Latest / UNCHAINEDTV'S Truth Files with Jane Velez-Mitchell / UnchainedTV: Passing Laws to Save Animals!

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UnchainedTV: Passing Laws to Save Animals! · UNCHAINEDTV'S Truth Files with Jane Velez-Mitchell

0:00
We have breaking news to tell you about.
0:03
Unfortunately, there is a war on the octopus.
0:07
This beautiful, sensitive, intelligent sea creature who belongs
0:13
in the wild, in the ocean, is now
0:16
the target of people who, motivated by greed,
0:21
want to create octopus farms.
0:25
And there's a move to create octopus farms
0:28
in Spain and other locations.
0:32
What does that have to do with California?
0:34
Well, California is the fifth largest economy in
0:36
the nation, bigger than many, many other countries,
0:40
about to become the fourth largest economy.
0:42
So if California says hell no to octopus
0:45
farming, then maybe these little guys, or big
0:49
guys, have a chance.
0:51
And so there is an incredible organisation that
0:54
is working to stop the farming of octopus,
0:59
the abuse of octopus, with the OCTO Act.
1:02
But they need your help.
1:04
They can't do it alone.
1:05
I am talking about Social Compassion and Legislation,
1:09
a high-powered organisation run by Judy Mancuso.
1:13
You see her there, centre stage.
1:15
She is always at the Capitol in Sacramento
1:18
with large groups of caring Californians fighting to
1:23
ban cruelty across the board.
1:25
And she is a force of nature in
1:28
Sacramento, and she's here with us today.
1:31
Judy Mancuso, it is an honour.
1:34
Tell us about your efforts to pass the
1:36
OCTO Act and save the octopus.
1:40
Well, Jane, as you know, factory farming is
1:44
cruel, and there is enough of it already.
1:49
And there are attempts right now, pilot programmes
1:53
in other countries, to begin factory farming octopus.
1:59
And so proactively, because we know that, you
2:05
know, once this gets established, they'll be coming
2:08
to California to start this cruel factory farming.
2:14
So this bill proactively will prohibit these farms
2:20
in California.
2:22
And that is super important.
2:24
Nick Sackett, you are the legislative director.
2:27
They often say what happens in California spreads
2:30
to the rest of the nation and then
2:31
the rest of the world.
2:32
So tell us about the ripple effect of
2:35
this OCTO Act if it passes.
2:40
Unmute yourself.
2:42
Thank you, Jane.
2:43
Sorry about that.
2:44
A rookie mistake.
2:46
Yeah, as you said, as California goes, so
2:49
goes the nation.
2:50
To be fair, we also have to give
2:52
credit to our neighbours to the north in
2:53
Washington, who actually just passed this same exact
2:57
policy.
2:58
And so we're hoping to get it in
3:00
California.
3:01
We imagine that Oregon will be next and
3:04
possibly other coastal states after that.
3:08
Yeah, so this is breaking news.
3:10
And why it's important, Nick, is that you
3:12
can't do it alone.
3:14
You need people to go to social compassion
3:17
legislation.
3:18
And this organisation is really the organisation that
3:23
goes there and gets sponsors and does the
3:26
in the weeds difficult work of being on
3:29
Capitol Hill, Sacramento Capitol Hill, the state legislature,
3:34
talking to these state assembly members and these
3:37
state senators.
3:38
And they will do it if enough people
3:41
write them letters.
3:42
Is this not true?
3:44
That's right.
3:45
We're seeing a lot of support for this
3:48
bill.
3:49
So far, assembly members have been very receptive
3:52
to the policy.
3:53
We've gotten both Republican and Democratic votes on
3:57
the bill thus far, but we need continued
4:00
support from everybody out there to make sure
4:03
that their representatives hear from them.
4:05
Well, this is just a no brainer.
4:07
My God, what have we become as a
4:11
society where we're fighting the factory farming, the
4:15
concentrated animal feeding operations that imprison cows, pigs,
4:19
chickens, turkeys, and lambs.
4:21
They're not content with that.
4:22
Now they wanna start imprisoning octopus.
4:25
I mean, it's truly upsetting.
4:29
And it seems like despite the environmental consequences
4:33
of all of these concentrated animal prisons essentially,
4:40
the powers that be don't get it.
4:42
They don't get that it's killing not just
4:45
these animals, but it's killing our environment.
4:48
Well, that's why it's so important to do
4:51
this preemptive strike on it.
4:54
Because obviously when you look at where we
4:57
are with cows and pigs and all the
5:02
other farm animals, with billions being killed a
5:07
year, this is something that we get to
5:12
prevent from happening before it gets started in
5:16
our state.
5:18
And people wanna just stop CAFOs, these high
5:24
volume farms from existing, which is a big
5:30
hill to climb.
5:31
So once the agriculture gets started to undo
5:36
it, unwind the clock is next to impossible.
5:42
But the fact that we can prevent it
5:45
from ever getting started, that's real progress.
5:50
And what I have to say is that
5:53
everybody needs to join in if this bothers
5:56
you, just write this down.
5:59
You have to write down the website you
6:01
need to go to and you have to
6:04
write down the act that you wanna sign.
6:07
And where you need to go is Social
6:10
Compassion and Legislation.
6:12
And you're gonna see in just a second,
6:15
grab your pen, check it out, socialcompassionandlegislation.org.
6:23
You can sign up there.
6:25
You get a newsletter that tells you about
6:28
all the various crises involving animals.
6:31
And what's really good about it is you
6:33
don't have to do any heavy lifting.
6:36
It's all done for you.
6:38
All you have to do is click a
6:40
button and it sends a letter to all
6:42
sorts of legislators.
