Horrible Bill HB251 Made in Out of Committee!

I cannot believe this Bad Bill is leaving the Culture, Recreation & Tourism Committee!  So I wrote everyone that is a part of this Bad Bill letting them know they may end up killing the WAO animals if this horrible Bill is passes! 

From: Kristina Brunner

To: todd.hunter@house.state.tx.us; dennis.bonnen@house.state.tx.us; dan.branch@house.state.tx.us; garnet.coleman@house.state.tx.us; byron.cook@house.state.tx.us; charlie.green@house.state.tx.us; james.keffer@house.state.tx.us; tracy.king@house.state.tx.us; lois.kolkhorst@house.state.tx.us; allan.ritter@house.state.tx.us; eddie.rodriquez@house.state.tx.us; burt.solomons@house.state.tx.us; vicki.truitt@house.state.tx.us; john.zerwas@house.state.tx.us

Cc: Craig.Estes@senate.state.tx.us; Carlos.Uresti@senate.state.tx.us; Glenn.Hegar@senate.state.tx.us; Juan.Hinojosa@senate.state.tx.us; Mike.Jackson@senate.state.tx.us; Ryan.Guillen@house.state.tx.us; Gary.Elkins@house.state.tx.us; Joe.Deshotel@house.state.tx.us; Dawnna.Dukes@house.state.tx.us; Tracy.King@house.state.tx.us; John.Kuempel@house.state.tx.us; Lyle.Larson@house.state.tx.us; Four.Price@house.state.tx.us; Todd.Smith@house.state.tx.us

Sent: Fri, April 29, 2011 6:00:22 PM

Subject: Please Vote NO on HB 251

Texas House of Representatives

House Committee of Calendars

Austin, Texas 78711

Rep. Todd Hunter

Rep. Dennis Bonnen

Rep. Dan Branch

Rep. Garnet Coleman

Rep. Byron Cook

Rep. Charlie Geren

Rep. James Keffer

Rep. Tracy King

Rep. Lois Kolkhorst

Rep. Eddie Lucio III

Rep. Allan Ritter

Rep. Eddie Rodriguez

Rep. Burt Solomons

Rep. Vicki Truitt

Rep. John Zerwas

April 29, 2011

Dear Honorable Representatives:

I urge you to vote NO on HB 251 authored and filed by Rep. Hilderbrand on Feb. 18, 2011 as this Bill does not enhance public safety, but rather places an undue financial burden on wild animal sanctuaries.

As it is, Sec. 821 and Sec. 822 of the Health and Safety Code contain provisions that are unconstitutional, void of due process, and conflicting with other statutes, including Government Code and Rules of Civil Procedure. The amendments proposed by this Bill would only serve to make it more confusing, more arbitrary, and more onerous for existing and new wild animal sanctuaries.

As an example, this Bill proposes to subject wild animal sanctuaries to registration requirements—the fee for which this Bill raises tenfold ($50 raised to $500)—even if the animal is only being cared for temporarily.

At the same time, it leaves intact the provisions of Sec. 822.102(a)(8), allowing any college or university to keep any number of “wild and dangerous” animals as mascots, with absolutely no restrictions.

Also, the requirement for $100,000 of liability insurance is replaced with wording that essentially gives the Commissioner carte blanche to set whatever level of insurance he wishes, and owners would have no choice but to purchase that amount, no matter how safe their facilities may be.

And finally, should the application for registration be denied or revoked for whatever reason, this Bill proposes no hope of appeal or review. The denial or revocation is final and the sanctuary must wait one year from the date the original application was submitted prior to resubmission. During this “limbo” period, while the sanctuary is waiting for the anniversary date of the original application to pass, the animals may be seized and in all probability, destroyed.

Therefore, what remedy will the Senate put in place in the event that a:  

• Non-profit animal sanctuary does not want to join ASA or GFAS, if made mandatory to join, either because the non-profit corporation does not want be a part of a political animal organization (which may or may not represent their political views) or cannot afford the yearly membership or inspection fees;
• The sanctuary cannot meet the accreditation standards set forth by ZAA, ASA or GFAS;
• An accreditation sanctuary fails to meet any additional standards imposed on the sanctuary by either ZAA, ASA or GFAS at some future date; 
• A sanctuary, that meets accreditation standards for ZAA, ASA and GFAS, but all accrediting organizations choose NOT to accredit the facility due to political or personal reasons; and
• New accreditation non-profit organization would like to compete against ZAA, ASA and/or GFAS in Texas—would the Senate Bill be modified once again to include the new accredited organization?

If the issues raised above are not addressed in HB251, then many sanctuaries will be forced to operate illegally in Texas—once more. Therefore, what governmental body will be directly responsible for seizing and destroying exotic wild animals residing “illegally” in various wild animal sanctuaries throughout this State? The Sheriff’s Office?

In Texas, there are over 300 USDA exhibitor licensed facilities alone, not including various non-USDA regulated animal sanctuaries (classified by the IRS as exempted non-profit 501(c)(3)) which currently cares for thousands of displaced or abused exotic wild animals. This Bill’s unintentional outcomes would ultimately be the destruction of innocent animals (to include tigers, lions, cougars, bobcats, servals, caracals, bears, wolves, non-human primates, chimpanzees, etc.) and the possible elimination of jobs throughout our State.

