Our current work centers around the Heart Ordinance passed by the Albuquerque City Council in May and signed by the mayor. If this ordinance isn't brought to a vote, it will become law on August 22. A petition drive to force a public vote to rescind the Albuquerque HEART ordinance is underway. The HEART Referendum Petition is available here.

If the petition to bring HEART to a vote is successful, implementation of HEART would be suspended and the HEART ordinance would be subject to a public referendum within 90 days of filing the petition. The referendum would give the public the opportunity to overturn action by the City Council and the Mayor.

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More Information About HEART:

Many provisions in HEART are so absurd it is inconceivable that any city councilor who has ever owned a pet could vote in favor of such a law. But, it happened - it passed on a 6 to 3 vote and was signed by the mayor. The ordinance’s author, Sally Mayer, reports that it took 3 years to prepare the HEART ordinance. The ordinance has such obvious flaws that one has to question what went wrong. For example, under HEART everyone who owns a cat or dog in Albuquerque will at some time violate its animal cruelty provisions.

HEART trivializes animal cruelty, making the concept of cruelty meaningless through provisions such as these:

-Withholding water for any reason is ANIMAL CRUELTY (including a tipped over water bowl, veterinarian instructions, or crating overnight).

-Walking a dog on a lead that exceeds 8 feet is ANIMAL CRUELTY.

-Animal crates for temporary use in homes will have to exceed commercial standards for kennels. A crate for a 66 pound dog to sleep in at night will require 24 square feet of floor space and must be at least 3 feet high; anything smaller is ANIMAL CRUELTY.

-ANIMAL CRUELTY includes PSYCHOLOGICAL pain (which is undefined).

-HEART specifies bird perch diameters. Not meeting the diameter requirement is ANIMAL CRUELTY.

-Failure to report running over an animal as small as a snake is ANIMAL CRUELTY.

-Any one with a charge of Animal Cruelty in their record cannot adopt from most public shelters.

-A charge of Animal Cruelty can prevent people from getting security clearances for their job.

- Any charge of Animal Cruelty will also prevent the person so charged from being able to participate in AKC authorized dog shows.

HEART will require mandatory spay/neuter of all existing intact dogs and cats over six months old unless a $150 permit is obtained for EACH intact dog or cat (maximum of four permits). All puppies and kittens, unless permitted, must be spayed or neutered by 6 months of age. However, the mayor can declare a moratorium at any time for intact animal permits, in which case intact animals could be seized and spay or neutered by the city.

HEART repeals numerous sections of Albuquerque's current animal control ordinance and adds new sections. Inexplicably, HEART repeals provisions for Off Leash Dog Areas (Dog Parks) and the Animal Welfare Board -- no provisions for either have been incorporated in HEART. Under HEART, letting a dog run loose at a Dog Park will be ANIMAL CRUELTY.

-Albuquerque Residents are NOT HUMANE AND COMPASSIONATE toward animals, but COMMIT UNFETTERED, CALLOUS ACTS that cause pain and suffering to animals.

-STRICT LAWS WILL INCREASE COMPASSION toward animals, so the GOVERNMENT must exercise complete control over dog and cat populations

- Albuquerque’s current laws treat animals as LIFELESS chattel property

- Laws AGAINST CHAINING will help to ELIMINATE DOGS ROAMING at large because CHAINED ANIMALS are more likely to RUN AWAY

- Animal control has NO CHOICE BUT TO EUTHANIZE DOGS at the shelter

- Albuquerque has an OVERWHELMING SUPPLY of animals that exceeds demand

- Crowding at the animal shelter (referred to as overpopulation) ENDANGERS HUMANS

- GOVERNMENT must identify and track every dog and cat, as well as its owner

- Except as permitted by the GOVERNMENT, every dog and cat must have its reproductive capacity eliminated

- GOVERNMENT must establish arbitrary, generalized standards of animal care that IGNORE INDIVIDUAL NEEDS

- ANIMAL CRUELTY MUST BE REDEFINED TO INCLUDE TRIVIAL ACTS such as walking a dog on a leash longer than 8 feet

- ANIMAL CRUELTY when trivialized to leash length and bird perches, is ASSOCIATED WITH DOMESTIC ABUSE, CHILD ABUSE, AND ELDER ABUSE

- Dog and cat permit fees that could exceed $600 PER YEAR FOR A HOUSEHOLD are in the public interest and DO NOT OVERLY BURDEN responsible owners

Every one of the ideas from HEART, as listed above, is blatantly false. City government failed to act responsibly. A public referendum is the only remaining alternative offered by the Albuquerque City Charter to overturn HEART.

The Albuquerque City Charter has a provision that would allow HEART to be put to a vote by the people of Albuquerque. Albuquerque voters could overturn HEART and nullify action by the City Council and the Mayor. This provision allows for a petition drive.

By July 20 a petitions with 17,458 signatures of Albuquerque registered voters (20% of the number who voted in the last election) must be submitted to the City Clerk to force a public referendum on HEART. The City Charter only allows a narrow 35-day window to submit the required signatures. The short time is an overwhelming constraint. If the required signatures are submitted, the City Charter requires a referendum within 90 days.

A Rescind HEART petition drive is under way to gather the required signatures to force a referendum. The Rescind HEART petition drive is an unfunded, grassroots effort that is attempting something that, as someone recently noted, has never been tried before anywhere in the country for a animal law that has been passed and signed.

IT IS OBVIOUS THAT NEW MEXICO AND NATIONWIDE SUPPORT ARE NEEDED TO ASSURE THAT THE PETITION DRIVE IS SUCCESSFUL. YOUR IMMEDIATE HELP AND FINANCIAL SUPPORT ARE NECESSARY AND ARE APPRECIATED. ANY LARGE CONTRIBUTIONS WILL PAY FOR DOOR-TO-DOOR CANVASSING OF NEIGHBORHOODS TO GATHER SIGNATURES.