Woof! Animal welfare advocates want Georgians to know their state lawmaker’s record on pet issues

The dogs and cats in your life don’t get a vote on Nov. 3, so they’re counting on you to get it right.

That’s the message from the Georgia Pet Coalition, a nonpartisan group of Georgia humans who advocate state and local governments on behalf of the state’s companion animals.

“We do not endorse candidates, and we remain nonpartisan,” said Peggy McCarthey of the coalition’s board of directors. “But we do want to educate our voters about what the pertinent issues are.”

The coalition recently sent supporters legislative scorecards for the state House and Senate as well as a list of animal welfare-related questions to ask candidates at town halls and community events ahead of next month’s big midterm election.

McCarthey said speaking out on behalf of pets doesn’t have to mean lobbying lawmakers under the Gold Dome.

“It’s not even going to the Capitol,” McCarthey said. “It’s meeting with your local lawmakers, your city councils, your county commissions, making appointments, meeting them in person, and being polite and respectful and providing education and resources. And the same thing for state lawmakers.”

This year, McCarthey said six of the nine bills they supported passed with broad bipartisan support, and in 2025, that number was seven out of 10.

Pet coalition-supported bills that have passed in recent years have dealt with some weighty issues like adding protections for household pets in cases of family violence and establishing a database of animal cruelty offenders to prevent animals from being placed in dangerous situations.

McCarthey said it’s not hard to find animal lovers among Georgia lawmakers, and when she walks into committee rooms at the Capitol, it’s not uncommon for lawmakers to pull out their phones and proudly show off photos of their own pets.

But she said Georgia still has plenty of room for progress, especially when it comes to the number of homeless cats and dogs. Coalition data shows the number of dogs that died in Georgia public shelters grew to over 20,000 between 2021 and 2025, increasing by nearly 10,000 dogs during that timeframe.

“Even if you don’t care about animals and their well-being, lawmakers need to care about public health, and that does involve pet population management,” she said.

McCarthey said high numbers of stray animals in communities can mean diseases transmitted to humans, bite incidents, traffic accidents and higher cost for taxpayer-funded shelters.

“So by investing upstream in something like pet population management, which means access to affordable spay and neuter, now you prevent a large amount of these downstream consequences,” she said.

Norcross Democratic state Rep. Marvin Lim, who has sponsored animal welfare legislation and hosted pet vaccination, microchipping and spaying and neutering events in his district, said lawmakers largely agree about protecting animals, but a sticking point often comes during appropriations as lawmakers are looking to make the budget leaner.

The governor vetoed more than $300 million in new spending, including funding for domestic violence and sexual assault programs, this year to help pay for an income tax package that created a $1.3 billion deficit.

“When you have to balance the budget, as is constitutionally required here in Georgia, there wasn’t enough money for things like sexual assault centers, domestic violence centers,” he said. “So without even saying, ‘Oh, we would prioritize that over animal welfare or animal-related legislation,’ we are just seeing all sorts of things that are important being cut.”

Other issues, like proposed statewide bans on tethering dogs or cockfighting, have seen opposition on cultural grounds, he said. Georgia is the only state where cockfighting is not a felony.

“The closer you get to maybe farming practices or practices that have been generally accepted, particularly in non-urban areas, the more, I suppose, pointed or controversial it can be,” he said.

Republican state Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick of Marietta has sponsored animal welfare bills including one creating partial student loan repayments for veterinarians who work in shelters or sterilization clinics. She said there are several bills that have failed in the past that she hopes to see action on, including the cockfighting bill and one she sponsored to provide legal protections for people who damage property to rescue animals from hot cars.

“We’ve still got work to do,” she said. “We’ve still got puppy mills all over the place, and those create a huge burden on the rescue organizations and the counties who have to clean up the mess.”

“Everybody cares about animals, and they are a big part of many of our lives,” she said. “And people don’t like seeing animals being treated poorly, just the public doesn’t like it, and the legislators are people too, so they don’t like it either.”