6:44
So the key is for you to sign
6:47
up, go to socialcompassionandlegislation.org and sign up.
6:51
And I just wanna say, I've worked with
6:55
Judy Mancuso and Nick Sackett and all these
6:57
folks for a long time.
7:00
Unchained TV, which is the world's only vegan
7:03
streaming television network right there behind me, has
7:07
gone to the Sacramento Capitol and really covered
7:12
a lot of these events.
7:13
And so we have a video and photos
7:16
of them in action which I will show
7:18
you because Judy gets around.
7:22
She will talk about how she passed the
7:24
pet lover's licence plate before in a second.
7:27
But there she is holding news conferences in
7:31
front of the Sacramento Capitol building, gathering with
7:35
large groups of people that she mobilises from
7:38
all over the state.
7:39
And they have, at this point, sponsored more
7:42
than 60 pieces of legislation and 25 of
7:47
them have been signed into law, which is
7:50
an incredible track record.
7:52
Judy, what is your secret sauce?
7:54
How is it that you're able to do
7:56
all this?
7:57
Well, and actually as of this year, we
8:00
are at 70 pieces of legislation.
8:05
Well, the secret is hard work, but it's
8:08
also longevity and getting a reputation at the
8:14
Capitol that we are a group to trust
8:16
and work with.
8:18
So I founded the group and Jane, you
8:22
were there at the founding in 2007.
8:26
And so for 17 years, we have been
8:30
doing legislation at the state Capitol and even
8:34
in the state of New York, thanks to
8:36
you.
8:38
And so it's hard work, it's integrity, keeping
8:44
your word.
8:45
It's also having a presence that when these
8:49
legislators work with you, they know that you
8:53
have a lot of support behind you.
8:56
We had a fundraising event at the end
9:00
of last year and one of the assembly
9:03
members said, and this was the biggest compliment
9:06
we could ever get.
9:07
She said that when there's the analysis on,
9:11
an animal bill, she looks to see who
9:14
is supporting the legislation and who's opposed.
9:19
And based on where our name shows up,
9:22
that's the way that she votes because she
9:25
knows that she can align with us and
9:29
that we're on the right side of the
9:31
animals every time.
9:33
All right, we've got callers lining up.
9:35
Nilo Farr in Dallas, Texas.
9:39
Your question or thought for our incredible panel
9:42
from Social Compassion and Legislation.
9:45
Hi, if it's not enough to torture and
9:49
kill trillions, trillions of individuals on the land
9:55
and in the ocean, what has spurred an
9:58
interest in octopus exploitation?
10:01
Did it start in Spain?
10:04
Nick, you wanna handle that backstory?
10:06
Sure, well, unfortunately, demand for octopus is rising
10:12
around the world.
10:14
And so this company in Spain saw that
10:16
as an opportunity to make money if they
10:19
could figure out how to farm them.
10:21
They are trying their darndest to do so.
10:25
Our hope is that they never figure it
10:28
out and that these animals never have to
10:31
suffer at the hands of factory farming.
10:34
But in the event that they do, we're
10:37
here to pass a bill in California that
10:40
prevents it.
10:41
And I also wanna add that the bill
10:43
bans the sale of farmed octopus in California.
10:48
So even if the octopus are being farmed
10:51
in Spain, they won't be able to sell
10:54
it into California.
10:55
And that's super important because as I mentioned,
10:59
California is the fifth largest economy in the
11:03
entire world.
11:04
So if you're blocked from being in California,
11:07
that already puts your product at a disadvantage.
11:10
And that's something, of course, that came up
11:12
recently with Prop 12.
11:15
The California voters have overwhelmingly passed two major
11:19
propositions to help animals.
11:21
Prop 2, which went into effect in 2015,
11:25
it said farmed animals have to have the
11:26
ability to turn around and move.
11:29
And Prop 12, which expanded that and talked
11:33
about pig gestation crates.
11:35
One of the problems, Judy, is that none
11:38
of it has resulted in any prosecutions.
11:41
So there are critics who say it's not
11:44
being enforced.
11:46
What are your thoughts on that, Judy?
11:48
Well, my thought is that enforcement is lacking
11:51
across the board with anything and everything that
11:55
has to do with animals.
11:57
And it's something that we have been discussing
12:02
for quite some time and would like to
12:04
look into, are looking into some ways to
12:09
resolve that.
12:10
But my point that I make is we
12:15
can't enforce it if it's not on the
12:19
books.
12:19
So for our group, it's hard enough to
12:23
get these laws passed.
12:25
Sometimes they take multiple years to get passed.
12:29
So our effort is to get them into
12:32
law and then do our best to see
12:37
that the enforcement is made.
12:39
And we do, we work with local jurisdictions
12:42
and individuals and at the state level.
12:46
But again, with this particular bill being preemptive,
12:52
that we won't have to worry about enforcement
12:55
because it will prohibit these factory farms from
13:00
ever getting started.
13:02
So it really is such a winner.
13:05
So once again, if you're watching, you can
13:09
help.
13:09
They can't do it alone.
13:11
It really boils down to the number of
13:13
letters and calls they get.
13:15
These politicians need to be able to have
13:18
cover.
13:19
They need to have cover.
13:20
And so if they get thousands of emails,
13:24
they can feel confident that they're not risking
13:26
their political futures by standing up for this
13:30
bill.
13:30
So you can help pass AB3162, the OCTO
13:35
Act.
13:35
This is breaking news.
13:37
California can preemptively stop octopus farms from happening
13:43
across the world by basically making it unprofitable.
13:49
I mean, essentially, California, the fifth largest economy
13:52
of the world, about to become the fourth
13:53
largest.
