UnchainedTV: Passing Laws to Save Animals!

0:00 We have breaking news to tell you about. Unfortunately, there is a war on the octopus. This beautiful, sensitive, intelligent sea creature who belongs in the wild, in the ocean, is now the target of people who, motivated by greed, want to create octopus farms. And there's a move to create octopus farms in Spain and other locations. What does that have to do with California? Well, California is the fifth largest economy in the nation, bigger than many, many other countries, about to become the fourth largest economy.

0:42 So if California says hell no to octopus farming, then maybe these little guys, or big guys, have a chance. And so there is an incredible organisation that is working to stop the farming of octopus, the abuse of octopus, with the OCTO Act. But they need your help. They can't do it alone. I am talking about Social Compassion and Legislation, a high-powered organisation run by Judy Mancuso. You see her there, centre stage. She is always at the Capitol in Sacramento with large groups of caring Californians fighting to ban cruelty across the board.

1:25 And she is a force of nature in Sacramento, and she's here with us today. Judy Mancuso, it is an honour. Tell us about your efforts to pass the OCTO Act and save the octopus. Well, Jane, as you know, factory farming is cruel, and there is enough of it already. And there are attempts right now, pilot programmes in other countries, to begin factory farming octopus. And so proactively, because we know that, you know, once this gets established, they'll be coming to California to start this cruel factory farming.

2:14 So this bill proactively will prohibit these farms in California. And that is super important. Nick Sackett, you are the legislative director. They often say what happens in California spreads to the rest of the nation and then the rest of the world. So tell us about the ripple effect of this OCTO Act if it passes. Unmute yourself. Thank you, Jane. Sorry about that. A rookie mistake. Yeah, as you said, as California goes, so goes the nation. To be fair, we also have to give credit to our neighbours to the north in Washington, who actually just passed this same exact policy.

2:58 And so we're hoping to get it in California. We imagine that Oregon will be next and possibly other coastal states after that. Yeah, so this is breaking news. And why it's important, Nick, is that you can't do it alone. You need people to go to social compassion legislation. And this organisation is really the organisation that goes there and gets sponsors and does the in the weeds difficult work of being on Capitol Hill, Sacramento Capitol Hill, the state legislature, talking to these state assembly members and these state senators. And they will do it if enough people write them letters.

3:42 Is this not true? That's right. We're seeing a lot of support for this bill. So far, assembly members have been very receptive to the policy. We've gotten both Republican and Democratic votes on the bill thus far, but we need continued support from everybody out there to make sure that their representatives hear from them. Well, this is just a no brainer. My God, what have we become as a society where we're fighting the factory farming, the concentrated animal feeding operations that imprison cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and lambs. They're not content with that.

4:22 Now they wanna start imprisoning octopus. I mean, it's truly upsetting. And it seems like despite the environmental consequences of all of these concentrated animal prisons essentially, the powers that be don't get it. They don't get that it's killing not just these animals, but it's killing our environment. Well, that's why it's so important to do this preemptive strike on it. Because obviously when you look at where we are with cows and pigs and all the other farm animals, with billions being killed a year, this is something that we get to prevent from happening before it gets started in our state.

5:18 And people wanna just stop CAFOs, these high volume farms from existing, which is a big hill to climb. So once the agriculture gets started to undo it, unwind the clock is next to impossible. But the fact that we can prevent it from ever getting started, that's real progress. And what I have to say is that everybody needs to join in if this bothers you, just write this down.

5:59 You have to write down the website you need to go to and you have to write down the act that you wanna sign. And where you need to go is Social Compassion and Legislation. And you're gonna see in just a second, grab your pen, check it out, socialcompassionandlegislation.org. You can sign up there. You get a newsletter that tells you about all the various crises involving animals. And what's really good about it is you don't have to do any heavy lifting. It's all done for you. All you have to do is click a button and it sends a letter to all sorts of legislators.

