Consider helping APV’s work all year round
New Mexico’s latest 60-day legislative session was a frenzied two months when years of work on policies — both helpful and harmful to our state — received a public debate. This year, Animal Protection Voters was at the State Roundhouse daily, working with legislators of all political stripes to ensure animal-friendly legislation was passed and to stop the bills that would negatively impact animals and their welfare.
In 2015, APV was deeply involved in a number of legislative successes for critters, including:
Passage of the state income tax check-off/donation program to support spay/neuter programs statewide (see the Albuquerque Journal’s coverage of this bill, signed into law by Governor Martinez on April 8)
Securing funding for the Companion Animal Rescue Effort (CARE) Network program that provides lifesaving safe havens to the animals of domestic violence victims needing to escape a violent home
Legislation to ban appalling coyote-killing contests, approved by the Senate on a bipartisan vote, the first time a state legislative chamber has passed such a bill (the bill was killed in its first House committee)
Defeat of a number of harmful agriculture industry bills, including sweeping “Ag-Gag” and “Right To Farm” legislation that would enable farm animal abuse and violate citizens’ constitutional rights to complain about farmed animal abuse and other factory farm nuisances
Defeat of an extreme and egregious bill to strip all state protections from New Mexico’s vital cougar population
See every bill tracked by APV in the 2015 legislative session at our webpage.
We have many people to thank for our Roundhouse successes this year (including our awesome legislative interns Alex and Ann), but the biggest credit goes to our members and supporters including YOU.
Without your help in contacting legislators on behalf of animals, including as part of 2015’s wildly successful Animal Lobby Day, no good legislation can ever become law. We urge your continued vigilance in the future on behalf of pro-animal legislation and against the bills to weaken New Mexico’s humane infrastructure.
All these bills are the result of years of work behind the scenes, so please consider the following ways to help spotlight the needs of animals in the political arena and to the public servants working toward that end:
- Encourage your friends to sign up for APV email updates and social media
- Review our APV Scorecards to find out how your state Representative and Senator voted
- Become a member of APV this year and beyond
- Volunteer with APV
Animal Protection Voters: We Change The Laws That Change Their Lives
