Page 5 - Sonoma County Gazette April 2019

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Who’s responsible
for enforcing animal
cruelty laws at our
local farms? No one.
SB 38 California legislation to ban sale of flavored tobacco approved by Health Committee ONLINE article
According to a recent Gallup poll 30% oLast September, 58 activists with Direct Action Everywhere
were arrested for trying to provide aide to wounded, sick, and starving chickens at a local farm in Petaluma. They claimed that they had provided evidence to several different agencies detailing animal cruelty at these farms and no action had been taken, so under California Code 597e they were entitled to provide that aide without liability. We’ll see how that plays out, but my question is why did it come to this? Why didn’t our local officials investigate and address this animal cruelty after more than a year of being provided evidence?
And what about the hundreds of thousands of adults that rely on those products to quit smoking. Really planning ahead aren’t you.
Over the past few weeks I’ve talked to several different agencies and apparently no one is willing
to take responsibility for enforcing the animal cruelty laws that are on the books as they pertain to farm animals. California has passed some important laws about how farm animals are to be treated, but unless someone is willing to enforce them, what’s the point?
If those kids don’t have ecigs than your just going to line the pockets
of big tobacco cause I know where they will go if they can’t get the safer alternative. I wish they had these products when I stupidly started smoking years ago.
Please reconsider and don’t do this. Paul Mcmullen
Here’s what I learned.
Just to be clear - it’s not a ban on
e-cigs or even flavors that are not candy- sweetened. It’s only the candy/fruit flavors kids find appealing that are in this proposed ban. ~ Vesta
Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch said that it is Sonoma County Animal Control’s job to investigate and recommend animal cruelty charges be filed when appropriate.
LOTS of controversy around this proposed marathon...but
CDFA says that they do not investigate animal cruelty. They
are only responsible for food safety and their mission is to protect and promote agriculture, not enforce animal cruelty laws. They say that’s the job of local law enforcement.
Sonoma County Animal Control says that they do not do this for farm animals. They are focused on pets and will intervene if the Sheriffs Department asks them to. They
say the Sonoma County Sheriffs Department should be doing these investigations.
Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick says that it’s not his departments responsibility either. He says that
it falls under the jurisdiction of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA).
because it’s being postponed until planners can obtain the permits they need, if you are interested in the details and the discussion,
I tried to get these agencies to meet together and figure out what the policy is for enforcing our animal cruelty laws, but they wouldn’t. They all just want to toss this hot potato as far away as possible.
please visit our website: SEARCH Sonoma Coast Marathon @ SonomaCountyGazette.com
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