6:44 So the key is for you to sign up, go to socialcompassionandlegislation.org and sign up. And I just wanna say, I've worked with Judy Mancuso and Nick Sackett and all these folks for a long time. Unchained TV, which is the world's only vegan streaming television network right there behind me, has gone to the Sacramento Capitol and really covered a lot of these events. And so we have a video and photos of them in action which I will show you because Judy gets around. She will talk about how she passed the pet lover's licence plate before in a second.

7:27 But there she is holding news conferences in front of the Sacramento Capitol building, gathering with large groups of people that she mobilises from all over the state. And they have, at this point, sponsored more than 60 pieces of legislation and 25 of them have been signed into law, which is an incredible track record. Judy, what is your secret sauce? How is it that you're able to do all this? Well, and actually as of this year, we are at 70 pieces of legislation. Well, the secret is hard work, but it's also longevity and getting a reputation at the Capitol that we are a group to trust and work with.

8:18 So I founded the group and Jane, you were there at the founding in 2007. And so for 17 years, we have been doing legislation at the state Capitol and even in the state of New York, thanks to you. And so it's hard work, it's integrity, keeping your word. It's also having a presence that when these legislators work with you, they know that you have a lot of support behind you. We had a fundraising event at the end of last year and one of the assembly members said, and this was the biggest compliment we could ever get.

9:07 She said that when there's the analysis on, an animal bill, she looks to see who is supporting the legislation and who's opposed. And based on where our name shows up, that's the way that she votes because she knows that she can align with us and that we're on the right side of the animals every time. All right, we've got callers lining up. Nilo Farr in Dallas, Texas. Your question or thought for our incredible panel from Social Compassion and Legislation. Hi, if it's not enough to torture and kill trillions, trillions of individuals on the land and in the ocean, what has spurred an interest in octopus exploitation?

10:01 Did it start in Spain? Nick, you wanna handle that backstory? Sure, well, unfortunately, demand for octopus is rising around the world. And so this company in Spain saw that as an opportunity to make money if they could figure out how to farm them. They are trying their darndest to do so. Our hope is that they never figure it out and that these animals never have to suffer at the hands of factory farming. But in the event that they do, we're here to pass a bill in California that prevents it.

10:41 And I also wanna add that the bill bans the sale of farmed octopus in California. So even if the octopus are being farmed in Spain, they won't be able to sell it into California. And that's super important because as I mentioned, California is the fifth largest economy in the entire world. So if you're blocked from being in California, that already puts your product at a disadvantage. And that's something, of course, that came up recently with Prop 12. The California voters have overwhelmingly passed two major propositions to help animals.

11:21 Prop 2, which went into effect in 2015, it said farmed animals have to have the ability to turn around and move. And Prop 12, which expanded that and talked about pig gestation crates. One of the problems, Judy, is that none of it has resulted in any prosecutions. So there are critics who say it's not being enforced. What are your thoughts on that, Judy? Well, my thought is that enforcement is lacking across the board with anything and everything that has to do with animals. And it's something that we have been discussing for quite some time and would like to look into, are looking into some ways to resolve that.

12:10 But my point that I make is we can't enforce it if it's not on the books. So for our group, it's hard enough to get these laws passed. Sometimes they take multiple years to get passed. So our effort is to get them into law and then do our best to see that the enforcement is made. And we do, we work with local jurisdictions and individuals and at the state level. But again, with this particular bill being preemptive, that we won't have to worry about enforcement because it will prohibit these factory farms from ever getting started.

13:02 So it really is such a winner. So once again, if you're watching, you can help. They can't do it alone. It really boils down to the number of letters and calls they get. These politicians need to be able to have cover. They need to have cover. And so if they get thousands of emails, they can feel confident that they're not risking their political futures by standing up for this bill. So you can help pass AB3162, the OCTO Act. This is breaking news. California can preemptively stop octopus farms from happening across the world by basically making it unprofitable.

