News

Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Ruth Schneider, Eureka Times-Standard

A new California law aims to make it easier to offer forever homes to kittens. The bill is among the first signed into law by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“I was surprised to learn that shelters are required to hold kittens for three days before turning them over to qualified individuals for adoption,” Assemblyman Bill Quirk (D-Hayward), the author of AB 1565, said in a prepared statement. “These tiny animals require 24-hour care, and limitations at shelters mean that a lot kittens, are sadly, being unnecessarily euthanized.”

The new law limits the amount of time a kitten is required to be held before it can be adopted out.

Quirk said being a pet owner himself played a role in his authoring the legislation.

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Thursday, June 13, 2019

Kyung Mi Lee, Sacramento Bee

 

California’s stray kittens can be adopted more easily, thanks to a new law signed by the governor on Wednesday.

The law will allow people to adopt kittens under 8 weeks old at animal shelters, waiving a mandatory six-day waiting period that California had required for stray cats since 1998.

Advocates for stray cats worried that the holding period slowed the adoption process and decreased kittens’ chances of finding a home. Animals directly surrendered by their owners are eligible for immediate adoption or transfers for placement.

“Kittens need extra and attention and care. Finding them forever homes as quickly as possible should not be hindered by law,” said Assemblyman Bill Quirk, D-Hayward, who wrote Assembly Bill 1565.

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Thursday, May 9, 2019

Investigative Reporters Robert Cribb and Marco Chon Oved, The Star

Ticketmaster is the target of proposed legislation in California that would ban its scalper program for doing the same thing that bots do — help resellers buy and sell vast quantities of tickets and make it harder for fans to get in the door at face price.

TradeDesk, a service the world’s largest ticket seller quietly markets to its high-volume customers, was the subject of an undercover investigation by the Star and CBC at a Las Vegas scalping convention last year that revealed how it allows scalpers to link dozens or hundreds of Ticketmaster accounts to gather vast quantities of seats in breach of ticket purchasing limits.

A proposed California consumer protection law draws parallels between ticket-harvesting software, which is already illegal there, and Ticketmaster’s TradeDesk program.  (CBC)

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Thursday, March 28, 2019

Social Compassion for Legislation

SACRAMENTO –Today, AB 733 , authored by Assemblyman Bill Quirk, passed the Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials by a unanimous vote of 7-0. Co-sponsored by Social Compassion in Legislation and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, AB 733 would end the use of massive numbers of fish in hazardous waste tests.

For decades, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control has tested water by putting live fish in waste water. If the fish live, the water is safe. If the fish are killed from the waste water, it is deemed unsafe. Under this bill, the Department of Toxic Substances Control would be tasked with looking into viable alternatives to live-fish water testing, and, if able, putting those alternatives into action.

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Friday, March 1, 2019

Letters to the Editors: Former San Jose Councilman, Pierluigi Oliverio, The Mercury News

This bill will ban the cruel practice of cat declawing, which is similar to cutting off the first knuckle of a human finger.

Back in 2014, I hosted a community viewing of the documentary film “The Paw Project.” The veterinarian-filmmaker attended the city hall event, and participated in an audience discussion.

The film exposes the barbaric practice of declawing cats, and advocates for the termination of this unnecessary and harmful procedure. Declawing — which is much more aggressive than trimming fingernails and is similar to cutting off the first knuckle of a human finger — often leads to extreme anti-social and aggressive behavior in otherwise adoptable and companionable animals.

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Friday, March 1, 2019

Zack Ruskin, SFWeekly

A new permitting program aims to regulate pot purchases — but not consumption — at certain large-scale cultural festivities. Again: not consumption.

District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman readily admits that the development and implementation of cannabis regulations in San Francisco has been a bit of an adventure so far.

“We’re in a brave new world here,” Mandelman says. “We’re making new laws and figuring stuff out as we go along.”

The latest edict on Mandelman’s agenda is the matter of permitting local cannabis events. Thanks to the efforts of California Assemblyman Bill Quirk, then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 2020 into law last September.

In essence, the bill allows cities in California to define and issue permits for local events that involve the commercial sale of regulated cannabis as long as the permit-holder also has the necessary state license.

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Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Joan Morris, Bay Area News Group

A bill that would ban declawing of cats, a surgical procedure many consider cruel and unnecessary, has started its way through the California legislature.

Declawing has been banned in many parts of the world, and is illegal in San Francisco, Los Angeles and six other California cities.

“Declawed cats can suffer long-term physical complications as a result of declawing,” said  Assemblyman Bill Quirk (D-Hayward), who introduced the bill, AB 1230. “It’s not just a fancy manicure. It’s painful, unnecessary and needs to stop.”

When cats are declawed, the last joint on each toe is removed to prevent the claw from growing back. Many veterinarians have called the practice barbaric, causing unneeded pain and suffering, and leading to unexpected complications.

The most common reasons giving for declawing cats is to prevent them from tearing up the furniture or scratching their owners.

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