CA animal welfare advocates push for statewide regulations following horrific incidents
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Animal welfare advocates will descend on Sacramento Monday demanding lawmakers create a new state bureau that would oversee how animals are treated at rescues and shelters statewide.
The move comes after two disturbing incidents in recent months.
The first in Humboldt County, where investigators discovered hundreds of dogs shot and killed at a self-proclaimed no-kill rescue.
The second, also this past spring, was in San Diego County where hundreds of neglected animals had to be rescued from a now defunct animal sanctuary.
MORE: Over 100 dogs found dead, many with bullet holes at Northern California rescue, authorities say
"We are imploring the state to put us under someone's jurisdiction, someone's eyes," said Gary Weitzman.
Weitzman runs the San Diego Humane Society and is helping to lead Monday's news conference at the state capitol. He says while California normally leads the country in animal welfare laws, this time it's behind.
"I think part of it is everybody figured it was done and so they haven't been doing it," said Bruce Wagman.
Wagman is a Bay Area-based animal law attorney.
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He says currently the state operates with a patchwork of different rules instead of one set of regulations.
MORE: Bay Area shelters cut ties with rescue after records claim dogs found shot, buried
"There's a number of state codes that apply to what shelters do. There's very few that apply to what rescues do. There's a different set of codes that apply to what breeders and groomers and what those kind of folks do," said Wagman.
Weitzman says while animal advocates have pushed to get this done for years, recent events have reinvigorated the effort.
And some local lawmakers are already responding, including South Bay Aseemblymember Alex Lee who introduced Assembly Bill 631.
Lee's office says the bill would improve the transparency behind the intake of shelter animals and standardize things like public data reporting requirements.
The bill is not expected to be voted on until next year.
