How legislative wrangling gave rise to rumors and dissension among animal activists
by David Madison
The same passion and excitement that motivates animal activists to organize is also what could drive them apart, just as it did two years ago in Nashville, with Vicky Crosetti at the center of the controversy.
During the legislative session of 1998, Crosetti, executive director of the Humane Society of the Tennessee Valley, helped back a group called the Political Animals Committee of Tennessee and hired a lobbyist to push for amendments to the animal welfare laws.
Specifically, Crosetti says her group wanted to clarify the language in Tennessee law that allows humane societies to take ownership of stray pets. That's why her political action committee fought for the amendments in Senate Bill 2347.
But according to veteran animal activist Laura Turner, who works mostly in Franklin and Nashville, SB 2347 did little to clarify matters and instead triggered a wave of infighting between animal groups. Turner remembers sitting in a legislative committee room where Crosetti's lobbyist pushed for allowing the release of sheltered animals to medical research facilities.
"It was her lobbyist that stated it," says Turner. "I was there. I heard it. My mouth dropped open. It was her lobbyist, bought and paid for."
Crosetti says that it was actually Sen. Doug Henry from Nashville backing the release of sheltered animals to medical research facilities. Currently, state law allows each county to decide whether or not sheltered animals can be used in various types of research. In Nashville, says the Humane Society of the United States, animals from the county shelter have become test subjects. The HSUS is opposed to such testing, and it came out in force against SB 2347.
Other animal welfare groups lined up against the bill, which would have also relaxed requirements for vaccinating against rabies. A memo from the Tennessee Department of Health warned that SB 2347 was backed by "a group of private citizens running a lucrative business of collecting animal shelter dogs to sell to east coast research facilities and who wish to escape the expense and record trail of rabies vaccinations."
Written by the Health Department's Gary Swinger, copies of this letter have circulated among Crosetti's critics, who say the HSTV's deal with the New York-based Northshore Animal League fits the profile of being a "lucrative business of collecting animal shelter dogs." Based in Long Island, Northshore is a large puppy adoption agency that has become so successful it must import pets from out of state. However, the operation has been criticized for not spaying and neutering all the pets it adopts out.
Crosetti describes Northshore as a godsend. Thanks to a contract she worked out with the League, the HSTV no longer euthanizes young pups. Instead, new litters are either adopted locally or taken by truck to Northshore.
Swinger's Health Department memo did not specifically mention Northshore, or which "group of private citizens running a lucrative business of collecting animal shelter dogs" was backing SB 2347. Sen. Henry represents Nashville, a city once notorious for sending sheltered animals away to research facilities. But instead of pointing a finger at Sen. Henry, opponents of SB 2347 continue to zero in on Crosetti and her connection to Northshore.
HSTV Board President Siegel describes those making this connection as "misguided people." It's true that the Society, through Crosetti's political action committee, helped push SB 2347, but that doesn't mean HSTV supports using sheltered animals in medical research. The attorney explains the apparent confusion over SB 2347 by insisting, "Strange things happen in Nashville."
Judy Ladebauche says she thought it was strange to see Crosetti's Political Animals Committee of Tennessee stand out as the lone backer behind SB 2347.
Ladebauche, who was Crosetti's successor in Williamson County before recently moving on to direct the Metro Shelter in Nashville, says she's watched as Crosetti has tried to distance herself from SB 2347.
"She tells a different story about that day," says Ladebauche, recalling how Crosetti's lobbyist pushed SB 2347 through committee. "All across the state calls came in opposing that bill."
At the time, Ladebauche and fellow activist Laura Turner were busy pushing for another bill that would have strengthened Tennessee's animal cruelty law, when suddenly they were distracted by the fight against SB 2347.
"It [SB 2347] set off lightning," recalls Turner. "The cruelty bill fell to the wayside and we had to drop everything to deal with this bill."
When the 1998 session closed, says Turner, none of the pro-animal welfare legislation passed, including a bill mandating the surgical sterilization of all animals adopted from Tennessee shelters. Crosetti and the HSTV were two of this bills' primary backers.
Since the '98 legislative session, little has happened on the animal welfare front. Lawmakers were not impressed by the infighting among activists over SB 2347, says Turner, so some animal groups chose to sit out the '99 session.
Bill Nolan, the man Crosetti hired to lobby for SB 2347, probably remembers '98 as the year of the dog. During the session that year, some lawmakers reportedly greeted the lobbyist with a friendly bark.
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