Companion Animals Tax Credit!

This is from AHA friend Jade:
I received the message below from Alaskan Congressman Don Young's office today, regarding the HAPPY Act, a bill to create a tax credit for expenses related to pet care. This would allow pet owners to deduct up to $3,500 annually for pet care expenses. It is important legislation, especially now, when the recession is causing people to abandon the pets they can't afford to care for. We must find ways to encourage people to keep their pets, as well as incentives for adopting and caring for companion animals appropriately.

As Congressman Young notes, the bill is currently stalled in the House Committee on Ways and Means. We must get this bill out of committee and onto the floor, where it can be voted on and passed into legislation. YOU CAN HELP DO THAT.

Please go to this web page and use the contact form to ask the committee members to move H.R. 3501, the Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years (HAPPY) Act along. Tell the committee that this is an Act that is important to you, that it will help Americans keep their companion animals in this economically troubled time, and that they can not allow it to die in committee. Ask that they support the Act and move it along.
http://waysandmeans.house.gov/contact.asp

Then go to this page and check whether or not your Congressional representative is on the House Committee on Ways and Means. Click on the name of your representative and you will be able to go directly to their website and contact information. CALL your representative's office and ask that s/he help move H.R. 3501, the Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years (HAPPY) Act, out of committee so that it can be voted on and passed into law.

Last but not least, forward this message to all your contacts - ask your friends, family and co-workers to do the same things you have just done. Politicians understand NUMBERS and we need to make sure these politicians know there are large numbers of voters who want the legislation passed.


For the animals,
Jade Murphy

Happy Halloween for Anchorage Animals

Last weekend the Anchorage Animal Control and Care hosted a Halloween party for the animals and their prospective new guardians.

Animal medicine stolen!

Burglars steal medicine from Anchorage vet...

Benefit

In Bush Alaska, where a sack of dog food can run $60 and spaying and neutering is uncommon in some villages, nonexistent in others, it's a matter of practicality to let nature take its course. That means unwanted dogs often freeze or starve to death, except for the lucky ones, relatively speaking, that get it over with quickly by being shot and killed. That move former AK resident Kimberley Foore and friends to organize a benefit in their current home of Albany NY called Pipeline to the Rescue. The benefit raised money to bring aid to Aniak.

Cat Wrapped in Duct Tape Gets Justice

Although we try to stick to local news, once in a while an animal incident is so atrocious we have to discuss it. According to the UK Daily Mail:

James Davis, 19, confessed to wrapping the grey tabby from (head to tail) in the tape, putting it in a shopping bag, and leaving it in a neighbour's yard.
He was arrested on Saturday on animal cruelty charges.
The cat - named 'Sticky' by animal welfare workers - was dehydrated and had to be sedated as the tape was cut from its fur.
Davis faces up to two years in prison and a minimum $1,000 fine if convicted.
Animal welfare workers are still looking for Sticky's owner.
The shocking treatment does not appear to have made the cat more wary of humans.
Video of her after the tape was removed shows her purring and enjoying cuddles with a SPCA officer.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1216934/Teen-wrapped-cat-duct-tape-arrested.html#ixzz0SVuoE7Mr



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1216934/Teen-wrapped-cat-duct-tape-arrested.html#ixzz0SVtjUhNk

200 dead walruses in AK...

Bark Buckle Up

An organization called Bark buckle Up wants to ensure the safety of your companion animal by rating the best vehicles with the best features. Maybe people will think about that instead of cramming an animal into an open truck bed.