13:54
If you can't sell here, and that applies
13:56
also to the pig gestation crate issue, where
14:01
Prop 12 says, you can't sell in California
14:05
pig products, which is pork and ham, et
14:08
cetera, that comes from pigs who were kept
14:10
in crates the size of their bodies, never
14:12
able to turn around, basically coffins for living
14:15
beings.
14:17
But that is a question of enforcement.
14:19
In this case, in the octopus case, if
14:22
they pass the OCTO Act and it prevents
14:25
these octopus farms from even opening because they
14:28
decide, well, we're not gonna be able to
14:29
make a lot of money.
14:30
We won't be able to get into California.
14:32
California is really big.
14:33
Now we've got other states as well copying
14:36
California.
14:37
Let's forget about it.
14:39
And that's what they're hoping will happen.
14:41
So it's up to everybody watching.
14:44
It's so easy.
14:45
All you need to do is go to
14:48
socialcompassionandlegislation.org four words, socialcompassionandlegislation
14:53
.org.
14:54
You sign up and you help.
14:56
And there's a whole bunch of bills.
14:58
We're gonna get to some of the others.
14:59
Again, this is an organisation that has been
15:01
so successful at passing bills for animals.
15:05
My little rescue's here.
15:06
We're gonna talk about her in a second.
15:08
But first, let's go to another call.
15:10
We got Michelle in Los Angeles.
15:12
Your question or thought for our panel.
15:15
Hi, well, I wanna say thank you so
15:17
much for all you do.
15:19
I was wondering what kind of pushback do
15:21
you get from actually getting these bills passed?
15:26
Well, it depends on which bill and it
15:33
attracts different types of opposition.
15:37
And depending on what bill we address next,
15:41
I can tell you what type of opposition.
15:43
For this octopus bill, we really have not
15:49
gotten any pushback.
15:51
It's been pretty supportive because we're not affecting
15:57
existing industry here.
16:00
So the pushback we get is when we're
16:04
trying to change a particular industry as with
16:10
our 4-H bill that has to do
16:14
with ag and our RVT bill that has
16:17
to do with the veterinary industry.
16:20
So it all depends on which bill and
16:24
what industry.
16:25
But again, the beauty of this particular bill
16:28
is that this farming hasn't taken hold yet
16:32
in California.
16:33
So we're not fighting an existing industry.
16:37
We're preventing one from ever getting its foot
16:42
in the door.
16:43
And hopefully this will stop any plans from
16:46
octopus farming in Spain and other regions and
16:50
shame on them for even thinking about that.
16:53
It's vile, it's disgusting.
16:55
And we just had an award-winning film
16:57
about octopus talking about their intelligence and their
17:02
sensitivity.
17:03
Of course, all animals are intelligent and sensitive,
17:05
but I wish you the very best.
17:07
I personally sign up to socialcompassionlegislation.org and
17:12
I actually have a lot of fun because
17:13
sometimes they say, call your legislators and I've
17:15
had really interesting conversations.
17:18
People sometimes think it's a waste of time.
17:20
It's not a waste of time.
17:22
People, they do, they say, I'll tell my
17:25
manager and it does go up the chain
17:28
because only people who really care bother to
17:30
call.
17:31
We've got, speaking of callers, another caller online,
17:34
Tiffany in Los Angeles, your question or thought
17:36
for social compassion and legislation.
17:39
Yes, thank you, Jane.
17:41
And thank you, Julian, Nick, for all that
17:44
you've done for the animals.
17:46
And I wanted to ask you, have you
17:47
noticed that more folks in the legislature are
17:52
more aware of the horrors of factory farming
17:55
and more willing to support stuff or is
17:58
it still the same battle it's always been?
18:02
Well, Big Ag has a death grip on
18:07
cattle.
18:08
California, so we are seeing a change for
18:14
legislators backing dogs and cats legislation but the
18:23
Ag community is very active and I can
18:30
give it to Nick to talk about some
18:33
latest opposition letter we got from many in
18:40
the Ag industry, go ahead, Nick.
18:43
Sure, I think to build off what Judy
18:46
was saying is the one issue with agriculture
18:50
bills moving through the legislature to protect animals
18:54
is that both Democrats and Republicans are in
18:57
agricultural districts.
19:00
And so while you see a lot of
19:02
separation on other issues between Democrats and Republicans
19:05
on animal protection, particularly for farmed animals, you
19:10
see actually Democrats and Republicans uniting against us.
19:16
So it's really tough to get any kind
19:19
of farm protections for animals through the state.
19:24
We just got a letter from the Agriculture
19:27
Teachers Association and the Western Fairs Association opposing
19:33
our bill that would have simply allowed 4
19:38
-H and FFA kids to save their animal
19:41
from slaughter, would not have stopped them from
19:46
sending to slaughter if that's what they chose
19:48
to do but was simply giving them an
19:49
opt out and it was strong opposition and
19:52
Big Ag unfortunately won that battle.
19:54
So that was just a recent example of
19:56
how difficult it is to get these kinds
19:58
of bills through Sacramento.
20:00
Well, I wanna talk a little bit about
20:03
another bill that you have.
20:05
And the reason I have my dog Wednesday
20:07
here is that Wednesday is an example and
20:11
the most adorable, sensitive, intelligent, funny, charming little
20:15
beauty you've ever seen, somebody tried to dump
20:19
her at a shelter and the shelter was
20:22
so full they said, just take her and
20:24
put her back where you found her.
20:26
And luckily, luckily there was a rescuer there
20:31
and she heard this and she said, I'll
20:33
take her.
20:34
And then she contacted me through the proper
20:39
channels of their nonprofit organisation and I adopted
20:43
her along with my other dog who I
20:45
will introduce to you later.
20:47
But to me, that said everything.
