Please contact the members of the Natural Resources and the Environment Committee and let them know you oppose HB 423. The need is urgent as they make their decision tomorrow morning. Contact information can be found here: senate.ga.gov/committees/en-US/committee.aspx?Committee=139&Session=23 The recent passage of House Bill 423 by the Georgia House of Representatives not only puts raccoons at risk of mistreatment but also presents significant risk to human health and safety. According to the Atlanta Humane Society, Georgia’s oldest and largest animal welfare organization and one of the leaders in animal welfare throughout the South, allowing raccoons to be trapped and held in cages for up to nine days for use in field trial competitions by hunters and their dogs raises a number of concerns. Sound principles of wildlife management and animal welfare dictate that these animals not be tortured through capture and confinement, which can lead to them developing acute or chronic stress-induced disorders such as hypothermia, hyperthermia, weakened immune systems leading to increased parasitic loads, and capture myopathy. Lacking proper control of any of the animals involved, raccoons or dogs can also be badly injured or even killed during the trials. “Increased interaction with wildlife also poses a very real risk of increased risk of exposure to rabies and other zoonotic diseases commonly transmitted by raccoons—both to humans and to the dogs used in the trials,” says Cal Morgan, Atlanta Humane Society President and CEO. Statistics from the Georgia Department of Community Health indicate that wild animals in Georgia accounted for 94.5% of positive rabies cases in animals in 2008, with raccoons making up more than 60% of the rabid animals. Further, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identifies raccoons as among the few species that are “important as reservoirs” of the disease. The bill is now before the Senate Natural Resources and the Environment Committee and is anticipated to be heard on Thursday, March 13.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 16:20:00 +0000
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