APHIS Deadlines! Write Your Comments NOW!

This is a last call to stand up and be counted against the incredibly misbegotten APHIS rules for selling pet animals.  The final deadline for individual comments is MONDAY, July 16; the deadline for SAOVA opposition list signatures is July 30; and the deadline for AKC petition signatures is July  15.

Please note that the Irish Wolfhound Club of America, the Potomac
Valley Irish Wolfhound Club, the Irish Wolfhound Association of the
West Coast, the Irish Wolfhound Club of Puget Sound, and the Northern California Irish Wolfhound club have joined the SAOVA list of organizations opposed to the proposed APHIS rules.

Thank you, Christina Kallay, Harley Blanchard, Lori Walker, Chris Thompson,and Pat Cobb.  Thank you, also, to A. Nelson Sills and his Labrador Retriever Club  (their parent club).

The SAOVA opposition list is important because it is going to Congress to enlist Congress's help in getting rid of those destructive APHIS proposed rules.  Each organization listed represents multiple people, i.e., multiple voters, in some cases many hundreds or even thousands of voters.  Bureaucrats, such as those who run the USDA and its APHIS division, tend to ignore voters.  Senators and congressmen (and women) do not.

More clubs, whether IW clubs or other clubs to which any of you belong, putting their names on the SAOVA opposition list will drive that many nails into the APHIS rules coffin.

This is the link for the opposition list.  Just send a brief statement of opposition to the APHIS rules to:  Susan Wolf, cubhill@earthlink.net.  Give her the full name of your club or other organization and your address (only for verification purposes, it won't be on that list).

http://saova.org/APHIS_Opposition.List.html

Then, read Susan's excellent letter to Congress explaining why the proposed APHIS rules are so destructive to all of us as owners and breeders.

http://saova.org/news/APHIS/SAOVA_Letter.To.APHIS_Final.pdf

You cannot copy any part of the letter, but you can use its ideas as the basis of your own comments to APHIS.

http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=APHIS-2011-0003-0001.

On this page is APHIS own summary of the proposed rules and other relevant information.  If you don't feel like re-reading all of that again, click onto:  "Comment Now"  at the top right-hand corner of the page.  That will take you to:

http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=APHIS-2011-0003-0001

There, you follow the prompt and submit your comment.  You have a limit of 2000 characters and 20 minutes, but you'll get a warning just before the 20 minutes is up, and you can press that link for more time.  You can comment as many times as you want, but you have to re-submit your name and other identification for each comment.

Finally, here is the link for AKC's petition for individuals to sign that will be sent to APHIS.  It's good and will be sent with AKC's official comments, but the more effective measures are your own individual comments on the APHIS site and your club's name (or even your own business name) on the SAOVA opposition list.

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/join-with-the-akc-to-protect-responsible-small-breeders.html

Remember, the deadline is July  15.  Everything must be in by midnight, July 15.

--Roberta Pliner