This Thursday North Dakotan's to Stop Animal Cruelty will have a table at Urban Harvest in Bismarck from 10am-8pm. They will have information and petitions available for people to sign. If you live in the area but haven’t had a chance to sign the petition this is your chance! Even if people feel neutral about the issue but support the democratic process it's worth signing the petition!Don’t live in the Bismarck area? No worries, there are signature gatherers at events going on all around the state. Check out their other events to find a signature gatherer near you!
About the initiative
Over the last few months volunteers all over the state have been putting in a lot of hours and hard work on gathering signatures to get an initiative on November's ballot. If passed, a new section of law would be added to our existing animal cruelty law that would make extreme and intentional acts of cruelty to dogs, cats and horses a Class C felony. This section of law includes the same exemptions that are in our existing law (anything relating to hunting, agriculture or medical practice.)
There's been a lot of ongoing discussion over the past several years among legislators and other groups about change in this area but due to questions about wording, interpretation, etc. nothing has ever moved forward. As a result this initiative was written, in a very concise and balanced manner, to bring to the citizens to decide. In other words: it’s specific to our most common pets, includes only the most malicious types of cruelty and does not infringe on common practices held sacred by many ND citizens.