13:49 I mean, essentially, California, the fifth largest economy of the world, about to become the fourth largest. If you can't sell here, and that applies also to the pig gestation crate issue, where Prop 12 says, you can't sell in California pig products, which is pork and ham, et cetera, that comes from pigs who were kept in crates the size of their bodies, never able to turn around, basically coffins for living beings. But that is a question of enforcement. In this case, in the octopus case, if they pass the OCTO Act and it prevents these octopus farms from even opening because they decide, well, we're not gonna be able to make a lot of money.

14:30 We won't be able to get into California. California is really big. Now we've got other states as well copying California. Let's forget about it. And that's what they're hoping will happen. So it's up to everybody watching. It's so easy. All you need to do is go to socialcompassionandlegislation.org four words, socialcompassionandlegislation .org. You sign up and you help. And there's a whole bunch of bills. We're gonna get to some of the others. Again, this is an organisation that has been so successful at passing bills for animals. My little rescue's here. We're gonna talk about her in a second. But first, let's go to another call.

15:10 We got Michelle in Los Angeles. Your question or thought for our panel. Hi, well, I wanna say thank you so much for all you do. I was wondering what kind of pushback do you get from actually getting these bills passed? Well, it depends on which bill and it attracts different types of opposition. And depending on what bill we address next, I can tell you what type of opposition. For this octopus bill, we really have not gotten any pushback.

15:51 It's been pretty supportive because we're not affecting existing industry here. So the pushback we get is when we're trying to change a particular industry as with our 4-H bill that has to do with ag and our RVT bill that has to do with the veterinary industry. So it all depends on which bill and what industry. But again, the beauty of this particular bill is that this farming hasn't taken hold yet in California.

16:33 So we're not fighting an existing industry. We're preventing one from ever getting its foot in the door. And hopefully this will stop any plans from octopus farming in Spain and other regions and shame on them for even thinking about that. It's vile, it's disgusting. And we just had an award-winning film about octopus talking about their intelligence and their sensitivity. Of course, all animals are intelligent and sensitive, but I wish you the very best. I personally sign up to socialcompassionlegislation.org and I actually have a lot of fun because sometimes they say, call your legislators and I've had really interesting conversations.

17:18 People sometimes think it's a waste of time. It's not a waste of time. People, they do, they say, I'll tell my manager and it does go up the chain because only people who really care bother to call. We've got, speaking of callers, another caller online, Tiffany in Los Angeles, your question or thought for social compassion and legislation. Yes, thank you, Jane. And thank you, Julian, Nick, for all that you've done for the animals. And I wanted to ask you, have you noticed that more folks in the legislature are more aware of the horrors of factory farming and more willing to support stuff or is it still the same battle it's always been?

18:02 Well, Big Ag has a death grip on cattle. California, so we are seeing a change for legislators backing dogs and cats legislation but the Ag community is very active and I can give it to Nick to talk about some latest opposition letter we got from many in the Ag industry, go ahead, Nick.

18:43 Sure, I think to build off what Judy was saying is the one issue with agriculture bills moving through the legislature to protect animals is that both Democrats and Republicans are in agricultural districts. And so while you see a lot of separation on other issues between Democrats and Republicans on animal protection, particularly for farmed animals, you see actually Democrats and Republicans uniting against us. So it's really tough to get any kind of farm protections for animals through the state.

19:24 We just got a letter from the Agriculture Teachers Association and the Western Fairs Association opposing our bill that would have simply allowed 4 -H and FFA kids to save their animal from slaughter, would not have stopped them from sending to slaughter if that's what they chose to do but was simply giving them an opt out and it was strong opposition and Big Ag unfortunately won that battle. So that was just a recent example of how difficult it is to get these kinds of bills through Sacramento. Well, I wanna talk a little bit about another bill that you have.

20:05 And the reason I have my dog Wednesday here is that Wednesday is an example and the most adorable, sensitive, intelligent, funny, charming little beauty you've ever seen, somebody tried to dump her at a shelter and the shelter was so full they said, just take her and put her back where you found her. And luckily, luckily there was a rescuer there and she heard this and she said, I'll take her. And then she contacted me through the proper channels of their nonprofit organisation and I adopted her along with my other dog who I will introduce to you later.

