"Lady of the Earth"CSUS student, CA Politics California is the first state and the only state, so far, in the Unites States to ban the sell of non-rescue animals. The Pet Rescue and Adoption Act, also known as the Assembly Bill 485, was set in place to reduce the mistreatment of animals such as dogs, cats, and rabbits (California Legislation Information 2017-2018). These types of animals are most commonly found in homes as pets, but the rise in demand for pure breeding, breeding for quality of animal, and mass breeding as lead to puppy mills and kitten factories. Mills and factories are created to increase mass litter production, female animals are used to breed litter after litter. Without human companionship, these female animals live a life in cages until their bodies are no longer needed or the health of the animal is extremely poor, so they are killed (Helping Hands Humane Society). These productions often have poor living conditions and health issues for the animals, which was a huge red flag for animal activists and the Humane Society of the United States, the HSUS organization specializes in animal protection (N. Golgowski 2018). Pet stores are now required to sell dogs, cats, and rabbits that are only rescued or donated by shelters (S. Luke 2018). This ban is to help stop the support of mass breeding facilities that have deplorable and inhumane conditions, as a consequence to private breeders or any pet sold illegally, there will be fine starting at $500. Another issue leading to Bill 485 were the over populated shelters which lead to more deaths and spending. It's estimated that California spends a quarter of one billion dollars to house and then euthanize the animals; also, an estimated 2.7 million healthy animals are being euthanized (Social Compassion in Legislation 2017). See the problem yet?
Bill 485 benefits not only the animals but the community too! When an animal is adopted, you are saving the lives of two; one that you have adopted, and the life that gets a second chance. Adopting animals that have over populated reduces the population alone with reducing spending and deaths. In one year, there could be about 8 to 12 million animals euthanized, wouldn’t you want to help break that cycle? Adopting adult animals is heartwarming, they are looking for companionship and have hope for love. Adult pets are often trained and some might even know some tricks, adult animals will easily adapt from cold hard shelter conditions to your loving home! Also, for you older folks, getting an adult animal means that animal has less energy compared a younger animal. This means if you want a dog that’s trained and older, it’ll be calmer around the house and easier to take care of! Overall there is a wide variety of different ages and breeds available. Adopting from a shelter is safe, they may not have the coziest living but that’s up to you to change. Animals that have been rescued and received by shelters are often vaccinated and neutered or spayed, you’ll be getting a healthy pet and a perfect start a healthy friendship. Every community in the United States has to have an animal shelter but its non-profit, what does this mean? It means that the money donated, or the money you spend adopting goes right back into the shelter to provide medical supply, cozy beds, food and other necessities the shelter needs to provide for the animals. And here is the best part for the penny pinchers, the cost of adopting is cut almost in half compared to buying from private breeders plus the savings on vaccinations (Helping Hands Humane Society)! How great is that! California is taking initiative and making a huge change for animals. Moving forward, California is now working on the ban on selling animal fur-based clothing and accessories. Joining with the Fur Free Alliance, California is on its way to be once again the first state in the United States to ban the sell of animal fur. The Fur Ban bill, also known as Bill 44, was introduced by assembly member Laura Friedman. On March 12, the first hearing on Bill 44 was taken place; it is to make it unlawful to sell, give, or manufacture fur products (Fur Free Alliance). Bill 485 will make a tremendous impact, Patrick O’Donnell is the assembly member who introduced the bill in 2017 (Social Compassion in Legislation 2017). It wasn’t until Governor Jerry Brown signed Bill 485 on October 2017 that set the ban to begin in January 2019. So, its been a few months in and there has been a 215.87% change from February 2018 compared to February 2019 in animals being fostered. Due to the less intake of animals, there is a decrease in outtake but we are seeing an increase in adoption levels from February 2018 to February 2019 with 7.86% for dogs and 29.41% for cats (The Animal Foundation, statistics and reports). This proves that the Bill 485 has made a positive change by decreasing animal homelessness population and increasing the sale of animals out of shelters. The revolutionary change is the puppy mills and kitten factories that will be shut down, pet stores and other private breeding corporations will most likely go out of business. Thanks to the local and state government officials that made Bill 485 possible and the communities that contributed!
