I’m writing because I strongly oppose the new proposal regarding a “higher quality of life for animals” known as PAUSE: Protect Animals from Unnecessary Suffering and Exploitation.

This proposal will significantly reduce Colorado’s agriculture businesses as well as educational opportunities for doctor of veterinary medicine students at Colorado State University. Accordingly, it will also have negative consequences for our ranchers, farmers, veterinarians, vet techs, DVM students and staff at CSU and small business owners such as myself. And let’s keep in mind the thousands of 4H participants throughout the state who would lose out on livestock projects because they couldn’t use artificial insemination (AI) to improve their project’s bloodlines.

I am a small time horse breeder/rancher and if PAUSE were to pass it would put me out of business because I could no longer have my veterinarian use AI procedures to improve the bloodlines of future generations of horses. Nor would my vet be allowed to conduct an ultrasound procedure to determine the perfect time to AI or to confirm a pregnancy. I recently purchased frozen semen from a stallion owner in England… I wouldn’t be able to do that if this were to become a bill that would pass in the state legislature.

More importantly, this same concept would apply to the Colorado cattle industry which is certainly a much larger business than mine. This is just plain stupid.

The two gentlemen who are proposing PAUSE, want to improve the quality of life for livestock animals; all animal lovers want that and it’s admirable but based on the over-control and restrictive wording of the proposal, it will KILL the agriculture industry in Colorado… and how does that improve the quality of life for our ranchers, farmers, veterinarians, vet techs, the DVM staff and students at CSU and the thousands of 4Hers throughout the state? It doesn’t.

I love our agricultural way of life and I have seen the vast improvements since the 60s and 70s made to improve quallity of life and safety for both humans and animals… but let’s inject some common sense into our legislative processes and reject PAUSE; it’s the right thing to do.

Write an email to your state representative and senator. You can find them easily at leg.colorado.gov… type in your mailing address and you will have instant access to their email address. Please write them NOW! Thanks in advance.