20:49
When the shelter system is saying, take this
20:51
beautiful animal, this young girl and just throw
20:54
her back where you found her, shame on
20:58
them.
20:58
I mean, she's living the life now, but
21:00
this little angel could have been out on
21:02
the street.
21:03
God only knows what would have happened to
21:05
her.
21:05
She could have been hit by a car.
21:07
She could have been sold for a laboratory
21:09
experimentation.
21:11
She could have been picked up by somebody
21:15
who was abusive.
21:17
We're California.
21:19
We are California.
21:21
This is an outrage.
21:23
And I know you have legislation regarding cats
21:26
and spay neuter, Judy, but you say that
21:30
it affects all animals.
21:32
So tell us a little bit about that
21:33
bill and what we can do to support
21:36
that bill.
21:37
Thank you.
21:40
So that bill is AB 2133.
21:45
Which would allow a registered veterinary technician to
21:50
perform a cat neuter.
21:52
So this is kind of an abstract thing
21:56
for some folks.
21:57
So let me just kind of bring it
21:59
home.
22:00
So in the state of California, the data
22:03
hasn't been out there and we're doing another
22:06
bill to make shelters have to report all
22:09
this data to our department of health.
22:11
But the numbers that we had at one
22:15
time that were solid were we were bringing
22:18
in over 900,000 animals and killing over
22:22
half.
22:23
And a big percentage of the animals that
22:27
were being euthanised in shelters are cats.
22:30
And cats proliferate.
22:34
They can have babies all year round.
22:39
Some states where it gets freezing cold in
22:44
the winter time, cats don't make it through
22:48
the winter there.
22:49
But with our weather conditions, outdoor cats can
22:55
proliferate year round and they do.
22:59
So what we need is we need more
23:03
spaying and neutering.
23:06
And there is a lack of veterinarians in
23:11
our state.
23:11
There's a lack of veterinarians across the United
23:15
States.
23:16
There's also what we have licenced here in
23:20
the state of California is registered veterinary technicians.
23:25
These RVTs are already allowed to do dental
23:31
extractions, dental cleaning on dogs and cats, which
23:37
is a much bigger procedure than a cat
23:42
neuter.
23:43
So what we thought to help, we had
23:46
a big stakeholders meeting of over 30 folks
23:50
that were in, that were vets, RVTs, rescue
23:55
community, everyone who is trying to help solve
24:00
this and touches this situation, this issue.
24:04
And by far it's, we need a greater
24:07
volume of spay and neuter.
24:09
So one of the places that we can
24:12
get this is to be able to allow
24:15
RVTs to do a cat neuter.
24:18
Why?
24:18
Because it's a simple procedure.
24:21
It doesn't take that long.
24:23
And this would increase the volume of overall
24:29
spay and neuter and alleviate at least this
24:34
piece like dental surgeries and extractions from the
24:39
veterinarian so they can do the more complicated
24:43
spay surgeries.
24:45
So it directly impacts the pet overpopulation because
24:51
cats overwhelmingly are being euthanised in so much
24:57
greater numbers than dogs.
24:59
And procreate so much greater than dogs as
25:04
well.
25:05
Now, let me just say a couple of
25:07
things about that.
25:08
Being here in California and experiencing, here's my
25:10
other rescue, Sunday.
25:12
And she was found running on the streets
25:14
in the rain in Arleta.
25:17
Neither one of the dogs that I've adopted
25:19
were spayed, neither had chips, neither had collars.
25:23
There were all sorts of efforts made to
25:25
find the human companion for Sunday here and
25:28
no success.
25:30
And so through an organisation, I adopted her.
25:33
And the idea that these animals are running
25:36
loose on the street, we all, many of
25:39
us have visited third world nations, nations where
25:41
there aren't as many resources, where animals are
25:43
running wild.
25:44
And we go, oh, isn't this terrible?
25:45
Dogs all over the street, cats all over
25:47
the street.
25:48
It's happening here in California.
25:50
It is an out of control problem and
25:54
a shame on California.
25:56
So I agree with you with the cats.
25:59
There's even like a diagram that shows one
26:02
cat unspayed can become thousands of cats within
26:06
a very short period of time.
26:08
And personally, I've contacted organisations like Stray Cat
26:13
Alliance.
26:14
We had a stray cat back here.
26:16
We did a trap, neuter and release.
26:17
And now she basically lives with a neighbour.
26:20
And you'll see the notch in her ear
26:23
that shows that she was neutered.
26:25
Why is it that it's so hard for
26:29
otherwise intelligent politicians to realise what any child
26:35
could figure out?
26:36
It's a lot cheaper to spay one animal
26:39
than to see that animal produce a thousand
26:42
stray animals and then kill all those animals.
26:46
I mean, it's just dumb not to do
26:49
spay neuter.
26:50
I just don't get why California doesn't take
26:54
care of this.
26:55
This shouldn't be a problem, Nick.
26:58
Yeah, while you're preaching to the choir, Jane,
27:01
it's difficult to get folks to spend money
27:04
on prevention.
27:06
It's always about plugging the holes after the
27:08
fact, which is why we've gotten to this
27:11
crisis that we're in.
27:14
So as Judy said, unfortunately, we're seeing pushback
27:17
from the Veterinary Association and the board that
27:24
regulates.
27:25
Wait, because they wanna make money doing the
27:27
spay neuters?
27:28
Why would they care?
27:29
I mean, you know, their intentions are, you
27:33
know, they claim that it's dangerous that only
27:37
veterinarians can do these procedures.
27:39
To Judy's point, RVPs are already doing dental
27:44
extractions.
27:45
They're already administering anaesthesia.
27:48
They're already allowed to make incisions to help
27:52
the vet.
