Nearly 1 million Missourians voted in November to change the state's puppy mill laws and make them tougher, bringing more than 61,000 more supporters to the polls than those who cast ballots against that proposal.
Opponents of Proposition B, which was sponsored by several groups including the St. Louis-based Missouri Humane Society and the Humane Society of the United States, quickly marshaled legislative supporters who introduced a variety of bills to change or gut the voter-passed law.
"We're not trying to repeal Proposition B," said Karen Strange, Eldon, president of the Missouri Federation of Animal Owners - a group that actively worked against Proposition B and now is in the Capitol seeking to rewrite parts of it.
"We're trying to make it where it can, actually, be enacted legally."
That lobbying effort prompted billboards and one lobbying effort by supporters wanting to encourage the Legislature to keep its hands off the new law.