PASSED!
Max's Law
After many years of advocating for increased penalties for injuring or killing a law enforcement animal, search and rescue animal, bomb and narcotic sniffing dogs, and tracking animals, Max’s Law was finally passed by the state legislature. It is now a felony offense to seriously injure or kill an animal assisting police, fire department, or rescue unit or agency.
HB 2134/HB 1956/SB 1369: Protection Against Factory Farms
These bills would create environmental protections against waste from slaughterhouses utilized by large factory farms. The passage of these bills in the House has already caused one large slaughterhouse to temporarily shut down.
DEFEATED!
SB 981: Weakens Protections of Factory Farms
This legislation would weaken protections for waste flowing from large factory farms and endanger Missouri streams and waterways.
SB 937/HB 2265: Pet Store/Puppy Mill Proection
This bill is referred to as the Pet Store/Puppy Mill Protection Bill because it would eliminate local oversight of pet stores. It would not allow municipalities to prohibit the sale of puppies and kittens in pet stores, and it would go even further by not permitting effective regulations over the sale of puppies and kittens in pet stores. It would also allow pet stores to continue to acquire animals from inhumane puppy mills.
HB 1826: Disposition Process
This bill would eliminate the current disposition process for abused and neglected animals and would allow abused and neglected animals to remain in the hands of their abusers until a criminal trial many months or even a year later.
HB 1509: Weakens Regulation of Veterinary Medicine
This bill was intended to overturn the ordinances recently enacted in the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County that prohibit veterinarians from declawing cats. Regrettably, the bill went even further by prohibiting any restrictions or regulations of veterinarians by the local government regardless of how abusive the practice, including cruel procedures occurring at factory farms, such as dehorning and castration of cattle without anesthetics and the agonizing and prolonged suffocation of unwanted animals known as “ventilation shut down.”
Amendment to HJR 87: Protects Trapping
This amendment would have guaranteed in the state constitution the right to trap animals regardless of the cruelty associated with steel jaw leg-hold traps. Dogs and cats often become caught in these traps. We strongly opposed this amendment, and fortunately, HJR 87 failed to pass the legislature.