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JD, Usha Vance visit Greenland as Trump administration eyes territory; Maine nurses, medical workers call for improved staffing ratios; Court orders WA to rewrite CAFO dairy operation permit regulations; MS aims to expand Fresh Start Act to cut recidivism.

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The Dept. of Health and Human Services prepares to cut 10,000 more jobs. Election officials are unsure if a Trump executive order will be enacted, and Republicans in Congress say they aim to cut NPR and PBS funding.

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Rural folks face significant clean air and water risks due to EPA cutbacks, a group of policymakers is working to expand rural health care via mobile clinics, and a new study maps Montana's news landscape.

CA Lawmakers Move Multiple Animal-Welfare Bills Forward

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Friday, April 12, 2019   

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A slew of animal protection bills moved forward in the California Legislature this week – including proposals to limit animal abuse, hunting, poisoning and trapping.

Senate Bill 580 would force people convicted of such serious crimes as aggravated cruelty, bestiality and hoarding to undergo mental-health evaluation and get treatment if necessary. Kim Kelly legislative affairs director with the Animal Legal Defense Fund says lawmakers are seeing the need to deal with people who abuse animals, before they hurt people.

"This is a way to intervene early on,” says Kelly. “Oftentimes, people who are violent towards animals, there might be an underlying issue. And so, this mental health evaluation would get to the root of the problem and hopefully get them appropriate counseling, so that we could stop the escalation."

Assembly Bill 1788 would ban certain types of commercial rat poison that also harm wild animals that eat the carcasses. Other bills would ban trophy hunting of bobcats and commercial trapping of other animals for fur; forbid the use of certain endangered animals in circuses, and criminalize the sale of most fur products.

Opponents of many of these bills say they represent government overreach.

California law makes it a misdemeanor to sexually assault an animal. But Kelly says the current definition is too narrow, and her group supports Assembly Bill 611 to change that.

"So, the bill would strengthen the law in California by expanding the definition, preventing offenders from possessing animals, and requiring veterinarians to report signs of animal sexual abuse to law enforcement," says Kelly.

Currently, eight California cities ban the procedure of declawing cats because they say it is painful for the animal. Assembly Bill 1230 would institute that ban statewide.


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