27:52
They're allowed to sew things up.
27:55
So they can do the compartmental parts of
27:58
a cat neuter.
28:00
We just wanna say, hey, let's let them
28:02
do the entire thing together.
28:04
Now, our bill would require training and these
28:07
RVTs would have to be doing these procedures
28:10
under the direct supervision of their supervising veterinarian.
28:15
So if something were to go wrong, their
28:17
veterinarian is on premises to jump in immediately.
28:22
So we think that their fears are a
28:23
little overblown.
28:24
I see people commenting, that's right, Jane.
28:27
It's happening all over, spay neuter.
28:31
You know, no kill doesn't mean no kill.
28:35
All sorts of people, but every single person,
28:38
if you really wanna see that happen, please
28:41
sign up.
28:43
If you go, while you're watching, you could
28:46
just open a new window and go to
28:48
socialcompassionandlegislation.org, okay?
28:51
And it's very easy to sign up.
28:53
How easy is it to sign up so
28:55
that you get the alerts, which I get,
28:57
and I'm always filling them out.
28:59
It takes five seconds.
29:01
I send a letter to my representatives, both
29:04
the state legislature, the state assembly and the
29:07
state Senate.
29:08
And it's very easy.
29:09
How easy have you made it, Judy?
29:14
Judy?
29:15
Yes, very easy.
29:17
And I see that Michelle, who asked us
29:20
a question earlier, just signed up.
29:22
I get emails when people go to the
29:26
site and sign up.
29:27
So thank you, Michelle, and hoping to see
29:30
many more.
29:32
So what happens is when people go to
29:35
our website and sign up, they then pick
29:40
which bills they want to support.
29:43
Or there's a check box to support all
29:46
the bills.
29:47
And then two things happen.
29:50
One, when it's time for these bills to
29:55
move to the various committees, we generate the
30:00
support letters and their name goes on that,
30:04
and it gets uploaded to the state's portal.
30:08
And that's something that Nick does for us
30:10
as part of his lobbying job.
30:13
And it goes up to the portal.
30:16
And then that file of all those support
30:22
letters stays with the bill and we update
30:26
it as it goes.
30:28
So it becomes a part of the permanent
30:30
record for the bill.
30:32
And this matters a lot, because if you
30:37
only have 10 people in support of your
30:42
bill and 50 people in opposition, it's not
30:46
gonna look very good.
30:48
But when we have 1,300 supporters and
30:53
40 organisations in support, and there's two groups,
30:59
maybe an opposition, that is really important.
31:03
And it's something that the legislators and their
31:07
staff go straight to when that analysis comes
31:11
out for the bill, they go straight to
31:15
that support and opposition to see who's there.
31:18
So it's extremely important.
31:20
And I want your viewers to know that
31:23
we will never, ever share their information, copy
31:30
it, give it to anyone.
31:32
We don't do that.
31:34
That when they sign up at our site,
31:36
it is only used for the bills that
31:39
they select to support those bills during this
31:44
legislative session.
31:46
And then when next year starts and there's
31:48
new bills, we need people to sign up
31:51
all over again, because we don't keep those.
31:55
We then have a new set of bills
31:57
that people have to sign up for.
31:59
So if someone signed up two years ago,
32:03
that is not active right now.
32:06
We need them to sign up again, because
32:08
it's only pertinent to now this set of
32:13
bills this year.
32:14
So I hope that makes sense.
32:16
It's a little complicated, but it matters.
32:20
Heather Michael Lugmeyer says, done.
32:23
Yay, thank you, Heather.
32:25
And I say, if you really care, sign
32:28
up, because people spend so much time beating
32:30
their chest.
32:31
This is terrible, this octopus farming.
32:33
And the fact that there's all these stray
32:36
cats, well, take all that energy and just
32:37
go to socialcompassionandlegislation.org and just sign up.
32:42
That's a much better use of your energy
32:45
than just complaining generally about how terrible things
32:48
are.
32:49
Because these folks here are really expert in
32:53
getting these laws passed.
32:55
I wanna go to one of your big
32:57
success stories.
32:59
And that was an event that I attended
33:02
in 2018.
33:04
And here they are, the Cruelty-Free Cosmetics
33:08
Act.
33:09
Now you work with a bunch of other
33:10
groups, including PETA and Physicians Committee for Responsible
33:14
Medicine, but there was SCIL, Social Compassion and
33:17
Legislation, front and centre.
33:19
This was a major victory.
33:21
There's the movie star Alicia Silverstone, who was
33:24
there, a huge group of people that you
33:26
mobilised.
33:27
I came up there.
33:28
It was quite an event.
33:30
This gives you an example of what social
33:32
compassion and legislation does to pass these bills.
33:37
So tell us about that victory, Judy.
33:39
Well, that was a big one.
33:42
We started the process at the beginning of
33:47
the year back in 2018, 19, whatever year
33:52
it was.
33:53
And the first meeting we had in the
33:57
Senator's office, there was about 20 lobbyists in
34:01
the room all against the bill.
34:04
They were from every large corporation, multinational, international
34:11
in the world.
34:13
And they looked at us like, you gotta
34:16
be kidding.
34:17
And what the bill would do and does
34:21
is it prohibits any personal care product or
34:28
cosmetic being sold in California that has been
34:32
tested on animals.
34:34
So this was very widespread before this bill
34:39
that they still did this testing.
34:42
There's a lot of cruelty-free companies that
34:44
had stopped the testing, but there is still
34:48
plenty doing it.
34:49
So our proposal would say no more, no
34:53
more of these products being sold in California
34:56
that have been tested on animals.
34:58
So they treated us like we were stupid
35:02
kids or something, like, how dare you wanna
35:05
do this?