Interesting enough, coyotes and non-human primates are mentioned in the body of the HB251 (page 3), yet neither species are listed in the list of predatory animals (page 1). If HB251 pertains to big cats and (1) species of small cats, then why are non-human primates and coyotes still mentioned in the body of the Bill?

I am also curious as to why chimpanzees, all species of primates, wolves, coyotes, and bears are missing from the predatory animal listing. These animals are considered dangerous to the public and are commonly housed in Texas exotic wild animal sanctuaries, yet the focus appears to be on big cats and (1) species of small cats. I would like to know the rational as to why the focus is only on cats when injuries or property damage may occur from any dangerous wild animal housed in a zoo or wild animal sanctuary. This Bill appears to be targeting only those sanctuaries who care for unwanted, abused, or displaced big cats and one species of small cats.

This Bill has all the earmarks of a personal agenda fostered upon Texas citizens by just one Texas Representative. It was hastily prepared and it does not address the unintended consequences of what will happen to displaced animals. At this time, there is NO room (at wild animals sanctuaries located throughout the United States) to accommodate displaced animals from other sanctuaries, if seizing and re-homing animals becomes necessary.

For instance, in San Antonio, the “world renowned” exotic wild animal sanctuary, The Wild Animal Orphanage, closed its doors in 2009 due to misappropriation of funds by its Board of Directors, violation of the Deceptive Trade Act, and numerous documented violations of the Animal Welfare Act. The WAO was a USDA/APHIS licensed exhibitor and was inspected regularly each year by a USDA inspector.

Even though the WAO is now closed to the public, there are still about 200 animals still not placed at other sanctuaries, and based on their current health conditions and ages, it is doubtful they will ever leave San Antonio. If these three Bills (HB251, HB1546, or SB958) are signed into law, it will greatly hamper efforts to save the remaining WAO chimpanzees, monkeys, tigers, lion, wolfdogs, and feral cats. Efforts are underway by Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and Global Federation Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS) to find a willing sanctuary to assume control of the remaining 200 or so animals but thus far have been unable to find a credible sanctuary willing to take on the additional financial burden of funding two wild animal sanctuaries at the same time, especially with the threat of these three Bills circulating throughout the Texas Legislature. The WAO animals that found homes elsewhere were the lucky ones for animal sanctuaries nationwide are now at capacity and unable to take in additional animals due to monetary and/or space constraints. Add to that all the new legislation purposed this session, and you can bet it will take a miracle to save the WAO animals.

So, when sanctuaries close down because they cannot fully comply with HB251, where will the animals go? The proverbial “Inns” are full. That means lives may be lost due to this Bill.

Instead of hampering the sanctuaries’ abilities to care for displaced or rescued animals, I ask the Texas Legislature to encourage the Texas Office of the Attorney General – Charitable Trust Division to crack down on illegal activities occurring at wild animal sanctuaries.

Again, despite the WAO Board of Directors publically declaring on television and in media print (after a four-year long OAG investigation into the WAO financial and animal care management in which no prosecutorial case was filed against the Board), that the organization was guilty of misappropriating donor contributions (over a 20-year period), the assistant attorney general elected not to pursue legal action against the WAO’s board directors because the OAG attorney had “more important cases” to pursue. If you want to "weed out" the good sanctuaries from the substandard sanctuaries, then the OAG must prosecute all cases equally, thereby sending a message that Texas will not stand by and allow illegal activities to ocur at publically funded non-profit corporations housing and caring for exotic wild animals.

Therefore, based on the information above, I encourage you to let this Bill die in committee as this is truly a bad Bill for Texas and its wild animal sanctuaries.

Thank you for your time and consideration to this most important matter. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me by return email at kbrunner@xxxxxxxxxxx or by telephone (210) xxx-xxxxx.

Cordial Regards,


Kristina Brunner

San Antonio, TX 78251

Bill: HB 251

Legislative Session: 82(R) Council Document: 82R 8108 NAJ-D Add to Bill List
Add to Alert List
Last Action: 04/28/2011 H Reported favorably as substituted

Caption Version: Introduced
Caption Text: Relating to the regulation of dangerous wild animals.
Author: Hilderbran

Subjects: Animals (I0035)

House Committee: Culture, Recreation & Tourism

Status: Out of committee

Vote: Ayes=6 Nays=0 Present Not Voting=0 Absent=3

So what ever happened to this atrocous bill not making it out of Committee?

From: Representative Lyle Larson
To: State Representative Lyle Larson District122.Larson@house.state.tx.us
Sent: Thu, April 21, 2011 9:00:14 AM
Subject: RE: HB 251

Hello,

Thank you for your correspondence regarding HB 251 by Rep. Hilderbran. We heard a lot of testimony on the bill during the Culture, Recreation, and Tourism Committee last week, and I have received emails from across the state in the last month. We do not foresee this bill passing out of committee, but I will be sure to keep your concerns in mind if this bill comes before me for a vote. It seems that this is a local issue that should be worked out at the local level instead of mandating from the state level.

Again, I appreciate your correspondence. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any other concerns.

Sincerely,
Lyle

So, did Rep. Lyle Larson vote AYES or was he absent when this Bad Bill came up for a vote in Committee?  What in the world is going on at the Texas House and Senate?  Have they all lost their minds?

Below is the Bad Bill going to the Local and Consent Committee for approval:

CSHB 251 Final - 042811

God, please do not let me lose hope in saving the WAO animals.  Please.