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PRESS RELEASE
RELEASE DATE: Immediately (August 20, 2007)
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Gene Baierschmidt
(801) 261-2919 - phone

VICK’S TRICKS MAKE YOU SICK? THAT’S WHY WE NEED HENRY’S BILL

While the entire nation reels in revulsion as the gruesome details of Michael Vick’s "Bad Newz Kennels" dogfighting operation come to light, the Humane Society of Utah once again calls on Utah’s legislators to make deliberate animal torture a third-degree felony on the first offense in our state.

"If what Vick allegedly did to the dogs he considered ‘inferior’ had happened in Utah, the worst penalty he could face would be that of a misdemeanor," says HSU Executive Director Gene Baierschmidt.. "We’re talking about hanging them, drowning them, shocking them to death with crude electric devices. These animals lived and died under the most grisly circumstances imaginable, and what was done to them should not be looked upon as only a minor offense."

Now Henry’s Bill is going to be heard in a special legislative session called by Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. this Wednesday, August 22., and the Humane Society is calling on the public to urge their senators and representatives to pass the bill, and also to insist that the law be in effect on the first offense. "Waiting for an animal torturer to be convicted a second time before he faces appropriate punishment is preposterous," says Mr. Baierschmidt. "When this thing is all over for Michael Vick, one way or the other, do you honestly think he’s ever going to run a dogfighting ring again? At the Humane Society of Utah, our files don’t contain any records of ‘serial’ animal torturers. Do you know what the next step for these sick people is, according to all the statistics? They move on to victimizing other people."

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