BILL REQ. #:  S-0885.1 

Read first time 01/20/09.   Referred to Committee on Government Operations & Elections.

     AN ACT Relating to animal emergency operations; adding a new section to chapter 38.52 RCW; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   A new section is added to chapter 38.52 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) The Washington state military department's emergency management division, in cooperation with county and local governments, shall prepare, as part of the state comprehensive emergency management plan, animal emergency planning guidance for local jurisdictions that provides for the evacuation, transportation, and temporary sheltering of pets and service animals as defined in RCW 70.84.021 during a major disaster or an emergency.
     (2) The division, in developing the guidance, shall consider:
     (a) Allowing owners of service animals to be evacuated, transported, and sheltered with or near their service animals;
     (b) Establishing a sufficient number of evacuation shelters equipped to temporarily shelter pets and service animals in close proximity to a human sheltering facility;
     (c) Allowing owners and their pets to be evacuated together, whenever possible, provided that human life is not endangered;
     (d) Transporting pets or service animals, in cages or carriers that safely and securely confine the animals, in an impending major disaster or emergency provided that such transportation does not endanger human life;
     (e) Recommending that animal shelters, humane societies, veterinary offices, boarding kennels, breeders, grooming facilities, animal testing facilities, and any other entity that normally houses pets or service animals create evacuation plans for the animals housed at their facilities;
     (f) Recommending guidance for holding periods for pets or service animals that are sheltered during a major disaster or an emergency; and
     (g) Encouraging local jurisdictions to create an educational campaign for owners of pets or service animals that will encourage owners to plan for and incorporate their animals in the owners' personal plans in the event of a major disaster or an emergency.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   The code reviser shall alphabetize and renumber the definitions in RCW 38.52.010.