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NRA Members' Councils of California

Sportsmen's and Animal Owners' Voting Alliance
Working to identify and elect supportive legislators
Post Office Box 111
Madison, Virginia 22727
540-543-2312

May 8, 2007

Mark Leno, Chair

Assembly Appropriations Committee
State Capitol, Room 2114
Sacramento, California 95814

ATTN: Chuck Nicol, Committee Consultant FAX (916) 319-2181

Re: CA AB 1634, "CA Healthy Pets Act" as amended April 30, OPPOSE

Dear Chairman Leno and Committee Members:

The Sportsmen's and Animal Owners' Voting Alliance (SAOVA) is a nationwide group of farmers, ranchers, sportsmen and animal owners dedicated to an outdoor way of life with animals. More than fifteen hundred (1500) of our members hunt, fish and own livestock, dogs, cats and other pets in the state of California.

We oppose AB 1634, as amended yet again, and request inclusion in the listed opposition for the Bill Analysis in your committee. These comments focus on hunting dogs and their owners. The revised AB 1634 language prohibits ownership or possession of any dog over 4 months of age that has not been sterilized. Assemblyman Levine and AB 1634’s supporters have failed to establish any legitimate nexus between this bill and animal shelter euthanasia levels.

More germane from this committee’s perspective, AB1634 would cost Californians $ millions and provide little in return. This bill is financial drain on every taxpayer. Not only will 536 jurisdictions in the state incurred very significant costs in establishing and maintaining the regulatory dog licensing system imposed by the bill, California sportsmen and hunters will be uniquely burdened. The number of hunting sportsmen that own dogs far exceeds the percentage owned by the population generally. None of AB1634’s castration/spay exemptions apply to the average hunting dog owner. This bill selectively injures a major California economic interest.

2001 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation

California*

Hunters 274000

Anglers 2.4 million

Total Expenditures $3.1 billion

Total Jobs 52000

Salaries and Wages $1.55 billion

State Tax Revenue $274 million

Ripple Effect of the State Economy $5.96 billion

Sportsmen support more jobs in California than the University of California, Los Angeles (52,062 jobs vs. 50,000).

Sportsmen in California pay $273.9 million in state sales, fuel and income taxes – this could pay 5,911 teachers’ salaries.

Annual spending by California sportsmen is greater than the cash receipts from the state’s grape crop ($3.1 billion vs. $2.65 billion).

California sportsmen could fill the stadiums of the San Diego Chargers, the Oakland Raiders, and the San Francisco 49ers more than 12 times (2.6 million vs. 203,876).

California sportsmen annually spend more than the box office totals of the five highest grossing movies of all time ($3.1 billion vs. $2.32 billion).

*U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau. http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/fhw01-ca.pdf Comparisons provided by the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation http://www.sportsmenslink.org/

We respectfully ask that AB 1634 be not reported (defeated).

Sincerely,

Robert J. Kane, President

Sportsmen's and Animal Owners' Voting Alliance