Heh, already sent, and my state Senator already replied saying he's looking into it. I send roughly one or two emails a month to my state and federal Reps, and the one I sent in January caught his eye b/c it was on a pet project of his, and he's been sending personalized responses to every email I send since. It's pretty cool.

FWIW, I do not rank animals quite as high as humans, nor pets quite as high as children, but in my opinion they're close. I guess I feel animals should be treated as well as possible and protected nearly as much as we protect children, EXCEPT when it's a case of human vs. animal (for example, I do eat meat, I do believe in animal testing, and I understand that sometimes you have to give an animal up for adoption).