The 2021 session of the Oregon Legislature began January 19 and continues through late June. The legislature is considering thousands of proposed new laws and resolutions, including many related to animals.
So far we are tracking more than 60 proposals with a potential to impact animal welfare. We have weighed in already on a bill to ban coyote-killing contests (yes), find funding for wildlife road crossings (yes), extend a fund to promote wildlife management for all Oregonians (yes), make it easier to license a dog (yes) and change responsibility for taking care of animals in a natural disaster (important to think about).
For a list of most of the bills we are tracking, our current positions, and the reasons for our positions, click here. To see the full text of a bill, along with its history, scheduled events and other information about the bill, click on the bill number in our list.
You should feel free to contact your state legislators at any time about any of these bills. Click here to find out who your state legislators are if you don't already know (click the "Senate" tab to see who your state senator is and the "House" tab to see who your state representative is; the "Congress" tab is for federal law, not the legislature discussed here).
Another great way to help is to attend your legislators' open houses and ask about animal welfare issues. Even asking simply, "what is happening on animal welfare issues?" helps to make animal welfare more important to policy makers. You can also ask about specific issues, too, of course. To find out about their open houses, sign up for their email newsletters. To do that, go to the same link that tells you who your legislators are (here), type in your address including the city, click on the tabs for House and Senate, and click on the link in each tab to the legislator's web page (second link). That page will have a box in the upper right to sign up for their email updates.
Thank you for helping us advocate for animals!