35:06
And long story short, in a year's time
35:10
with enormous public support and a lot of
35:15
hard work, we had 12 lobbyists working on
35:19
this bill.
35:20
We spent an enormous amount of money to
35:23
get it done.
35:24
We got it done.
35:26
It was signed by the governor and it
35:27
is law.
35:29
And it has been copied in 12 other
35:31
states and has even changed the way that
35:36
China does business with other countries in accepting
35:42
non-animal test to prove the safety of
35:48
personal care products and cosmetics.
35:51
Well, and you made an important point because
35:54
there were some compromises you had to do,
35:57
but you said, hey, either you want something
36:00
or we get nothing, but then it still
36:03
managed to achieve even what you were afraid
36:05
would be lost with the compromise.
36:07
Can you explain that?
36:09
Yeah, it was a bit of a, China
36:14
at the time was forcing companies to test
36:21
on animals.
36:22
So if you wanted to sell your product
36:25
in China, you had to show them these
36:31
animal tests that were done to prove the
36:37
safety.
36:38
And so that requirement, unless you opened up
36:43
a manufacturing firm in China, then you didn't
36:47
have to do it, which is a big
36:50
reason why American companies were actually opening up
36:54
in China because they made it easier to
36:58
do business with them if your company was
37:02
in China, which is not good for America,
37:05
obviously.
37:06
So then we said, okay, well, there was
37:11
gonna be this China exemption type thing and
37:16
that the companies would still need to do
37:19
this.
37:20
But we ended up at the end of
37:23
the day, writing the bill that it was
37:26
still safe and secure, but then China changed
37:30
the way they did business.
37:31
And Nick can go into a little more
37:33
detail on the minutiae.
37:36
I think that's important because sometimes people are
37:38
like, no, you can't pass this because it's
37:41
not 100% perfect.
37:42
Well, guess what?
37:43
Nothing is gonna be, it's a process, not
37:45
an event.
37:46
That's right.
37:47
And Nick, even though some people were like,
37:50
well, you shouldn't vote for this unless it's
37:53
100%.
37:54
Well, no, that's not how it works, but
37:56
it was a huge leap forward.
37:58
And then China came around somewhat eventually, right?
38:02
Yes.
38:03
Yeah, that's right.
38:03
And China still has more room to go,
38:06
but they have made significant progress in reducing
38:09
the requirement to test on animals.
38:11
And one thing I want everyone to know
38:12
that we wrote the bill so that if
38:16
a company was required to test by another
38:19
country, i.e. China, that when they came
38:23
to sell in California, they would have to
38:26
show the safety of the product using non
38:29
-animal testing methods.
38:31
So what that does is it sets up
38:33
an incentive to the cosmetic companies to test
38:37
without using animals because they're gonna have to
38:41
show that to sell in California.
38:44
So it wasn't perfect, but it has moved
38:48
China forward and it still had safeguards to
38:52
ensure that companies were incentivised not to use
38:55
animals.
38:55
And one of the other things that I
38:57
noticed was that all of a sudden, so
38:59
many companies started putting on their brands, oh,
39:03
we are cruelty-free because it became like
39:07
a selling point.
39:08
They saw how many people, including celebrities like
39:10
Alicia Silverstone, were wanting cruelty-free.
39:14
And all of a sudden it changed the
39:17
dynamic.
39:17
And so cosmetics companies are advertising more, we're
39:21
cruelty-free, we have the leaping bunny.
39:23
And by the way, don't take anybody's word
39:26
for it.
39:26
If it doesn't have something on the label
39:28
that says either the PETA's leaping bunny or
39:32
cruelty-free, not tested on animals, don't believe
39:36
any salesperson who says, oh, it's fine.
39:40
Because I've had a lot of people try
39:41
to hit me with that.
39:42
And I'm like, no, if it doesn't say
39:44
cruelty-free, I'm not buying it.
39:46
And that applies to beauty products.
39:48
That applies to cleaning products.
39:50
You wouldn't believe the horrible things they're testing
39:52
on animals.
39:53
Oven cleaner, all of this crap, for lack
39:56
of a better word.
39:57
And these are horrifically cruel experiments on beagles.
40:00
I have a beagle mix.
40:02
Imagine this little girl getting stuffed with a
40:06
detergent or some horrible hair dye or something
40:10
till she and half of the others in
40:12
the experiment die.
40:13
I mean, it's barbaric, it's mediaeval, it's gotta
40:16
stop.
40:17
And California is the one that's gonna stop
40:18
it.
40:21
We did.
40:22
And why I chose to start my group
40:28
in 2001 was I felt that I could
40:32
do the most to save animals by passing
40:36
legislation.
40:38
And at the time I was in animal
40:42
rescue, I was vegan, because obviously being vegan
40:46
is a hugely important part of saving animals.
40:50
But I wanted to do something that was
40:54
going to be big.
40:56
And with California having 40 million people as
41:02
we do now, and being the fourth or
41:06
fifth, depending on what day of the week
41:08
it is, largest economy in the world, I
41:14
knew that what I get done in California
41:18
is going to make a big difference.
41:20
Just in California alone, because it's so huge.
41:24
But as in the Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act,
41:30
when that bill gets copied in 12 other
41:34
states and then changes the way a foreign
41:39
government does business and what is acceptable to
41:43
them as far as non-animal tests, all
41:46
of a sudden we're saving animals exponentially.
41:51
I mean, the number, you can't even come
41:55
up with a number because it's so big
41:58
and just keeps going year after year after
42:01
year.
42:02
So what we do is just hugely important.
42:06
And I wanna thank Debbie.
42:08
She just signed up on the site.
42:10
So she's heard our message today.
42:13
Thank you, Debbie, for signing up.
