This might help ease your concerns on you knowledge of legislation-
http://www.humaneteen.org/?q=node/691 It's a free online course called, Using the Legislative Process to Speak Up for Animals. It's designed for teenagers but it might have what you're looking for. My daughter took it and loved it.
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"If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men." — St. Francis of Assisi, 1181-1226