Letters to protest - New Jersey Bill

Example of Letter to be sent to each legislative member.
Drafted by Jim Honda Esquire

Please copy and change as appropriate

TO BE SENT TO ASSEMBLYMAN COHEN FROM NJ RESIDENTS

January 30, 2008

Assemblyman Neil M. Cohen, Esquire
District 20 (Union)
985 Stuyvesant Avenue
Union, NJ 07083

By: USPS, Email and Fax To Both Your Office and Law Firm

Re: Bill A1591 –WITHDRAW IT, PLEASE!!

Dear Assemblyman Cohen:

I am a New Jersey resident who has compiled this correspondence to
record my opposition to the above-referenced proposed legislation and
to offer the reasoning therefore with the hope that you will withdraw
same.

Rather than offering a vacuous and unascertainable statement that many
of your constituents in this state share the same sentiment as me, I
have asked concerned citizens from both the state of NJ and beyond its
borders to contact you and your peers in the assembly regarding this
so that you can personally measure the vehement opposition to this
bill. In addition, since I feel so passionately that your
well-intended legislation is misguided and improper, I have asked a
number of national working and service dog organizations for support
and publicity of this issue and soon, this cause will be espoused and
featured on well-perused websites.

After several careful readings of your bill, I surmise that your
legislative intent is to:

- ensure the health and well-being of dogs, puppies, cats and kittens
- to increase the chances of consumers who buy dogs, puppies, cats and
kittens in NJ of buying a "quality" pet, one that is free of
communicable diseases and congenital defects.

Again, your legislative intent is commendable, but your actions are
misguided because:

New Jersey law ALREADY provides consumers protection in the form of
the Pet Purchase Protection Act of 1999 (aka The Puppy Lemon
Law—Assembly # 960, 208th Legislature, Adopted 3/11/1999)

The New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs (see Subchapter 12 of
N.J.A.C. 13:45A-1 et seq. and N.J.S.A. 56:8-1 et seq., Consumer Fraud
Act.) also has jurisdiction to afford aggrieved pet purchasers with a
remedy

The Department of Health and Senior Services already provides a list
of licensed kennels and pet shops.

I understand that your bill attempts to provide further protections by
providing additional requirements and narrower definitions both
numerically and in terms of the vernacular, but with all due respect,
your bill will not achieve any of the purposes you seek to attain. The
problem cannot be solved with more legislation, Assemblyman Cohen. The
problem can only be solved by educating the public so that consumers
who purchase puppies are cognizant of what to look for and what
questions to ask. Once consumers are educated about what constitutes a
good dog, puppy, cat or kitten, they will naturally purchase from
legitimate and principled breeders who care about quality. Once
consumers are educated, they will be less likely to purchase on a whim
from a pet store located on a well-traversed highway or through a
newspaper or bulletin board advertisement designed specifically to
entice the uneducated consumer. Once consumers are educated even pet
stores on well-traversed highways will have no choice but to work with
ethical breeders when selling puppies. At this time, as we know, even
with the legislation in effect, puppy mill- bred pups are offered for
sale throughout our fine state.

Education can be a key ally in your cause but it is obvious that you
do not consider it important. Fines imposed under your legislation
would go to an Animal Population Control Fund and the Department of
Health but none would go directly towards setting up any type of Board
or Program that would encourage responsible pet owning practices.

Your legislation is actually (and literally) dangerous because:

- limiting a person to selling 25 dogs focuses on an arbitrary and
capricious number rather than on quality.

- placing a 25 dog limitation will deprive some of a source of
livelihood and others of a source of income. This will inure to the
benefit of out of state competitors who are not subject to such a
limitation.

- Your legislation would be adhered to by law-abiding citizens and
entities but circumvented by conniving unscrupulous individuals and
organizations in the form of shell companies, fictitious persons, etc.
The person who does not have the common decency to properly care and
feed for a puppy or puppies has the same propensity to circumvent the
law.

- Placing an eight week limit on puppies offered for sale is just
insane. Do you realize how many puppies that have turned into stellar
working dogs would not have seen week 10 if your draconian bill was
passed and enforced? Surely, you cannot have intended this! Would the
child that takes too long to understand algebra be sentenced to an
orphanage or gas chamber? No!

Assemblyman Cohen: The answer lies in educating the public. Your
efforts, time and money would be better spent on education:

- Inform consumers about the various theories of good breeding practices

- Inform consumers on the value of researching breeds and their
propensities in terms of physical size and temperament

- Inform consumers how beneficial it is to see the parents (sire and dam)

- Inform consumers how beneficial it is to talk with veterinarians,
dog owners, clubs, etc. PRIOR to purchase

- Inform consumers that there are a multitude of organizations that
promote performance (SAR, Agility, Herding, etc.) and conformation
(OFA, conformation shows, etc).

- Promote dog owners to obtain titles such as CGC (Canine Good
Citizen), BH (schutzhund) Therapy Dog and the like.

Once educational efforts permeate the public, the rotten apples will
naturally disappear. It is already obvious that legislation, alone,
has little to no impact since the unscrupulous are undeterred by it
since they find ways to circumvent it.

By this correspondence, I offer not only my opposition but my offer to
help should you wish to pursue alternative methods to obtaining what
we both want: the enjoyment of pets by the general public without the
grief, stress and loss of wages due to unnecessary vet bills, etc.

Thank you for your kind attention herein.

Sincerely,

______________________________________
(Name)

______________________________________
Contact Info)