missouri means nothing. Once again, my point is proven.
Actually thousands of e-mails were sent to the legislature AGAINST impeding the citizens’ access to the ballot provided by our Constitution. We the People reserved these rights to ourselves and the legislature should not back door the people’s right to access those rights.
In every “bad” case from Prop B to the minimum wage initiative, the opponents of the issues waited far too long to take any actions to stop them or to help educate voters. The opponents of Prop B did a very good job of getting grassroots engaged and educated but a little too late. As we all know, almost doesn’t count.
If the organized groups who opposed Prop B and the minimum wage initiative had spent some funds up front when people were being sold the bill of goods to sign the petitions, that might have staved off the assaults. Tell people about the bad stuff that is in the petition BEFORE it gets on the ballot. Don’t just wait for a vote.
Failure to take timely action or afraid to speak out as most business groups chose to do on minimum wage because they were afraid of repercussions is no reason to attack the people’s access to the ballot. Man up and fight bad stuff from the beginning!