42:15
And so on our website, we have our
42:19
how to help and sign up for support
42:23
and get our newsletter.
42:25
And it also shows all of our active
42:28
campaigns that we're doing right now, but it
42:31
also shows all of our past campaigns.
42:35
And why this is important is so that
42:38
other animal groups such as ours and other
42:42
states can actually use our work as a
42:47
model and go get that bill passed in
42:51
their state.
42:52
And that's how these 12 other states have
42:56
done the Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act because they
43:00
used our bill.
43:01
They went to their state legislature and they
43:04
got it done.
43:05
And the same with our other bill that
43:08
kicked puppy mills out of pet shops.
43:11
That one too has been copied in about
43:16
a dozen other states too.
43:19
And again, it goes from just saving these
43:22
animals in our border of the huge state
43:26
of California to exponential because of these other
43:31
states and other countries following suit.
43:34
So let's get back to this little one
43:36
who loves to come to restaurants with me
43:39
and sit in the outdoor patio along with
43:41
her sister.
43:42
This is Wednesday and her sister, her adoptive
43:44
sister, they're both rescues from different parts of
43:47
LA, is Sunday.
43:49
They can do that because of you.
43:52
You, social compassion legislation got the Dining with
43:55
Dogs Act passed.
43:57
I have to say, I'm very proud.
44:00
On my deathbed, I'll look back and say,
44:02
I was part of that Dining with Dogs
44:03
Act because it's brought me personally so much
44:05
pleasure and so many other people who were
44:08
forced to leave their animals home in the
44:10
past.
44:11
And it's been copied.
44:13
It was started here in California.
44:15
It's been copied in New York and other
44:16
places.
44:17
Tell us about that one, Judy, one of
44:20
my faves.
44:20
I mean, it was, you know, it happened
44:24
to you.
44:25
It happened to me that I was with.
44:28
I had just rescued two chihuahuas and we
44:33
went to a veggie grill one day and
44:36
sat outside in the patio with our dogs.
44:40
And then we went to another veggie grill
44:43
at a different location on another day.
44:45
And the man said, oh, you can't have
44:48
your dogs here.
44:49
And I said, but we just did this
44:52
like a couple of weeks ago at another
44:53
location.
44:54
And he said, no, it's, you know, health
44:57
and safety code that you can't have the
45:00
dogs in an outdoor patio.
45:02
And I said, well, that's a law that
45:04
needs to be changed.
45:06
And I went home that day and I
45:09
found the law, the exact law that stated
45:12
that, you know, an animal, companion animal could
45:16
not even be in the outside of a
45:19
restaurant and spoke to my lobbyist at the
45:22
time about what it would take to change
45:25
the law.
45:26
And one of the things that we had
45:28
to do first and foremost was to get
45:31
the restaurant association on our side.
45:34
And they knew it was kind of a
45:37
long time coming because people were breaking the
45:40
law all over the place which is what
45:42
you experienced in New York as well where
45:47
people were just doing it anyway.
45:49
And if I remember right, you know, even
45:53
using it to target maybe restaurants to call
45:57
the health inspectors to come to certain restaurants.
46:03
Yes, I want to jump in with that
46:06
anecdote.
46:07
Years ago, I was a very small investor
46:09
in a Real Food Daily and I went
46:12
to Real Food Daily on La Cienega which
46:15
is now under new ownership, but it's a
46:16
great restaurant.
46:17
It was always wonderful.
46:19
And I saw they had a B and
46:20
I personally knew the owners very well and
46:23
they're meticulous.
46:24
And I said, what?
46:25
And they said, you won't believe this Jane.
46:27
There was a dog, we have an outdoor
46:29
patio and there was a little dog who
46:31
just went through.
46:32
She was tied up outside and she took
46:34
it upon herself to go through the little
46:35
bars and sit on the inside, right on
46:37
the inside.
46:38
And a health inspector came and reported the
46:40
restaurant.
46:42
And I became enraged because I felt like
46:45
it was targeting vegan restaurants.
46:47
Because then you go other places, you see
46:49
some bar with everybody eating and there's dogs
46:52
all over the place.
46:53
And so I called you Judy and I
46:56
know you were in process of doing this.
46:58
And once it got done in California, we
47:03
also did it in New York state.
47:06
Tell us about that.
47:07
It would have never happened otherwise.
47:10
The day that you had me on your
47:14
HLN show, I was waiting at the studio
47:19
to go live with you.
47:21
And I got a text on my phone
47:24
from my lobbyist that Jerry Brown, Governor Jerry
47:28
Brown had just signed the bill.
47:30
And so when I came on live with
47:33
you, I said, breaking news, Governor Brown just
47:37
signed the bill and you were so excited.
47:39
And you said, okay, we have to do
47:41
it next in New York.
47:43
And I thought, well, okay.
47:47
And you got me to commit right then
47:50
and there to do it in New York,
47:52
which we had never done a bill in
47:54
New York.
47:56
And after that, I took a trip to
47:58
New York and I interviewed lobbyists there and
48:04
we hired lobbyists.
48:06
We raised the money to pay for them.
48:09
And Jane, I have to give it to
48:11
you because you led that grassroots effort and
48:15
Nick was still in New York before he
48:19
relocated to Sacramento.
48:22
And having you and Nick there got it
48:25
done because I stayed in California for the
48:30
rest of that session and was able to
48:33
go back and forth with the lobbyist over
48:35
the phone, but everything in person, you and
48:38
Nick took care of.
48:39
And I have to thank you.
48:41
And we got that bill passed and signed
48:43
into law in the state of New York
48:44
as well.
48:45
It was a huge thing, huge.
48:48
And quite a big effort because they weren't
48:51
so willingly coming along.