20:47 But to me, that said everything. When the shelter system is saying, take this beautiful animal, this young girl and just throw her back where you found her, shame on them. I mean, she's living the life now, but this little angel could have been out on the street. God only knows what would have happened to her. She could have been hit by a car. She could have been sold for a laboratory experimentation. She could have been picked up by somebody who was abusive. We're California. We are California. This is an outrage. And I know you have legislation regarding cats and spay neuter, Judy, but you say that it affects all animals.

21:32 So tell us a little bit about that bill and what we can do to support that bill. Thank you. So that bill is AB 2133. Which would allow a registered veterinary technician to perform a cat neuter. So this is kind of an abstract thing for some folks. So let me just kind of bring it home. So in the state of California, the data hasn't been out there and we're doing another bill to make shelters have to report all this data to our department of health. But the numbers that we had at one time that were solid were we were bringing in over 900,000 animals and killing over half.

22:23 And a big percentage of the animals that were being euthanised in shelters are cats. And cats proliferate. They can have babies all year round. Some states where it gets freezing cold in the winter time, cats don't make it through the winter there. But with our weather conditions, outdoor cats can proliferate year round and they do. So what we need is we need more spaying and neutering.

23:06 And there is a lack of veterinarians in our state. There's a lack of veterinarians across the United States. There's also what we have licenced here in the state of California is registered veterinary technicians. These RVTs are already allowed to do dental extractions, dental cleaning on dogs and cats, which is a much bigger procedure than a cat neuter. So what we thought to help, we had a big stakeholders meeting of over 30 folks that were in, that were vets, RVTs, rescue community, everyone who is trying to help solve this and touches this situation, this issue.

24:04 And by far it's, we need a greater volume of spay and neuter. So one of the places that we can get this is to be able to allow RVTs to do a cat neuter. Why? Because it's a simple procedure. It doesn't take that long. And this would increase the volume of overall spay and neuter and alleviate at least this piece like dental surgeries and extractions from the veterinarian so they can do the more complicated spay surgeries.

24:45 So it directly impacts the pet overpopulation because cats overwhelmingly are being euthanised in so much greater numbers than dogs. And procreate so much greater than dogs as well. Now, let me just say a couple of things about that. Being here in California and experiencing, here's my other rescue, Sunday. And she was found running on the streets in the rain in Arleta. Neither one of the dogs that I've adopted were spayed, neither had chips, neither had collars. There were all sorts of efforts made to find the human companion for Sunday here and no success.

25:30 And so through an organisation, I adopted her. And the idea that these animals are running loose on the street, we all, many of us have visited third world nations, nations where there aren't as many resources, where animals are running wild. And we go, oh, isn't this terrible? Dogs all over the street, cats all over the street. It's happening here in California. It is an out of control problem and a shame on California. So I agree with you with the cats. There's even like a diagram that shows one cat unspayed can become thousands of cats within a very short period of time. And personally, I've contacted organisations like Stray Cat Alliance.

26:14 We had a stray cat back here. We did a trap, neuter and release. And now she basically lives with a neighbour. And you'll see the notch in her ear that shows that she was neutered. Why is it that it's so hard for otherwise intelligent politicians to realise what any child could figure out? It's a lot cheaper to spay one animal than to see that animal produce a thousand stray animals and then kill all those animals. I mean, it's just dumb not to do spay neuter. I just don't get why California doesn't take care of this.

26:55 This shouldn't be a problem, Nick. Yeah, while you're preaching to the choir, Jane, it's difficult to get folks to spend money on prevention. It's always about plugging the holes after the fact, which is why we've gotten to this crisis that we're in. So as Judy said, unfortunately, we're seeing pushback from the Veterinary Association and the board that regulates. Wait, because they wanna make money doing the spay neuters? Why would they care? I mean, you know, their intentions are, you know, they claim that it's dangerous that only veterinarians can do these procedures.

