Legislative round-up

A smattering of legislative activity to report:

The House on Wednesday passed legislation to make it a federal crime to sell videos depicting animal cruelty in response to a Supreme Court ruling that struck down an earlier version of the law. Read more in this Los Angeles Times article by Richard Simon...

Beginning tomorrow, dogs and cats across Massachusetts will have a right to free speech... [as a] new law banning the surgical devocalization of dogs and cats goes into effect.... Check out the rest of the story in this Boston Globe article by L. Finch...

And in Illinois... Governor Pat Quinn signed a bill a few days ago that added teeth to state law to deter organized dogfights by imposing harsher criminal penalties on dog sadists and fight organizers. Read more in David Ormsby's commentary in the Huffington Post...