Our constituents have expressed disappointment in the
failure of animal cruelty legislation to pass in the 2010
legislative session. Senate Bill 1317, which passed the
Senate 34 to 1, was a consensus bill which had many
reviewing and changing the content. Led by Senate
Agriculture Committee Chair Tim Corder, R, Mountain
Home, groups such as Food Producers (an umbrella
group), the dairy, pork and poultry groups, the
Department of Agriculture, the Idaho Kennel Club, the
Idaho Humane Society and the Humane Society of the
United States, a broad group of Idaho citizens looked at
the drafts and made changes.
The bill clarified the following:
If standards were to be guidelines, they had to be
standards developed by national animal associations
Required a list of animal shelters who would provide
medical attention for neglected animals
Doubled fines with revenues split between the courts, the
Department of Agriculture and local governments to
compensate entities directly involved in situations
Removed the Department of Agriculture from the
enforcement of animal cruelty with regard to companion
animals (which were defined ) but enforcement remained
for production animals
Allowed for fines for the reporting of false information
Clarified and added emphasis to the misdemeanor penalty
for the abandonment of horses
Clarified that all animal organized fighting events are
felonies, not just dog fighting events.
So, what happened to this bill? The House Speaker chose
to send the bill to the House State Affairs Committee
rather than to Representative Tom Trail, Chair of the
House Agriculture Committee. The Chair of the State
Affairs Committee, Representative Tom Loertscher, R,
Iona, had some concerns about negligence including the
failure to provide "medical care". A remedy for this
concern could have been a meeting during the legislative
session of the above stakeholders and anyone else
interested, to define "medical care". Lastly, personalities
had entered the fray. There is some concern that House
leadership does not trust the chair of the Senate
Agriculture Committee and see him as a threat to Idaho
agriculture. Although Senator Corder owns and manages
a trucking company, he is a farmer and has been in
agriculture his entire lifetime.
We are hopeful that this bill or a similar one will return to
the legislature in January, 2011. It is important that we,
as elected officials, support efforts to reach consensus
among groups and citizens with different perspectives to
protect animals from animal cruelty.
A second bill, Senate Bill 1411, the Poultry and Swine Act,
known as the "ham and eggs" legislation passed the
Senate 24 - 11 and sat in the House Ways and Means
Committee until the session ended. You may know that
Californians passed tough animal cruelty laws requiring a
certain amount of space for farm animals. This has
motivated poultry producers to relocate in states like
Idaho. This is similar to the dairy industry moving from
California to Idaho to escape strict environmental laws.
While there are some concerns about this bill moving
oversight of these operations from the Department of
Environmental Quality to the Department of Agriculture,
we need to do something to ensure that appropriate
regulations are in place. Because this bill was sent to
Ways and Means to be killed, we have little protections
from these large poultry operations. This is unacceptable.
Representative Donna Pence, 208/308-0046
Representative Wendy Jaquet, 208/720-0068
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