HOUSE BILL REPORT

                 SSB 6263

             As Reported By House Committee On:

                    Agriculture & Ecology

Title:  An act relating to the normal and usual use of equine and oxen.

Brief Description:  Using equine and oxen.

Sponsors:  Senators Morton, Rasmussen, A. Anderson, Hargrove, Swecker, Hochstatter, Prince, Sellar, Schow and Roach.

Brief History:

  Committee Activity:

Agriculture & Ecology:  2/14/96, 2/15/96 [DP].

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE & ECOLOGY

Majority Report:  Do pass.  Signed by 14 members:  Representatives Chandler, Chairman; Koster, Vice Chairman; Chappell, Ranking Minority Member; Linville, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Boldt; Clements; R. Fisher; Johnson; Mastin; Ogden; Regala; Robertson; Rust and Schoesler.

Staff:  Kenneth Hirst (786-7105).

Background:  This state's laws for preventing cruelty to animals identify a broad range of actions that may not be taken against animals and prohibit certain practices and activities involving animals.  Among these are confining animals without food or water, transporting them in an unsafe manner, unnecessarily inflicting pain upon them, and engaging them in exhibition fighting with other animals. 

The prevention of cruelty to animal laws do not apply to accepted husbandry practices used in the commercial raising or slaughtering of livestock or poultry; the use of animals in the normal and usual course of rodeo events; or the customary use or exhibiting of animals in normal and usual events at fairs. 

Summary of Bill:  The prevention of cruelty to animal laws do not apply to the normal and usual use of horses and oxen for logging, riding, showing, vaulting, driving, or drafting purposes.

Appropriation:  None.

Fiscal Note:  Not requested.

Effective Date:  Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For:   (1) Horse showing events date back to our territorial period.  Members of 4-H groups that participate in showing and riding events are taught to ride and care for their animals properly, but some groups claim that horses should not be ridden at all.  (2) When youngsters are training and caring for their animals, they are removed from the impersonal aspects of our mechanized world and from trouble on the streets.  (3) Some of the most popular events at county fairs are the riding, jumping, and plow-drawing events.

Testimony Against:  None.

Testified:   Senator Morton, prime sponsor; Marlyta Deck, Washington State Fairs Association; Eddie Armstrong and Carol Conner, John Wayne Pioneer Wagoning Riders, Washington State Horse Council, Washington State Horsemen, and Back Country Horsemen; and Terry Hunt, Washington State Grange (in favor).