During the meeting on Monday, Humane Society Executive Director Doug Rae spoke about the success of fighting a bill that was proposed in the Colorado legislation during the Florence City Council meeting.

The bill is HB-2160, which says the act is to care for the animals in facilities, but it has nothing to do with the care of animals, Rae said.

The local shelter had to hire a lobbyist to fight against HB-2160, which had nothing to do with the care of animals, he said. When he arrived to testify against it on the Senate floor on April 22, he had to completely change his testimony because the bill had been changed.

“One of the big sticking points of the bill was the words 'healthy and safety,'” Rae said. “That's one of the four amendments we were for. The other size refused. There was so much noise they (added) strictly helping the safety of the bill. The second concern was the name.”

There are two kinds of animal shelters in Colorado. No-kill shelters have been around Colorado for 30 years with the Humane Society being one for six and a half years. Then there are the social conscious sheltering, which have been in Colorado for two years.

“We wanted to remove the 'social conscious shelter,'” he said. “They finally removed that amendment. There was significant opposition to that. We got the language changed and we got the name of the bill removed.”

Rae said that was two significant wins for those who opposed the bill.

“The bill is sitting on Gov. Polis' desk right now,” he added. “No animals is going to be harmed with this bill. I really think the bigger shelters with $1 million in Denver, Colorado Springs and Boulder (didn't think the smaller shelters could win this). I want to thank you all for passing the resolution opposing the language.”

In an unrelated matter, Pioneer Day member Rich Burleson updated the council on its plans for Pioneer Day festivities, which will be held on Sept. 18 this year.

In other business, the council made the following decisions:

Approved the liquor license for Pour House Coffee Shop.

Approved a change of liquor for Florence Brewing Company.

Approved a special events permit for the Fremont Center for the Arts event to be held from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Aug. 7 at Florence Brewing Company.