The Oregon Senate voted tonight to send two bills to the Governor's desk for signature. We'll give you the good news first:
The Senate passed House Bill 4046, which will increase penalties for poaching, particularly if done for trade in wildlife parts. For more information, see prior posts on the News page of our website. Only six senators voted against the bill. You can see the full vote here (click on "Measure History" and then the "+" sign next to the last entry). Thanks for contacting your Senator on this issue!
The bad news is that the Senate also passed House Bill 4040 -- the bill that will likely eliminate court review of the decision to remove wolves from Oregon's endangered species list. We were happy to see "no" votes from supporters of animal welfare (senators Burdick, Dembrow, Devlin, Gelser, Hass, Monnes Anderson, Monroe, Prozanski, Riley, Rosenbaum and Steiner Hayward), but we were disappointed to see Senate President Peter Courtney, usually a great supporter of animal welfare, vote for the bill and let it come up for a vote as part of a larger political bargain. See a full record of the votes here (click on "Measure History" and then the "+"sign next to the last entry). Thanks for contacting your Senator on this issue, too!
The last hope to stop the bad wolf bill is a veto by Governor Kate Brown. Please ask her to do that: (503) 378-4582. (E.g., "Please veto House Bill 4040. The decision to take wolves off of Oregon's endangered species list is a very important decision to the citizens of Oregon and should be subject to court review like other decisions by government agencies.")