THE FEDERATION
of Animal Care and Control Agencies

In October 2008, the Federation legislative committee met with Inga Gibson from The Humane Society of the United States and Gordon Walgren, the contract lobbyist for the Federation and WACA.

Gordon discussed the expected atmosphere at the Capitol this year.  There is expected to be a Democratic majority in both the House and Legislature this coming year.  The long session (105 days) started on January 12, 2009.  This is considered the budget writing session of the legislature and new programs calling for money to fund them will probably not go through.  He also expects more bills than ever for "Green" issues.  There must also be an effort for re-draft and re-sponsor for any bills that died last year that we would like to reintroduce.

As the discussion for the day wound down, the committee decided on supporting a limited number of bills in order to be as effective as possible given the amount of work that is entailed to support each of them.  The first on the list is House Bill 2861 which is an act relating to Dangerous Dogs.  One of the key issues is to require two forms of identification for animals that are declared to be dangerous and to add a sterilization requirement as well. 

The second is substitute Senate Bill 6408, an act relating to pet dealers.  This bill was often referred to last year as the "Pet Lemon Law".  The intent this year is to look at putting a cap on the number animals, perhaps fifty, that a dealer or breeder is allowed to have in a year.  As it is now, there is only a civil penalty and there is no regulatory agency to deal with anyone that might be over the limit.  There would also be intent to let individual counties make exceptiions for anyone over the number through their local kennel ordinances.

The third bill the committee will support is the proposed spay/neuter bill developed by Rick Hall and Andrea Logan, who also served on the Federation's Spay/Neuter Task Force.  This bill will propose to tax pet food at the state distributorship level and is expected to raise 10 to 11 million dollars for spay/enuter.  The funds would be available to low income citizens that choose to alter their pets at any one of the participating veterinary clinics. 

Lastly, we would support Senate Bill 6061 which related to the confirment of caged egg laying hens.  There would be an expected phase out of this type of confinement over a period of five to six years.

We will continue to keep you updated as these bills move forward.  If you can help promote any of these bills that we are supporting, please contact Denise McVicker, Legislative Chair for more information.