How to Introduce Legislation
Banning Greyhound Racing in Your State!

If you agree with STGD! and would like to see an end to the suffering caused by greyhound racing, we suggest you read the following guide entitled, "How to Introduce Legislation Banning Greyhound Racing in Your State".  We found it a successful tool when working with the Vermont legislation.  Our bill 5.152 was signed into law in mid-1995, closing the door on greyhound racing in Vermont.  We hope you will find this guide useful.

1. BE INSPIRED! . . . BE DRIVEN!

2. Draw up a well-written, strong, short petition.  Allow room for signature, name (printed), address (street, town, zip code).  Display petition for signatures in veterinarian's offices, business, schools, stores, etc.

3. Contact your local and regional media with a press release explaining your petition campaign.  Determine a phone number to use for the press release. Use your name . . . give a quote!

4. Collect signed petitions.  Do not let them remain uncollected for more than one week.  Supply clipboards and attached pens.

5. Contact the managers of your local malls, marketplaces, supermarkets, etc. for permission to have petitions signed while walking about.  Consider setting up a table.  Appearance is very important. . . work in teams of 2-3 people.  Be sincere, honest, knowledgeable, non-threatening.  Have hand-out materials with you . . make sure the articles you have with you are from
credible sources. . . HSUS articles are very effective, because everyone knows them.

6. As soon as you collect the petitions, make sure photocopies are made. Place the originals in a safe spot.  Don't carry originals around with you at this early stage.

7. Call the statehouse (sergeant-at-arms, legislative council) and ask for the legislative directory.  This contains legislators' names, addresses, and phone numbers and will give you ready access to them.

8. Find a legislator who displays qualities of social responsibility,
kindness, and a high level of morality.

9. Make a preliminary phone call to introduce yourself and tell him/her of your basic plan.  Ask them if they would sponsor your bill and support your efforts.  They will need to find a co-sponsor and a bill writer.

10. Display your knowledge of the massacres, suffering, and economic downtrends in the racing industry and other states who have banned the "industry".  Emphasize the respectability your state will gain from following the lead of these states.

11. At your first face-to-face meeting with your legislator, be sure to
act professionally.  Have your clipboard filled with signed petitions with you.  Let them know that those signing are their constituents. . . they are the folks who sent them to the statehouse!

12. Be emphatic!  Make sure they know this endeavor must happen.

13. Call the statehouse and speak to the sergeant-at-arms or a member of the legislative council, and ask for the booklet listing every legislator and their committees.

14. Find out from the Speaker of the House to what committee your bill might be assigned - ours was assigned to the General Affairs Committee...and we found this was a better one than the Agricultural Committee.

15. About lobbying. . .in Vermont, you are allowed in the statehouse to mingle and talk to legislators as a citizen of your state.  (Lobbyists must be registered and are paid).  You are a concerned citizen, not a lobbyist).

16. The two sides of any legislature act differently and are separate.
 Find out how each operates, and their speakers/pro tem.

17. Learn your way around the statehouse. . . find out what's down every corridor, where the phones are, where the cafeteria is.  Have lunch there...have your face become familiar.  Wear ribbons...we'll supply them.

18. Ask for help from groups:  animal welfare organizations, Gambler's Anonymous (related group), women's and men's groups, university groups, student groups...have them launch letter-writing campaigns.  Find citizens to give testimony saying that they want greyhound racing ended or not supported. YOU WILL NEED THE HELP OF EVERYONE ONCE THIS GOES TO COMMITTEE.

19. Find out who your friends and enemies (the greyhound industry!) are.

20. Start a letter-writing campaign to all your legislators.  Your agenda is not gambling.  Your agenda is to stop the suffering of helpless and defenseless animals.  Bingo, lotteries, and even slot machines are ways to add income to your state's coffers.  What Scotti told her legislators was lottery tickets, slot machines, and bingo cards do not cry out in pain, bleed and die.

21. Call your governor and lieutenant governor asking for support for this moral issue.  Be sure to remind them of the famous statement about how we treat animals being a reflection of how we treat each other.

22. Have an answering machine that has a professional greeting recorded. Return all calls!

23. Prepare a letter to be sent (Scotti will expand on this one).  Prepare a powerful informational package to present to legislators on your committee, the governor and lieutenant governor.

24. Find out where legislator's mailboxes are, and how you go about putting mail in them.  You'll need permission.

25. Get to know the sergeant-in-arms, the doorguards, the people in the mailrooms.

26. Wear ribbons (like our "Wake Up America"), and have lots of extras with you to give out.

27. Sit in on committee meetings.

28. Write letters to newspapers supporting your bill, and give concrete reasons why the bill should be supported.

29. Ask for a meeting with your lieutenant governor, and ask for his/her support.

30. Be at your statehouse often, familiarize yourself with the faces and names of all legislators.  Dress professional, be knowledgeable, firm but not obnoxious.  Make sure your information is current.  Do not chew gum.

31. You will be asked questions...know the answers!  ("What about lost revenues?" "Lost jobs?"  War is good for the economy.  Ask them "Should we have a war to create jobs?")

32. In closing, be confident, and know in your heart you are respected for what you are trying to do.  People country-wide are finally learning about the abusive treatment racing greyhounds receive.  Remind them that their state can look itself in the mirror with great pride, once it has taken the necessary steps to ban this obscene industry.

BE DETERMINED!

PLEASE NOTE:
To read about our past legislative efforts please go to our News & News Archive page. Also, go to the photo archives (located at the bottom of News & News Archive) to view the signing of the Gator Bill (s.152).