Oreo’s Law, designed to save the lives of death row shelter pets whom other rescues are willing to take, has been killed for the year. The bill had a number of supporters, including Nathan Winograd (pdf), but was opposed by the ASPCA, the Animal Law Coalition and apparently Best Friends Animal Society. I haven’t seen anything new from Best Friends since the proposal’s demise but they did issue a statement about it back in February.
My question: Aren’t we killing enough pets in shelters without going out of the way to block legislation that would save those pets slated for death that rescue organizations are willing to accept?
Most shelter pets designated for killing are not lucky enough to have a rescue spot available for them. I’d really like to see the ones that do get released to rescue. There were some legitimate concerns raised during the discussion of the bill and it was amended to address those issues. I felt satisfied it would do much more good than any potential harm. With the tabling of Oreo’s Law, the NY shelter pets whose lives would have been saved now face death, which to my mind, is definite harm.