48:54
Media attention, like we often really struggle to
48:58
get media attention about really important issues like
49:00
this octopus bill, but because it captured the
49:03
public's imagination, they were doing all sorts of
49:05
sketches of dogs sitting at a table, dining,
49:09
and remember the massive amount of media that
49:12
this law got?
49:14
Oh yeah.
49:15
The Economist covered it, the New York Times.
49:19
I mean, it was in every publication and
49:22
it even went international.
49:25
So yes, it got a huge, and you
49:27
never know, with all the bills now 70
49:32
that we've done, it is really just a
49:36
hit and miss on what the press picks
49:38
up and runs with.
49:40
But I'm grateful for any and all the
49:43
attention that they get because it certainly helps
49:46
us to get the bills across the finish
49:50
line.
49:50
Let me jump in on the pet lover
49:51
licence plate because we only got a couple
49:53
of minutes.
49:53
This was one of your other major victories
49:55
and it's raised millions for Spay, Neuter.
49:58
Tell us.
49:59
Well, there's speciality licence plates in California.
50:05
There's a handful.
50:07
And what happens is when you get one
50:11
of these through the Department of Motor Vehicles,
50:14
so it's dmv.ca.gov and you renew
50:18
your licence, you can pick a speciality licence
50:21
plate.
50:22
So when you renew that licence or you
50:25
get it for the first time, $40, $40
50:29
of every plate on the road goes into
50:32
a fund and then that money gets granted
50:37
out.
50:37
There's a period where we open up the,
50:41
it's under the Department of California, Department of
50:44
Food and Ag, and they open up this
50:47
grant period where shelters and other Spay and
50:52
Neuter providers can fill out this grant to
50:56
get the money to perform these Spay and
50:59
Neuter surgeries for free or next to free.
51:03
And as of today, it's about $2 million
51:06
that have been granted out that would have
51:09
never been there, that would have never ever
51:11
came to be to support these communities.
51:17
So we need to sell a lot more
51:19
plates because I'll tell you, if we could
51:22
get everybody that's watching a Spay and Neuter
51:25
licence plate, it would help us solve this
51:28
pet overpopulation crisis.
51:30
So when it's time to get a new
51:32
plate or renew your plate, go to dmv
51:35
.ca.gov and select the Spay and Neuter,
51:40
the pet lovers licence plate, and you will
51:43
get this automatically that $40 goes towards Spay
51:48
and Neuter.
51:49
And I have it and it's a lot
51:51
of fun too.
51:52
I mean, it's a fun licence plate to
51:54
have, it's decorative.
51:55
Oh, wow.
51:56
Well, we've only got a minute or two,
51:58
what else?
51:59
You do so many bills and I have
52:03
a quick question.
52:04
Are you gonna bring back this bill, which
52:07
I thought was so important that would allow
52:09
kids who were involved in these 4-H
52:11
type clubs to have a change of heart
52:13
if they don't wanna send their animal to
52:14
slaughter and not be traumatised?
52:17
I mean, it seems like a no brainer.
52:19
I can't even believe that that didn't pass,
52:22
but are you gonna bring it back?
52:25
Absolutely.
52:26
I mean, this is one that may take
52:29
years to pass.
52:31
One of the problems with it is there's
52:34
not a constituency.
52:37
There's not like a whole bunch of people
52:40
behind it.
52:41
There's families that this happens to, and it
52:45
would be a safety net to help these
52:48
families to opt out of this terminal slaughter
52:52
of their 4-H or FFA animal.
52:56
So when Big Ag had their fit over
53:01
the bill, they won because they, oh, we
53:07
don't wanna change the way we're doing things.
53:10
People should know up front, this is the
53:12
way it's gonna go.
53:14
So this one is longer range that we
53:18
have to raise the awareness.
53:20
We have to build support, but eventually it'll
53:25
get done.
53:26
Like, I won't get into it, but the
53:28
blood bank bill, how we had to do
53:31
that for four years before it ever got
53:34
done to get more animal blood banks that
53:38
didn't hold greyhounds captive in our state, which
53:42
was another huge cruel industry and a monopoly.
53:48
And that took us four years to get
53:50
done.
53:50
So some of these things just take time.
53:54
They take an enormous amount of resources.
53:57
So I would ask that your folks sign
54:00
up on our website and please, if you
54:03
can donate any amount of money, please donate
54:06
as well.
54:07
All your money goes to save animals' lives.
54:11
Well, I have to say, and Josie says,
54:14
hope California will lead the world on compassionate
54:17
legislation.
54:18
Thanks to social compassion and legislation that is
54:21
happening.
54:22
Please, everybody, it's so easy.
54:24
Just go to socialcompassionandlegislation.org, become part of
54:28
the team, and we have a lot of
54:30
fun.
54:31
You will end up, if you live in
54:33
California, being asked, do you want to go
54:36
to Sacramento?
54:38
And we are out there lobbying and talking
54:42
to legislators, and then we have a great
54:43
plant-based meal at a restaurant.
54:45
It's a lot of fun.
54:46
It's really being part of a club of
54:49
animal lovers, and I've always had a great
54:52
time.
54:53
I want to say, while we're at it,
54:55
please download our streaming network.
54:58
We're the world's only animal welfare streaming network,
55:02
and we're almost all volunteer run.
55:06
It's so easy.
55:06
You can download it right on your phone
55:08
from the App Store.
55:10
Just put Unchained TV, so you can do
55:12
it on your TV, on your phone.
55:15
It's free.
55:15
I urge you to do it.
55:17
We are out of time.
55:18
I want to thank you so much, everybody.
55:20
Social compassion in legislation.
55:24
Thank you.
55:25
Be part of the solution.