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LAWS WOULD
COMBAT ANIMAL
CRUELTY
State legislators in Salem are moving
forward with bills to protect animals living
in Oregon. Many of the new laws would
give law enforcement officers additional
means to make sure existing laws against
animal cruelty are obeyed.
As the weather heats up, the issue of
dogs being left in hot cars heats up too. The
“dogs in cars bill,” as its sponsor Sen. Tim
Knopp (R-Bend) calls it, is moving for-
ward in the Legislature. SB 614 would al-
low law enforcement officers to break into
a vehicle to save an animal.
“Law enforcement didn’t feel they had
the authority to break in,” Knopp says.
Sometimes they have to break a window or
do serious damage to the car, and this bill
would guarantee they wouldn’t be sued for
the damages.
Lane County Disrict Attorney Alex
Gardner says the county already has an
ordinance that allows an animal welfare
officer or a peace officer to enter a car and
impound an animal that they believe may be
in danger of dying.
Knopp says SB 614 would be enforced
the same way across the state — any officer
could break into a hot car if they had prob-
able cause to believe that an animal was be-
ing subjected to abuse. The bill passed out
of the Senate and the House Committee on
Judiciary with a “do pass” recommendation.
Rep. Brad Witt (D-Clatsakanie) has pro-
posed a new law every session dealing with
animal cruelty issues. This session, he’s
sponsoring HB 2888 — a bill that would al-
low individuals or the court to shut down
establishments where animal cruelty is tak-
ing place. It uses a “nuisance abatement”
structure, meaning actions like an enjoinder
(an order for the cruel acts to stop or to shut
the establishment down) could be taken
against people who were causing the “nui-
sance.”
HB 2888 would not make any additional
cruel acts against animals illegal. It solely
gives communities an extra tool to eliminate
places where animal cruelty is occurring.
>>> CONTINUED ON P. 10
HERSHELL NORWOOD
Born on the farm near Cairo, Georgia, where his great-granddad was a
sharecropper, Hershell Norwood migrated north with his family as a young
child and started school in Orange, New Jersey. After one year of high school,
he got a scholarship to Hampton School, a boarding school in New Hampshire.
He excelled at football and moved on to Tufts University near Boston. “I played
quarterback in high school and running back in college,” he says, “and got a
degree in theater.” He began work on an MFA in acting at Brandeis in the late
1970s, then spent a decade selling ad time on NBC Boston. “I did some talent
work, acted in programs and TV commercials,” he says. “I finished my MFA in
1990. I wanted to pursue a Ph.D.” He taught at a junior college in Newark, New
Jersey, and at Virginia State in Petersburg, and pursued the Ph.D. at Tufts, at
the University of Maryland, and at Texas Tech, where he wound up with a
master’s in playwriting. Since moving to Eugene in 2009, he has acted in local
productions and spent his time writing, working on six plays and a book on
African American theater. “Ultimately, I’m a playwright,” he says. Norwood’s
newest play, Fell the Tallest Tree, Judgment of Paul Robeson, celebrated its
world premiere May 2 as part of the Tsunami Books Play Reading Series. The
story envisions Robeson’s death-bed recollections, from the Jazz Age to Red
Scare-era persecution. The cast featured LCC professor Stanley Coleman as
the singer/actor/activist Paul Robeson and included Lane County NAACP
President Eric Richardson. Paperback copies of the play are available for
purchase at Tsunami Books.
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eugeneweekly.com • May 7, 2015
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