27:39 To Judy's point, RVPs are already doing dental extractions. They're already administering anaesthesia. They're already allowed to make incisions to help the vet. They're allowed to sew things up. So they can do the compartmental parts of a cat neuter. We just wanna say, hey, let's let them do the entire thing together. Now, our bill would require training and these RVTs would have to be doing these procedures under the direct supervision of their supervising veterinarian. So if something were to go wrong, their veterinarian is on premises to jump in immediately.

28:22 So we think that their fears are a little overblown. I see people commenting, that's right, Jane. It's happening all over, spay neuter. You know, no kill doesn't mean no kill. All sorts of people, but every single person, if you really wanna see that happen, please sign up. If you go, while you're watching, you could just open a new window and go to socialcompassionandlegislation.org, okay? And it's very easy to sign up. How easy is it to sign up so that you get the alerts, which I get, and I'm always filling them out. It takes five seconds. I send a letter to my representatives, both the state legislature, the state assembly and the state Senate.

29:08 And it's very easy. How easy have you made it, Judy? Judy? Yes, very easy. And I see that Michelle, who asked us a question earlier, just signed up. I get emails when people go to the site and sign up. So thank you, Michelle, and hoping to see many more. So what happens is when people go to our website and sign up, they then pick which bills they want to support. Or there's a check box to support all the bills. And then two things happen.

29:50 One, when it's time for these bills to move to the various committees, we generate the support letters and their name goes on that, and it gets uploaded to the state's portal. And that's something that Nick does for us as part of his lobbying job. And it goes up to the portal. And then that file of all those support letters stays with the bill and we update it as it goes. So it becomes a part of the permanent record for the bill.

30:32 And this matters a lot, because if you only have 10 people in support of your bill and 50 people in opposition, it's not gonna look very good. But when we have 1,300 supporters and 40 organisations in support, and there's two groups, maybe an opposition, that is really important. And it's something that the legislators and their staff go straight to when that analysis comes out for the bill, they go straight to that support and opposition to see who's there.

31:18 So it's extremely important. And I want your viewers to know that we will never, ever share their information, copy it, give it to anyone. We don't do that. That when they sign up at our site, it is only used for the bills that they select to support those bills during this legislative session. And then when next year starts and there's new bills, we need people to sign up all over again, because we don't keep those. We then have a new set of bills that people have to sign up for.

31:59 So if someone signed up two years ago, that is not active right now. We need them to sign up again, because it's only pertinent to now this set of bills this year. So I hope that makes sense. It's a little complicated, but it matters. Heather Michael Lugmeyer says, done. Yay, thank you, Heather. And I say, if you really care, sign up, because people spend so much time beating their chest. This is terrible, this octopus farming. And the fact that there's all these stray cats, well, take all that energy and just go to socialcompassionandlegislation.org and just sign up.

32:42 That's a much better use of your energy than just complaining generally about how terrible things are. Because these folks here are really expert in getting these laws passed. I wanna go to one of your big success stories. And that was an event that I attended in 2018. And here they are, the Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act. Now you work with a bunch of other groups, including PETA and Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, but there was SCIL, Social Compassion and Legislation, front and centre. This was a major victory. There's the movie star Alicia Silverstone, who was there, a huge group of people that you mobilised.

33:27 I came up there. It was quite an event. This gives you an example of what social compassion and legislation does to pass these bills. So tell us about that victory, Judy. Well, that was a big one. We started the process at the beginning of the year back in 2018, 19, whatever year it was. And the first meeting we had in the Senator's office, there was about 20 lobbyists in the room all against the bill. They were from every large corporation, multinational, international in the world.

34:13 And they looked at us like, you gotta be kidding. And what the bill would do and does is it prohibits any personal care product or cosmetic being sold in California that has been tested on animals. So this was very widespread before this bill that they still did this testing. There's a lot of cruelty-free companies that had stopped the testing, but there is still plenty doing it. So our proposal would say no more, no more of these products being sold in California that have been tested on animals.

