California Activists Please help spread the word - Calls & Letters needed Now!

March 4, 2004

(For those of you who did not know, there are two bills this session in California to remove kangaroos and other animals from the protected list in California).

California’s Protected Species Need Your Help

Calls & Letters Needed Now!

Senator Hollingsworth has introduced Senate Bill 1207, a bill to take away safeguards provided to California’s protected species. Calls and letters are needed to your state Senator urging them to preserve these protections.

Existing law provides that it is a crime to import into this state for commercial purposes, to possess with intent to sell, or to sell within the state, the dead body, or any part or product thereof, of any of a list of specified animals, such as kangaroos, tigers, ocelots, leopards, polar bears, etc. SB 1207 would require that these specified animals be endangered.

This bill has been introduced in an attempt to undermine the efforts of the California legislature who passed the original law to protect certain animals regardless if they are endangered or not. This is because certain animals who are killed commercially look similar to others who are protected or threatened. In addition, there are many subspecies of animals and in order to ensure the animal is fully protected the entire species must be listed – which is precisely how California’s law is written.

Senator Hollingsworth attempted to introduce a similar piece of legislation last session which failed. In year’s past there have been other attempts to adjust this law, which have failed. These protections must be preserved!!!

IMPORTANT: A similar bill has been introduced in the Assembly by Assembly Member Firebaugh (D-LA area). AB2915 has not been assigned a committee yet. We will keep you informed on this bill as well.

If you would like regular updates on these bills and what you can do, please sign up at SB1207.

We are asking you to do two things:

1. Please write your state Senator and ask that s/he oppose SB 1207. Tell your Senator that protections for the specified animals must be retained.

2. We need letters, faxes, calls, and emails to the Senate Natural Resources Committee urging them to oppose SB 1207. This is the Committee that the bill is assigned to and can be heard on March 12 so time is of the essence. If you can not write to all of them, at least send a letter to the Chair of the Committee, Senator Sheila Kuehl. If your Senator is on the Committee it is even more important that you write and state that your are a constituent.

Senate Natural Resources Committee Members:

All letters can be sent to:State CapitolRoom (see numbers below for each room number)Sacramento, CA 95814

Chair, Senator Sheila Kuehl (Represents Los Angeles area)916/445-1353916/324-4823 FaxRoom 4032Senator.Kuehl

Senator Thomas "Rico" Oller (Represents areas such as: Lassen, Plumas, Butte, Sierra, Yuba, Nevada, Placer counties)916/445-5788916/324-2680 FaxRoom 5064Senator.Oller

Senator Dede Alpert (Represents San Diego area)916/445-3952

916/327-2188 FaxRoom 5050Senator.Alpert

Senator Debra Bowen (Represents Redondo Beach area)916/445-5953

916/323-6056Room 4040Senator.Bowen

Senator Jeff Denham (District covers some of the Central Valley)916/445-1392916/445-0773 FaxRoom 4062Senator.Denham

Senator Dennis Hollingsworth (Represents Riverside area) –

Sponsor of the bill (please be sure to send him a polite letter)916/445-9781916/447-9008 FaxRoom 2048senator.hollingsworth

Senator Deborah Ortiz (Represents Sacramento area)916/445-7807

916/323-2263 FaxRoom 5114Senator.Ortiz

Senator Byron Sher (Represents Stanford area)916/445-6747

916/323-4529 FaxRoom 2082Senator.Sher

Senator Tom Torlakson (Represents Antioch area)916/445-6083

916/445-2527 FaxRoom 5061Senator.Torlakson

Please cc your letter to:

Syrus Devers, committee analyst:

Fax: 916/323-2232

And to Viva!USA at

SB1207

To find out who your state Senator is please visit http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html

Mailing address for Senators:

The Honorable ___________

California State Senate

State Capitol

Sacramento, CA 95814

Some additional points you may want to make

• Kangaroos, one of the listed species within SB 1207, are being killed by the millions in Australia to help make products such as soccer cleats, which are being sold here in California. There are plenty of alternatives to animal skins. Most companies offer synthetic alternatives. If SB1207 passes we lose the opportunity for California to take a stand against this senseless massacre. Although not all kangaroos are listed as endangered, some of them are.

• The hunts take place at night when it is very difficult to decipher between the listed and non-listed species. By allowing the sale of kangaroo skins into California we are risking the possibly of importing skins of kangaroos who are protected.

• Just a quick search on the internet shows that kangaroos look similar to one another. Compile that with shooting at night, and this can mean protected kangaroos are shot.

• Australia has a terrible record when it comes to protecting their native species. In fact, “more mammals have died (in Australia) in the last 200 years than in any other continent.” [http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/npws.nsf/Content/Threatened+Species]This is why it is imperative that California’s law stay intact. We must do our part to preserve native species wherever we can.

• According to the Daily Telegraph (New South Wales newspaper), "Kangaroo populations south of Sydney will be commercially hunted for the first time despite numbers across the state plummeting to their lowest in more than 20 years." The paper goes on to state that, "The Government is also expected to announce next week the 2004 quota figures which show in some regions, kill quotas have already increased to as much as 80 percent of the population."

For more information, contact lauren Ornelas at (530) 759-8482 or at SB1207.

Viva!USAwww.vivausa.orgPO Box 4398Davis, CA 95617530/759-8482530/759-8487 fax