The "There Oughta be a Law" Contest

(This info was taken from the HSUS):

Have you ever thought “there oughta be a law” to protect animals? Well, now is your chance to make your idea reality! I'd like to invite you to participate in the Humane Society Legislative Fund's "There Oughta Be a Law" contest to help protect animals. Submit your idea today for a new federal bill to help animals!

A blue-ribbon panel of experts will select the winning idea based on its merit and viability for passage into a new federal law, and the winner will then be announced at the next Party Animals -- our nationwide, house party event -- on October 25. Join the party and you will be the first to know the winner! Let us know if you're interested in hosting a party.

The winner will receive a trip to Washington, DC, to meet with me and the rest of the HSLF staff, and to lobby federal lawmakers to gain support for their winning idea.

The contest ends at midnight EDT on October 5, 2009. Submit your idea for a new federal bill today!

Thanks for all you do for animals!

Sincerely,

Mike Markarian
President
Humane Society Legislative Fund

Have an idea? Submit it!

Michael Vick and the Humane Society of the United States

Funny, everywhere you look lately it's "Should Michael Vick be allowed to play for the NFL again?" Seriously?!? You commit atrocious acts causing the direct suffering of numerous living beings, but we're going to make a celebrity out of you and pay you millions of dollars? Right. The obvious answer is HECK no. However, I have mixed feelings about the fact that the Humane Society of the United States is using this opportunity to use Michael Vick as a spokesman against animal cruelty and dog fighting. On the one hand, I see how young inner city boys may totally ignore a rich-looking white guy in a suit telling them dog fighting is wrong, yet listen carefully if a young football star tells them. I see how a lot of good could potentially come of the situation, if he can indeed influence a generation of young kids not to participate in this horrible act. However, how in the world can Vick be trusted? How can an organization who exists to eliminate animal cruelty put a dogfighter front and center to convey a very important message, when he himself doesn't believe it? I mean, give me a break, he's no more reformed than Jeffery Dahmer. So, what happens when he's not filming a HSUS commercial, or taping a PSA, and he's just roaming the hood, laughing histerically about his post as an HSUS spokesman and how he's fooled us all? What happens once he's past his prime and the NFL ends his contract and once again he fades into nothingness, a thing of the past, and takes up dogfighting again? I have serious doubts about this decision. What do you think? Weigh in at the poll at right.