34:58 So they treated us like we were stupid kids or something, like, how dare you wanna do this? And long story short, in a year's time with enormous public support and a lot of hard work, we had 12 lobbyists working on this bill. We spent an enormous amount of money to get it done. We got it done. It was signed by the governor and it is law. And it has been copied in 12 other states and has even changed the way that China does business with other countries in accepting non-animal test to prove the safety of personal care products and cosmetics.

35:51 Well, and you made an important point because there were some compromises you had to do, but you said, hey, either you want something or we get nothing, but then it still managed to achieve even what you were afraid would be lost with the compromise. Can you explain that? Yeah, it was a bit of a, China at the time was forcing companies to test on animals. So if you wanted to sell your product in China, you had to show them these animal tests that were done to prove the safety.

36:38 And so that requirement, unless you opened up a manufacturing firm in China, then you didn't have to do it, which is a big reason why American companies were actually opening up in China because they made it easier to do business with them if your company was in China, which is not good for America, obviously. So then we said, okay, well, there was gonna be this China exemption type thing and that the companies would still need to do this.

37:20 But we ended up at the end of the day, writing the bill that it was still safe and secure, but then China changed the way they did business. And Nick can go into a little more detail on the minutiae. I think that's important because sometimes people are like, no, you can't pass this because it's not 100% perfect. Well, guess what? Nothing is gonna be, it's a process, not an event. That's right. And Nick, even though some people were like, well, you shouldn't vote for this unless it's 100%. Well, no, that's not how it works, but it was a huge leap forward. And then China came around somewhat eventually, right?

38:02 Yes. Yeah, that's right. And China still has more room to go, but they have made significant progress in reducing the requirement to test on animals. And one thing I want everyone to know that we wrote the bill so that if a company was required to test by another country, i.e. China, that when they came to sell in California, they would have to show the safety of the product using non -animal testing methods. So what that does is it sets up an incentive to the cosmetic companies to test without using animals because they're gonna have to show that to sell in California.

38:44 So it wasn't perfect, but it has moved China forward and it still had safeguards to ensure that companies were incentivised not to use animals. And one of the other things that I noticed was that all of a sudden, so many companies started putting on their brands, oh, we are cruelty-free because it became like a selling point. They saw how many people, including celebrities like Alicia Silverstone, were wanting cruelty-free. And all of a sudden it changed the dynamic. And so cosmetics companies are advertising more, we're cruelty-free, we have the leaping bunny. And by the way, don't take anybody's word for it.

39:26 If it doesn't have something on the label that says either the PETA's leaping bunny or cruelty-free, not tested on animals, don't believe any salesperson who says, oh, it's fine. Because I've had a lot of people try to hit me with that. And I'm like, no, if it doesn't say cruelty-free, I'm not buying it. And that applies to beauty products. That applies to cleaning products. You wouldn't believe the horrible things they're testing on animals. Oven cleaner, all of this crap, for lack of a better word. And these are horrifically cruel experiments on beagles. I have a beagle mix. Imagine this little girl getting stuffed with a detergent or some horrible hair dye or something till she and half of the others in the experiment die.

40:13 I mean, it's barbaric, it's mediaeval, it's gotta stop. And California is the one that's gonna stop it. We did. And why I chose to start my group in 2001 was I felt that I could do the most to save animals by passing legislation. And at the time I was in animal rescue, I was vegan, because obviously being vegan is a hugely important part of saving animals. But I wanted to do something that was going to be big.

40:56 And with California having 40 million people as we do now, and being the fourth or fifth, depending on what day of the week it is, largest economy in the world, I knew that what I get done in California is going to make a big difference. Just in California alone, because it's so huge. But as in the Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act, when that bill gets copied in 12 other states and then changes the way a foreign government does business and what is acceptable to them as far as non-animal tests, all of a sudden we're saving animals exponentially.

