Lobbying for laws, protesting for rights

In an ongoing effort to educate the public, the Woodmere Republican Club hosted its first annual Nassau County Humane Rights for Animals Lobby Day that featured nationally renowned lobbyists and state legislators at its Broadway headquarters on April 29.

New York State Director of the U.S. Humane Society Patrick Kwan and Campaigns Coordinator of Farm Sanctuary Calla Wright kicked off the event by giving a crash course on proposed New York State legislation regarding animal rights and lobbying techniques.

Bills such as protecting farm animals from confinement, animal fighting and tail docking, a partial amputation of a cow’s tail, are currently awaiting State Senate approval. “New York is falling behind on these bills,” Kwan said. “It is our job to build a more humane society.”

Kwan went on to say lobbying is as easy as the ABCs. “Be accurate, brief, courteous and do follow-up,” he said. “You hold enormous power to keep these officials in office and if they don’t hear from you they won’t have any issues to work on. If your legislator never hears from you about these issues, they won’t work on them.”

Ilene Gold of Rockville Centre donates money to several animal organizations and came to Lobby Day after she heard about it on Facebook. “There are so many bills and we have to do more to raise the issues to the legislators and lobby in Washington and in Albany,” she said.

Following Kwan and Wright’s presentations, Ann Salpeter Schockett, the executive director of the Woodmere Republican Club saw that members of HOPE for Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter were outside protesting the shelter.

Susan Fox from Hicksville protested on behalf of HOPE and said she became involved in the organization after the release of the “Kill the Kitty” video that surfaced in March about several Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter employees were found harassing and laughing at a cat that was about to be euthanized.

“Animals are being abused,” Fox said. “Even if we get a handful of people who spread the word and get more people behind us, that’s our ultimate mission.”

Schockett said she believes people should be able to protest as long as it doesn’t get violent. “In a general sense, we were both dealing with animal welfare and humane rights,” she said about the Woodmere Republican Club event and the HOPE protest. “However, we were trying very hard to talk about animal cruelty bills so we had no impact on each other’s issues.”

Lucille Defina, a Merrick resident, said she previously volunteered for the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter but has not been in the facility since Supervisor Kate Murray banned all shelter volunteers following a November 2010 investigation where three volunteers claimed they witnessed animals dying in their cages. While Defina said she respects the Humane Society, she said it’s often difficult to get help for domestic animals let alone farm animals.

“It’s very hard for a state like New York to push through legislation for farm animals when we can’t even demand our local shelter care for our animals,” she said. “We have hundreds of thousands of people in Nassau County who are upset and outraged about the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter and are discouraged.”

Assemblyman Brian Curran (R-Lynbrook) met with the protesters to discuss events at the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter. “Why can’t volunteers come in?” asked Diane Madden, a former shelter volunteer and East Meadow resident. “You look at other animal shelters and they’re rolling out the red carpet for volunteers and there’s something suspicious about keeping us out.”

Curran was invited to Lobby Day by the Humane Society and felt it was important to come and hear what residents think. “No one wants to see animals being treated unfairly,” he said. “Any legislation to prevent that is a good thing.”

Event Coordinator Debbie Blivess, said she decided to organize the event because of her involvement in animal protection. “It’s critical for the community to get involved,” she said. “I hope people learned about lobbying and animal issues. I hope to have more events like this and hope Lobby Day becomes an annual event.”