HOUSE BILL REPORT

SSB 6195

BYSenate Committee on Environment & Natural Resources (originally sponsored by Senators Kreidler and Moore)

Prohibiting the use of live animals to train hunting, tracking or fighting animals.

House Committe on Agriculture & Rural Development

Majority Report:  Do pass as amended.  (10)

      Signed by Representatives Rayburn, Chair; Kremen, Vice Chair; Nealey, Ranking Republican Member; Chandler, Grant, Jesernig, Kirby, McLean, Rasmussen and Youngsman.

House Staff:Kenneth Hirst (786-7105)

AS PASSED HOUSE MARCH 2, 1990

BACKGROUND:

State law declares the following actions to be gross misdemeanors, if they are taken with the intent of depriving or defrauding the owner of a pet: taking or secreting a pet animal (unless the value of the animal makes the crime a felony); concealing the identity of a pet or its ownership; or willfully or recklessly killing or injuring a pet animal unless that action is excused by law.

SUMMARY:

A person who uses domestic dogs or cats as bait, prey, or targets for the purpose of training dogs or other animals to track, fight, or hunt, or who captures by trap a domestic dog or cat for such a purpose, is guilty of a misdemeanor.  This penalty applies if the action tortures, torments, deprives of sustenance, cruelly beats, or mutilates the animal.  If the action results in the death of the animal, the person is guilty of a gross misdemeanor.

If a person violates these provisions, law enforcement authorities must seize and hold the animals being trained until they are disposed of by a court.

These provisions do not interfere with or impair the provisions of the Higher Education Code concerning higher education or biomedical research.

Fiscal Note:      Not Requested.

House Committee ‑ Testified For:    Senator Kreidler; Bob Mead, State Veterinarian; Ronald Peregrin, Department of Wildlife; George Steele, Thurston County Deputy Prosecutor; and Michael Ware, Thurston County Sheriff's Office.

House Committee - Testified Against:      Kurt Oleksuk, Washington Game Fowl Breeders; Bob Markholt; and Donald Hollis.

House Committee - Testimony For:    (1) Domestic Cats have been trapped and used as bait to train dogs.  They have been released to the dogs as a reward for proper tracking.  It has been difficult to apply current law to stop this activity.  (2) The bill provides a public notice that using cats or dogs in this manner is an unacceptable practice.  It also provides enforcement teeth.

House Committee - Testimony Against:      (1) Bird farms often have dogs on the premises to keep stray cats from killing the birds.  The dogs will kill such cats.  The owner of such a dog should not be prosecuted for protecting the birds.  (2) Police should have higher priority crimes to investigate.  (3) Confiscated dogs should be placed with a different owner, not destroyed.  (4) If such a law is necessary to prevent cruelty to cats, why should it not also apply to raccoons used as bait?  (5) If cruelty to animals is bad, so are cats; they torture the animals they catch.