41:51 I mean, the number, you can't even come up with a number because it's so big and just keeps going year after year after year. So what we do is just hugely important. And I wanna thank Debbie. She just signed up on the site. So she's heard our message today. Thank you, Debbie, for signing up. And so on our website, we have our how to help and sign up for support and get our newsletter. And it also shows all of our active campaigns that we're doing right now, but it also shows all of our past campaigns.

42:35 And why this is important is so that other animal groups such as ours and other states can actually use our work as a model and go get that bill passed in their state. And that's how these 12 other states have done the Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act because they used our bill. They went to their state legislature and they got it done. And the same with our other bill that kicked puppy mills out of pet shops. That one too has been copied in about a dozen other states too.

43:19 And again, it goes from just saving these animals in our border of the huge state of California to exponential because of these other states and other countries following suit. So let's get back to this little one who loves to come to restaurants with me and sit in the outdoor patio along with her sister. This is Wednesday and her sister, her adoptive sister, they're both rescues from different parts of LA, is Sunday. They can do that because of you. You, social compassion legislation got the Dining with Dogs Act passed. I have to say, I'm very proud.

44:00 On my deathbed, I'll look back and say, I was part of that Dining with Dogs Act because it's brought me personally so much pleasure and so many other people who were forced to leave their animals home in the past. And it's been copied. It was started here in California. It's been copied in New York and other places. Tell us about that one, Judy, one of my faves. I mean, it was, you know, it happened to you. It happened to me that I was with. I had just rescued two chihuahuas and we went to a veggie grill one day and sat outside in the patio with our dogs.

44:40 And then we went to another veggie grill at a different location on another day. And the man said, oh, you can't have your dogs here. And I said, but we just did this like a couple of weeks ago at another location. And he said, no, it's, you know, health and safety code that you can't have the dogs in an outdoor patio. And I said, well, that's a law that needs to be changed. And I went home that day and I found the law, the exact law that stated that, you know, an animal, companion animal could not even be in the outside of a restaurant and spoke to my lobbyist at the time about what it would take to change the law.

45:26 And one of the things that we had to do first and foremost was to get the restaurant association on our side. And they knew it was kind of a long time coming because people were breaking the law all over the place which is what you experienced in New York as well where people were just doing it anyway. And if I remember right, you know, even using it to target maybe restaurants to call the health inspectors to come to certain restaurants. Yes, I want to jump in with that anecdote.

46:07 Years ago, I was a very small investor in a Real Food Daily and I went to Real Food Daily on La Cienega which is now under new ownership, but it's a great restaurant. It was always wonderful. And I saw they had a B and I personally knew the owners very well and they're meticulous. And I said, what? And they said, you won't believe this Jane. There was a dog, we have an outdoor patio and there was a little dog who just went through. She was tied up outside and she took it upon herself to go through the little bars and sit on the inside, right on the inside. And a health inspector came and reported the restaurant. And I became enraged because I felt like it was targeting vegan restaurants. Because then you go other places, you see some bar with everybody eating and there's dogs all over the place.

46:53 And so I called you Judy and I know you were in process of doing this. And once it got done in California, we also did it in New York state. Tell us about that. It would have never happened otherwise. The day that you had me on your HLN show, I was waiting at the studio to go live with you. And I got a text on my phone from my lobbyist that Jerry Brown, Governor Jerry Brown had just signed the bill. And so when I came on live with you, I said, breaking news, Governor Brown just signed the bill and you were so excited.

47:39 And you said, okay, we have to do it next in New York. And I thought, well, okay. And you got me to commit right then and there to do it in New York, which we had never done a bill in New York. And after that, I took a trip to New York and I interviewed lobbyists there and we hired lobbyists. We raised the money to pay for them. And Jane, I have to give it to you because you led that grassroots effort and Nick was still in New York before he relocated to Sacramento.

48:22 And having you and Nick there got it done because I stayed in California for the rest of that session and was able to go back and forth with the lobbyist over the phone, but everything in person, you and Nick took care of. And I have to thank you. And we got that bill passed and signed into law in the state of New York as well. It was a huge thing, huge. And quite a big effort because they weren't so willingly coming along. Media attention, like we often really struggle to get media attention about really important issues like this octopus bill, but because it captured the public's imagination, they were doing all sorts of sketches of dogs sitting at a table, dining, and remember the massive amount of media that this law got?

