New emergency legislation from the DC Council seeks to help protect those who can't speak for themselves.

For months, a young female pit bull named Momma lived in a small dog pen in the back of a house on Randolph Street in Petworth. Whether it was raining or sunny, snowing or below freezing, Momma had only a small wooden dog "house" and straw to keep her protected from the weather. Momma's owner, who didn't live at the Randolph St residence, stopped by a couple times a week to change water and food, otherwise Momma's visitors were the neighbors.

Those neighbors were beside themselves trying to work with the owner and the city to help the dog, but the existing laws around animal welfare meant that the owner was doing the minimum required. The Humane Rescue Alliance, the organization with the responsibility for enforcing DC's animal welfare laws, didn't have the authority to do more for Momma, even if they wanted to. Their hands were tied.

Because of a handful of Petworth residents (and a lot of people around DC and the country), the welfare of companion animals kept outside has changed for the better.

Two residents in particular (who prefer to remain anonymous) worked exceedingly hard to get attention for Momma's welfare, but weren't able to get Momma's condition changed. Petworth News learned about the situation in January and visited Momma, then wrote an article about the situation that ended up going viral: "Frozen heart" (Jan 9, 2017). Momma was incredibly sweet, and obviously, incredibly cold on a day with a 9 degree windchill.

Things escalated pretty quickly the day the article published, and the office of Ward 4 Councilmember Brandon Todd was inundated with hundreds of phone calls, emails and tweets not only from DC residents, but from people around the country. Todd responded pretty quickly, saying that his office was getting involved and would work with the Humane Rescue Alliance. Animal welfare groups from around the city and country created petitions and gathered the resources of their members to lobby the Council to change the animal welfare laws.

Those efforts paid off on Tuesday, February 7th as the DC Council unanimously passed Todd's Extreme Weather Protection for Animals Emergency Amendment Act of 2017.