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"Stacy"Student at CSUS, CA Politics Water conservation-the prevention of the wasteful use of water-is an important issue in California and the politics of California. Using water intentionally and not wastefully is something that not only affects California’s agricultural society, it is also something that affects the regular Californian day-to-day in our homes. A drought is when there is a long period of low rainfall that leads to a shortage in water, another definition of drought is when states reservoirs are half-empty or if its residents are using water at an unusually high rate. The drought in California spanned a total of 10 years, and when it got worse a few years backs, there were certain laws put into effect to keep water usage to a minimum; some of these laws were: not watering your lawn after/ before certain hours, not washing your car, etc., but these laws weren’t strictly enforced throughout California. After a season of heavy rain, these laws went away, but heavy rains for a season doesn’t mean a drought is over, its simply a relief for a short period of time. The most recent wet year (a year where it rains 25% more than in a normal year) that happened in California was from 2016-2017, but that didn’t mean California was out of a drought because it followed nearly a decade of unusually dry conditions when the Sierra snowpack shrank, groundwater reserves were minimal, and reservoirs drained, “Brown declared a state of emergency in January 2014 and California imposed mandatory 25 percent cutbacks on water use the following year. The state relaxed the temporary restrictions in 2016...” (Sacbee May 2018). The issue of water conservation is important because water is an important resource all over the globe, whether its clean drinking water, running water, water for agricultural reasons and day-to-day use such as washing your car or watering your lawn. In the 2018 California election, Assembly Bill 1668 and Senate Bill No. 606 were approved by Governor Jerry Brown on May 31, 2018 and filed with the Secretary of State on May 31,2018. Assembly Bill 1668 and Senate Bill No. 606 were jointly created to change California’s approach to conserving water. “The measures impose a number of new or expanded requirements on state water agencies and local water suppliers and provide for significantly greater state oversight of local water suppliers’ water use, even in non-drought years” (BBK Law 2018). Both bills aim to establish long-term efficient water use by June 30, 2022- those components of water usage include indoor residential use, outdoor residential use, water losses and other uses. “Regarding indoor residential use, the new laws set a standard of 55 gallons per-person, per-day through Jan. 1, 2025. After that date, the amount will be incrementally reduced over time” and “In addition, the bills will require local water suppliers to calculate and comply with their water use objectives and report those objectives and actual use to DWR” (BBK Law 2018). These laws would affect residents, like you and I, on how much water we would be allowed to use per year, leading to fines if water isn’t used correctly and water usage by corporations isn’t accounted for. Besides indoor and outdoor residential use of water, California is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world which would not be possible or successful without irrigation. Irrigation is the application of water to land to help with the production of crops. Most of the water used for agricultural us used efficiently, that means that water that is not used on one farm is used on another, so the same amount of water can be used to produce more crops. Nearly 80 percent of all the water used in California goes for agricultural, an even though it is used efficiently, small changes to the water used for agriculture can make a significant difference. “The Water Conservation Act of 2009 (SB X7-7) requires agricultural water suppliers serving more than 25,000 irrigated acres (excluding recycled water deliveries) to adopt and submit to DWR an Agricultural Water Management Plan (AWMP)” (water.ga.gov). The Water Conservation Act of 2009 (SB X7-7) only requires agricultural water suppliers to report the amount of water farms were using and submit those reports to the legislature. The flaw in this, is that this bill only overseas how much water is used, and it helps us to understand how agriculture uses water, but it does nothing to limit water usage or regulate it further. There is more work needed to be done to help California agriculture become more efficient with its water usage. A dangerous effect of the lack of water and having no means to use it efficiently leads to a dangerously low amount in groundwater reserves. Groundwater is water that is held underground in the soil or in pores and crevices in rock. Groundwater pumping led to a race to who gets the last drops of water from the ground to use. The discussion of groundwater and overdraft of groundwater (overdraft is when groundwater withdraw exceeds the amount that is replenished over the long-term) will be discussed in the next blog post. The first round of student blogs are ready! Students focused their first blog posts on a clear description of the issue and the impact on their issue from the most recent election.
Students were allowed to write under a pseudonym or their real name. They were instructed to use clear language that would be accessible for any voter. The second round of blogs will focus on the individuals/groups impacted by their issue and the political institutions related to their issue. As students continue to work on their projects they have been composing short descriptions that we post on our Twitter page for the class. Why Twitter through? A couple of reasons :
1. Twitter, for better or worse, is a medium that many people in the political realm tend to use-so potentially a great place for my students to try and get their ideas heard and directly connect to those working on their issue. 2. The character limitations on Twitter force the students to be succinct and to the point when describing their projects-great for narrowing down broad research ideas. 3. Even the act of composing a short tweet every few class periods helps to keep students thinking about, and working on their projects. The first set of blogs will be out shortly, students just completed their second in-class peer review of each others projects. Once they receive their feedback they will finish their blogs and post them here, under a pseudonym or their real name. |
AuthorUndergraduate student generated content. Blog posting and updating done by Kristina Flores Victor, Assistant Professor of Political Science at CSUS Archives
March 2020
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