|
Having clicked your mouse on the Advocacy page icon on the BCA Home page, you arrived here to get a general orientation to the new information available to us on general legislative issues at hand, useful information on how you can be more involved, what you can do, encouraging you to write letters and make phone calls to support or oppose bills, ordinances or opinions that could effect our rights as dog owners…Read it! It’s good stuff!!
On the upper left corner you will see a menu of sub-pages including Model Laws, Legislative Alerts, Contact Officials, Let Us Know, AKC Federations, Register to Vote and Media Guide. With the cooperation of the AKC and the NAIA we have up to date legislative information at our finger tips on one easy to use website page! Each section takes you to a different area in which you can affect the deciisons about laws and regulations at the local, state and federal levels of government.
MODEL LAWS
The first page takes you to links to pieces of model legislation that support our right to own and breed dogs. These describe how laws can be written to protect the welfare of animals and the rights of animal owners. The come from a variety of sources and we aew adding to them at all times. You should also look at the Newsroom pages for posiiton statements related to legislative issues.
LEGISLATIVE ALERTS
When you click on the Legislative Alerts sub-page you will see an introduction which gives you basic information on what the sub-page’s AKC Alerts, AKC Bill Reports and BCA Alerts are about. To be able to access the AKC Alerts, AKC Bill Reports and BCA Alerts simply click on the “+” beside the Legislative Alerts icon. Once you have clicked on the “+” you then click on the AKC Alerts, AKC Bill Reports or BCA Alert sub-pages icon which takes you to the appropriate information.
The AKC Alert page gives you state and city alerts and calls to action on pending bill and ordinance updates for the current years legislative activity. The AKC Bill Reports sub-page is where you will see a map of the United States. You can click on the state that has issues that concern you and it will take you directly to that state’s current pet legislation, or you can go alphabetically through all of the bills state by state in the country. Any specific BCA alerts are listed on their own sub-pages. What great sources of information!
​CONTACT YOU ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES
The Contact Officials sub-page takes you to an introductory page which gives you information on the sub-pages again accessed by clicking on the “+” beside the contact official icon. The Effective Contact sub-page gives you tips on getting your opinions successfully communicated to your elected officials. When you click on the Federal and State sub-page icon you are taken to the NAIA site where you can access contact information for all Federal and State officials again using an interactive U.S. map. The Local Official sub-page gives you access to contact information for your local officials and governments including cities, counties and townships, again using the interactive U.S. map.
KEEP US INFORMED
The Let Us Know sub-page gives you the BCA Legislative Committee Chairman’s email address so you can contact him about any legislative issue you may need help with or that you want attention drawn to. We will respond and help in any way we can as well as let others know about the issues.
LOCAL AKC FEDERATIONS
The next sub-page is the AKC Federation page. On this page you will see all the state federations alphabetically listed with their contact information. These state federations work tirelessly on state and national pet legislative issues. They retain lobbyists and members to meet with legislators and discuss upcoming legislation. They may engage in litigation to help preserve our rights as pet owners. They can also advise you how to best fight for your rights.
REGISTER TO VOTE AND HAVE AN IMPACT
The Register to Vote sub-page is also on the NAIA site and has information on how to become a registered voter. We need all of you voting and supporting the candidates and bills that will help us in our efforts to protect our rights.
GET THE WORD OUT
The Media Guide sub-page gives you the opportunity to find national media organizations, newspapers and magazines. While there you can compose a message regarding your pet legislative position and submit it to the media outlet for possible publication. I even found my small town Texas local newspaper on this page.
Please utilize these very useful tools that are available here. Remember you have a voice! The efforts of the Information and Technology Committee and the BCA members on the Website Committee have made it so much easier for you to be heard…THANK YOU!!!
Ward L. McAfee
BCA Legislative Committee Chairman
|