California state Governor, Jerry Brown, has recently signed three animal related bills into laws. The bills are as follows:
New Minimum Standards for Pet Boarding Facilities
Senator Monning’s (D-Carmel) SB 945 will require pet boarding facilities to comply with certain minimum standards for sanitation, enrichment, health, safety, and disclosure of information to consumers. This is intended to be a complaint-driven law that will give animal control and humane officers another tool for ensuring the welfare of pets in boarding facilities. First-time offenders receive a notice to correct. However, a pet boarding facility operator who violates the same provision of the new law more than once within a five-year period is not eligible to receive a notice to correct, and is guilty of an infraction on the second violation and a misdemeanor on the third or subsequent violation. However, an operator who causes or allows harm or injury to an animal, or allows an animal to be subject to an unreasonable risk of harm or injury, is guilty of a misdemeanor. An infraction is punishable by a fine not to exceed $250 for the first violation and not to exceed $1,000 for each subsequent violation. A city, county, or city and county may establish additional standards and requirements for a pet boarding facility.
Pound Seizure Outlawed
Assemblymember Waldron’s (R-Escondido) AB 2269 brings state law in line with current practice and bans the sale of live shelter animals to animal dealers or for research. We heard from many of you that you wanted to ban the sale of euthanized shelter animals as well. While SHAC fully supports banning the sale of euthanized animals, we had to limit the scope of the bill to live animals in order to move it through the legislative process. As it was, we had to work very hard to reach an agreement with our friends at CVMA and UCD on language we can all live with. As it often the case, the simplest-seeming bills can end up taking the most time and effort. However, it was a great reminder to us of how much we value our relationship with CVMA and support the great work that UCD does to train so many of our state’s veterinarians.
Animals in Cars
Private citizens will have the right to break into a car to rescue an animal from a harmful situation with the passage of Assemblymember Steinorth’s (D-Rancho Cucamonga) AB 797. To avoid criminal and civil liability, the citizen must follow certain steps such as determining that the doors are locked or there is otherwise no reasonable manner for the animal to be removed from the vehicle, contacting law enforcement, and remaining near the vehicle with the rescued animal. Unless the animal suffers great bodily injury, the first conviction for violation of this section is punishable by a fine up to $100 per animal. If the animal suffers great bodily injury, the punishment may be a fine up to $500, imprisonment in county jail not exceeding six months, or by both a fine and imprisonment. We look forward to seeing how this law works in your communities and whether concerns about overzealous liberators will come to fruition.
We are thankful that our government has made these steps forward in helping lives of pets and animals.