Advocates hope a new Kentucky law will raise awareness about overpopulation in animal shelters and help more cats and dogs find forever homes.
Gov. Andy Beshear signed Senate Bill 37 on Monday, which makes rescue dogs and cats the official state pets and names the Treeing Walker Coonhound the official breed of Kentucky.
With Beshear’s signature, a seven-year advocacy journey for Ethan Branscum ends. The Frankfort teenager, 13, has been pushing to honor rescue pets in this way since he was six years old.
“I feel very accomplished right now,” Branscum said Tuesday. He said he hopes the new law “will help raise awareness” about the many shelter animals in need of adoption.
“I hope that this will help get the animals adopted more,” he said. “And I also hope that this will help … shine a light on all the shelter workers who are working incredibly hard to get these animals adopted.”
Shelia Joneleit, the executive director of The Arrow Fund, which takes in abused animals, also expects SB 37 to provide some relief to Kentucky’s packed shelters.
“There’s definitely overcrowding,” she said. “A lot of people are trying to re-home because sometimes the housing laws don’t allow them to have pets — or too many pets.”
It also “destigmatizes” shelter pets, she said.
“We often hear that rescue or shelter animals are abused or broken, but this law says that these animals are Kentucky’s animals,” Joneleit said. “They are part of our state identity.”
Her organization just rescued a hound dog who was shot in the face and named her Miracle. Earlier this month, staff took in dozens of dogs who were abandoned in Eastern Kentucky.
“When a dog ends up in a shelter, or a cat ends up in a shelter, it’s not their fault,” she said.
Kentucky still needs to do more to protect its animals, Joneleit said, including creating a statewide animal abuse registry for convicted offenders.
Meanwhile, SB 37 “is a victory for the voiceless. It’s a signal that Kentucky is interested in animal protection, compassion, second chances,” Joneleit said. “It’s really, really exciting to me. And I really want to applaud Ethan, because he was persistent. And this is what I love, is that if people are persistent, they can change laws.”
SB 37 will go into effect in July. It also designates the eastern spotted skunk as the official state nongame mammal and the eastern hellbender as the state amphibian.
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Sarah Ladd is a Louisville-based journalist and Kentuckian. She has covered everything from crime to higher education. In 2020, she started reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic and has covered health ever since.
