IDAHO: Has left animals defenseless

Dear Anti-Animal Abuse Advocates:

It might surprise you to know, if you’ve not already heard, that there is no longer an Idaho 1 of 3 – because, you see, we have become Idaho 1 of 1!

We do, however, have the phony felony penalty for animal abuse. The amended animal cruelty law that supposedly plugged all of the soft spots in the old law has missed the mark by a mile. Under the old law, people were sometimes prosecuted, but the new and current law took care of all of that. Now, no one is prosecuted.

We are at a time and place where we can give feedback to those who quickly wrote and passed the new law. Be aware that the entire Senate voted for the current fake law. The Ag Committee Chairman at the time was Steve Vick; and it was Governor Butch Otter who signed the worthless document into law against the will of 38,000 amendment signatories and hundreds of e-mails.

I am therefore advocating that we either vote against any of the people running for re-election in the Senate and, in particular, Governor Otter.

If any of the politicians are running unopposed, then simply enter a write-in candidate or, if they are opposed, then vote for the opposition so that unopposed, they will retake the office with a very low margin of votes, which is a clear indicator that they will lose to an opponent next time.

In the case of Governor Otter, his indifference to the will of the voters, and the fact that he has entered into an agreement with the Obamacare debacle, shows we would be better off without him and so would the abused animals of our state.

We have the distinct stigma of being the only state in the Union with an “almost” animal protection law.

I spoke with the prosecutors’ offices of a couple of the districts that had very serious animal abuse issues, and I assure you, NOTHING was done that might have had any serious impact on the offenders that was of any consequence.

This is a reminder that we need to do what we can to protect Idaho’s animals, and the voting booth is the best place to raise our voices.

TONY MANGAN

Spirit Lake