Well we're still in the Senate Ways & Means Committee
 
Spoke to Andrea at Rep. Jones office to find out any news.  Nothing new to
report.  They sent out the package of info I gave them to the Senators who
have received them.
 
Called Pat Riley at the MSPCA and she hasn't heard anything either.  We spoke
about the HSUS and CBS show.  Told her I'd send her a copy of the transcript.
She is going to get in touch with the local HSUS person here who is located
in Vermont.  She has heard of Rachael Ward.  She said she'd call me next week
on that.
 
Called the Senate Ways and Means Committee today and spoke to them regarding
the bills progress.  It is still in the Committee and as of yet no calendar
date has been set.  The aide I spoke to told me that it has been "assigned"
which means it is assigned to the legal staff who is comprised of about 5
lawyers.  They go over the bill and send letters out to the agencies that are
affected by the bill with questions that have to be answered by these
agencies.  They have 10 days to respond back to the panel of lawyers.  She
said that she can't "for sure" give me a date for this but it will be in the
near future that it will be acted upon.
 
I asked her what we should do to help with the bill.  She said that the more
interest that is generated by a particular bill the better the chance it has.
So my suggestion to all of us is to continue to contact the Senate Ways and
Means committee daily,  if we can to voice our opinions.  Maybe this will
get the message thru. I have been calling three times a week when I can.
Will try to move it up to 5 times a week.
 
If anyone wants a copy of the Senate Ways and Means Committee with phone
numbers to call and the address to write to,  please E-mail me directly with
your request and I will send it out to you.  Also, if you do not know who
your local Mass State Senator is, E-mail me the town you reside in along with
the county name if you have that although it is not important just is easier
to find.  I'll be glad to look it up for you and E-mail it back.
 
I attended a meeting of the New England Assoc. of Pet Sitters last night.
There were 28 members there in attendance.  This is a group of which I am a
member of.  Got to speak to them regarding the ferret bill and handed out a
lot of information for them to read.  Actually, I kind of lucked out and got
a lot longer time to speak to them than originally was given.  The speaker
unfortunately had a minor accident which kept him from attending the meeting
he is okay.  I had no problem filling in any time for them with the ferret
issues.  Also, they had a lot of questions which I answered for them
Everyone in the group seemed very positive on this and many nodded in
agreement when I said that since we're all pet sitters here, we must have
clients who own ferrets.  Hats off to them and their help in passing along
our message!
[Posted in FML issue 1221]