Another Oregon Rescue Group Closes Their Doors In Response To Oregon SB6

This is on my Petfinder Page,  Deaf Dane Rescue, my  Home Page and on myWhite Danes homepage and my website's available animals page.

Because of the passage of Oregon SB 6 today (7/6/13), effective immediately, DDRI is no longer accepting any dogs. 

Unless the legislature can be made to see what a mistake this bill is, over the next few months we will likely be shutting our doors and may well be moving out of state. 

Our home is not a commercial facility and we are unwilling to comply with the unconstitutional search and seizure provisions of this seriously flawed bill. 

While we have gladly given of our time and resources for the last 12 years, and would have continued to do so until we were physically unable, we will not allow the government free access to our bedrooms and bathrooms in order to continue our rescue work, which is exactly what this bill demands.

 If you think "not in America," think again. 

And when you have to put a dog to sleep because there is no space in rescue, thank the HSUS and OHS (Oregon Humane Society) who sponsored and backed this bill, the Democrats who passed this bill as quickly and quietly as they could, lest people start to look too closely at it, and Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) who rubber stamped it into law without listening to the concerns of those who know rescue best.

Rescues, and in fact anyone who had any concerns about this bill, were strategically excluded from giving any input at all stages of the process.

 In a letter supporting SB 6 to the Senate Judiciary Committee Chair, OHS (Oregon Humane Society) Executive Director Sharon Harmon says SB 6 is needed to curb the "profit driven practice" of rescue, likening us to "the drug trade."

She claims that for the most part, rescue is a "cash business" where people realize "a large payoff for very little expense."  But the reality is rescues are a money-losing proposition.

 Most of us keep dumping money into our rescues and working ridiculously long hours for no pay whatsoever. On the other hand, Sharon and her husband (who also works at OHS) gross over $300,000 a year in wages and compensation from OHS. 

So in reality, just who is profiting like a drug dealer from these homeless animals?

Marc Sayer
Journalist, Photographer, Dog Trainer 
Director of Operations & Training - Deaf Dane Rescue Inc.
Oakridge, OR USA

gocbwatchdog@aol.com wrote:

Small rescue after small rescue struggles for funds and tries to subsist on small donations while the larger groups, OHS, MCAS, etc.hoard money, attract a lot of it because they have self promoted name recognition and use donor dollars for solicitations, Then they hand off the less marketable animals ,the most challenging, offering nothing to off set costs and speak about the dangers of No Kill and the slippery slope of compassion.

There is no law against greed. But may be we should make it clearer we get no salaries and 100% of all donations go directly to animal  care.