49:14 Oh yeah. The Economist covered it, the New York Times. I mean, it was in every publication and it even went international. So yes, it got a huge, and you never know, with all the bills now 70 that we've done, it is really just a hit and miss on what the press picks up and runs with. But I'm grateful for any and all the attention that they get because it certainly helps us to get the bills across the finish line. Let me jump in on the pet lover licence plate because we only got a couple of minutes. This was one of your other major victories and it's raised millions for Spay, Neuter.

49:58 Tell us. Well, there's speciality licence plates in California. There's a handful. And what happens is when you get one of these through the Department of Motor Vehicles, so it's dmv.ca.gov and you renew your licence, you can pick a speciality licence plate. So when you renew that licence or you get it for the first time, $40, $40 of every plate on the road goes into a fund and then that money gets granted out. There's a period where we open up the, it's under the Department of California, Department of Food and Ag, and they open up this grant period where shelters and other Spay and Neuter providers can fill out this grant to get the money to perform these Spay and Neuter surgeries for free or next to free.

51:03 And as of today, it's about $2 million that have been granted out that would have never been there, that would have never ever came to be to support these communities. So we need to sell a lot more plates because I'll tell you, if we could get everybody that's watching a Spay and Neuter licence plate, it would help us solve this pet overpopulation crisis. So when it's time to get a new plate or renew your plate, go to dmv .ca.gov and select the Spay and Neuter, the pet lovers licence plate, and you will get this automatically that $40 goes towards Spay and Neuter.

51:49 And I have it and it's a lot of fun too. I mean, it's a fun licence plate to have, it's decorative. Oh, wow. Well, we've only got a minute or two, what else? You do so many bills and I have a quick question. Are you gonna bring back this bill, which I thought was so important that would allow kids who were involved in these 4-H type clubs to have a change of heart if they don't wanna send their animal to slaughter and not be traumatised? I mean, it seems like a no brainer. I can't even believe that that didn't pass, but are you gonna bring it back? Absolutely. I mean, this is one that may take years to pass.

52:31 One of the problems with it is there's not a constituency. There's not like a whole bunch of people behind it. There's families that this happens to, and it would be a safety net to help these families to opt out of this terminal slaughter of their 4-H or FFA animal. So when Big Ag had their fit over the bill, they won because they, oh, we don't wanna change the way we're doing things. People should know up front, this is the way it's gonna go.

53:14 So this one is longer range that we have to raise the awareness. We have to build support, but eventually it'll get done. Like, I won't get into it, but the blood bank bill, how we had to do that for four years before it ever got done to get more animal blood banks that didn't hold greyhounds captive in our state, which was another huge cruel industry and a monopoly. And that took us four years to get done. So some of these things just take time. They take an enormous amount of resources.

53:57 So I would ask that your folks sign up on our website and please, if you can donate any amount of money, please donate as well. All your money goes to save animals' lives. Well, I have to say, and Josie says, hope California will lead the world on compassionate legislation. Thanks to social compassion and legislation that is happening. Please, everybody, it's so easy. Just go to socialcompassionandlegislation.org, become part of the team, and we have a lot of fun. You will end up, if you live in California, being asked, do you want to go to Sacramento?

54:38 And we are out there lobbying and talking to legislators, and then we have a great plant-based meal at a restaurant. It's a lot of fun. It's really being part of a club of animal lovers, and I've always had a great time. I want to say, while we're at it, please download our streaming network. We're the world's only animal welfare streaming network, and we're almost all volunteer run. It's so easy. You can download it right on your phone from the App Store. Just put Unchained TV, so you can do it on your TV, on your phone. It's free. I urge you to do it. We are out of time. I want to thank you so much, everybody.

55:20 Social compassion in legislation. Thank you. Be part of the solution.