State Legislative Wins for Animals in 2009
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS)
December 2009

[Ed. Note: This is only a partial listing of legislative wins for animals in 2009!]

This past year saw an explosion of thousands of animal-related bills introduced in legislatures across the country. Only a small selection of these bills made it to the pages of Take Action Thursday and now seems like a good opportunity to recap some of the successes across the country. Some states have sessions that carry over through 2010 (as does the federal government) and those bills are still under consideration. Other states have short sessions that ended in the spring or early summer, or a single-year session that will end with the calendar year. In those states, bills that were not passed are “dead” bills whose future—whether to the benefit or the detriment of the animals—are no longer under consideration. Congratulations to legislators and advocates whose efforts have succeeded in passing legislation in 2009 to improve the lives of animals in their states.

Some new laws passed this year on hot topics include:

Animal Cruelty and Animal Fighting

Arkansas passed SB 77, becoming the 46th state to make animal cruelty a felony. This bill also made it a felony to participate in cockfighting in the state.

Kansas also passed a bill, HB 2060, to make cockfighting a felony.

Nevada passed AB 199, which made it illegal to possess or train dogs for fighting purposes.

Puppy Mills

Connecticut passed SB 499, which addresses over breeding by tackling the problem from the consumer end with better regulation of pet stores and a strong “puppy lemon law” to give buyers the right to recover veterinary costs for sick animals.

Oregon passed one of the strongest pieces of puppy mill legislation in the country, HB 2470, to protect dogs used by large-scale breeders and to protect consumers who purchase these dogs.

In Tennessee, the Commercial Breeder Act, SB 258/HB 386, passed setting standards of care for dogs and giving protection to consumers who purchase these animals.

Washington also passed a puppy mill bill, SB 5651, establishing standards of care for breeders and limiting any breeding operation to no more than 50 breeding dogs.

Humane Farming

California became the first state to ban the practice of tail docking of dairy cows with the passage of SB 135.

Maine passed LD 1021, which will prohibit the confinement of breeding pigs in gestation crates and calves in veal crates.

Michigan became a model state for the reform of confinement farming practices with the passage of HB 5127, which bans the use of gestation crates for breeding pigs, veal crates for calves and battery cages for egg-laying hens.

Other Milestones

New Jersey became the 5th state to require the labeling of all garments containing animal fur when it passed A 2653. Federal legislation on this issue is still pending.

Connecticut passed HB 6552, which will end the private ownership of potentially dangerous animals, including great apes and other large primates. The bill also restricts the importation of some wild animals and bans internet hunting in the state.

Oregon enacted SB 391, which bans the private possession of alligators, monkeys, lions, tigers and bears.

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