Help Us Help Them

We continue to be committed to, and working towards the

implementation of a first offense felony option when prosecuting

animal abusers without reducing or compromising

our current animal cruelty laws.

Help Us Represent Them. Help Us Help Them.

"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."

-- Immanual Kant

Latest News...

04/28/08 Henry's Law did not pass!

On Saturday April 26th, Rhonda Kamper and Dan Dew spoke at The Confronting Cruelty Conference about the legislatures failure to pass Henry's Law and the obvious problems with the new law. They were joined by Gregory Castle of Best Friends Animal Sanctuary who spoke about pet overpopulation and the humane solutions to this crisis. We want to thank the organizers for inviting us to speak and network at this important community event.

04/03/08 Utah's new animal cruelty law punishes the animal

and not the act. Sorry Crookneck see more but it is only a misdemeanor in Utah to shoot a horse 50 times to die a slow, agonizing death but to steal a horse in Utah is a felony. Helpushelpthem as well as Bluffdale resident Jody Tuff are disappointed in the Utah legislatures to pass a narrow minded animal cruelty statute that only protects domestic cats and dogs. Bluffdale Planning Commissioner MJ Jackson sides with Tuft. "There are many animals out there being abused, but [state law] doesn't cover anything past cats and dogs. It misses chickens, goats, pigs, llamas, horses - all the big ones," Read more here.

03/31/08 Rhonda Kamper and Dan Dew will be speaking

at The Confronting Cruelty Conference held at the SLC public library on April 25th to the 27th. They will be speaking about the continued fight to increase Utah's animal cruelty laws and the failure to pass Henry's Law. The public is encouraged to attend this free and informational seminar about helping animals in our community.

[3/26/08] Pre-Trial For The Person Who Threw Away The Litter Of Puppies In Riverdale.
Michael Howard's pre-trial is Monday March 31st at 2pm on the 3rd Floor Northwest With Judge Dutson. The address is: Second District Court 2525 Grant Avenue Ogden, UT 84401. We are encouraging the public to attend wearing your Henry's Law t-shirt.

03/25/08 Dog killer Gary Griffiths is found dead at his home.

03/11/08 Warrant issued for puppy killer Michael Ray Howard

after he failed to appear in court Monday to face charges of killing 13 puppies.

Read story here.

[3/4/08] Today SB 297 passed the House and will now be signed into law.

Read story in the Salt Lake Tribune. We are now the 44th state to have a third degree felony on the first offense for torturing a domestic dog or cat. See story on ABC 4 We wanted to thank everyone for their hard work and support. We will still continue to work hard at educating the public on animal cruelty and how they can help amend the law in a few years to help protect more animals.

03/03/08 On Friday, SB 297 had its second reading and will most likely pass

in the House soon. We have asked representatives to remove the word "domestic" in SB 297 to include protection for all feral cats and stray dogs. The definition of domestic is "tame and living with or used by people". Please make one more effort to contact your representative and ask that amend to remove the word "domestic" from line 110 (c) "Companion animal" means an animal that is a domestic dog or a domestic cat. The removal of this one word would protect ALL dogs and cats.

HB 470 also passed in the House on Friday and now moves to the Senate. See votes here. (link) Representative Allen amended her own bill to add the word "domestic" therefore weakening it and removing protection for thousands of animals. The previous bill was already approved by The Farm Bureau and the Utah Humane Society.

[3/3/2008] Pre-Trial For The Person Who Threw Away The Litter Of Puppies

In Riverdale. Michael Howard's pre-trial is Monday March 10th at 3pm on the 3rd Floor Northwest with Judge Dutson. The address is: Second District Court 2525 Grant Avenue Ogden, UT 84401. We are encouraging the public to attend wearing your Henry's Law t-shirt

[02/28/08] Yesterday SB 297 passed through the Senate.

You can see the votes here It will now go to the House where it will most likely pass due to the compromised endorsement of the Utah Humane Society. Please contact your House representative and ask them to make a motion to amend this bill to include ALL animals. According to the Humane Society of the United States Fact Sheet 31 states have a first offense felony options that include all animals. Only Alabama, Kentucky and Virginia have felonies that specify cats and dogs. Four other states Hawaii, Minnesota, New York and Tennessee have felonies for defined pets or companion animals. With this unfortunate compromise Utah will still in the bottom rung of animal protection laws. All animals deserve to be protected from torture, abuse and cruelty. We will continue to work to amend the law and represent the voiceless. Thank you for your continued support and letters of encouragement.

[02/26/08] We OPPOSE SB 297 and HB 470!!!

Senator Christensen's bill SB 117 is dead and replaced by SB 297 which was passed through the Senate Health and Human Services on Monday. You can read more here and here. Representative Allen's newly amended bill HB 470 also passed through the House Judiciary Committee on Friday. News video here. We oppose both bills for the following reasons:

*Both SB 297 and HB 470 only protects animals defined as "companion animals" an animal that is a dog or cat. SB102 (Henry’s Bill) protects animals as defined "animal" means a live, nonhuman, vertebrate creature. We believe all animals deserve to be protected from torture. Why would we accept a lesser punishment for the same crime because the animal was born the wrong species.

*Last year 18 of the 29 Senators voted in favor of SB 102 as well as 54 of the 75 House Representatives. We had the votes to pass last year so why should we compromise this year.

*The public has strongly supported the passing Henry's Law. Last year 74% of Utahans polled agreed with a first offense felony for animal torture. (not just for cats and dogs) We have gathered over 10,000 signatures of support since September of last year. We represent these constituents by standing strong to see the best possible law is passed which punishes the act and not the animal.

*Senator Gene Davis's bill has been pass through many committees, scrutinized, amended and reworked over the past few years to be the best possible law for animal protection. We trust this bill and would rather see no bill passed this year then a compromised, weaker version. If given a chance we will continue to work with Davis towards seeing Henry's Law passed next year.

We ask for your support to represent all animals and not just dogs and cats. We will only accept a bill which protects any animal that depends on humans for care, food, water and shelter. Please contact your Senator and Representative and tell them that you want to see Henry's Law passed next year and to oppose all compromise bills SB 297 and HB 470! Together we can be a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves.

[02/21/08] Henry will be back to Utah Valley State College on Wednesday the 27th from 9:00am to 3:00pm at the Sorenson Center. We have had overwhelming support from the students and faculty there. We look forward to educating new students and gathering more signatures for Utah County lawmakers. The public is invited to meet Henry and to sign the petition.

[02/21/08] HelpUsHelpThem and Henry will be back at the Petco in Harrisville, North Ogden on Saturday the 23rd, from 12:00pm to 4:00pm. We are pleased to have Precious the only surviving puppy of the 14 puppies that were discovered in a garbage bag in a Riverdale dumpster to join us. We appreciate the passionate support that we have received from the residents there. We also want to thank Petco for having us and inviting us back.

[02/20/08] Henry and HelpUsHelpThem spent the day at the Union Building at University of Utah campus. We gathered a few hundred more petition signatures for Henry's Law. The students and faculty are supportive of seeing Henry's Law passed and eager to join the fight. We have been invited back Thursday, February 28th from 9:00am to 2:00 at the Union Building. Volunteers are encouraged to join us.