Legislation – What’s Hot, February 2020

Kelly S. Crouch, CFA Legislative Information Liaison

Florida

Pet stores in Florida seeking legislation that would give them access to legal sources of animals to purchase for resale without running afoul of local prohibitions have, perhaps inadvertently, brought fanciers into the debate and potentially subject to unnecessary regulation. In the introduced versions of companion bills, Senate Bill 1698 and House Bill 1237, hobby breeders are defined as “an establishment that: (a) sells no more than four puppies or adult dogs and no more than four kittens or adult cats in any calendar year: or (b) keeps, houses, and maintains in any location no more than three intact adult female dogs, one intact male adult dog, three intact female cats, and one intact male adult cat.” Both subsections create problems for the small scale home breeder. While cat litters average three to four offspring, a single litter may produce five or six kittens. Even twelve kittens in a single litter are known to happen. However, under subsection (a), a hobby breeder would only be able to sell up to four of the kittens. Also, this section in effect unreasonably restricts the number of litters the hobby breeder may have, thereby putting the reproductive health of all the females in the breeder’s possession at risk. In subsection (b), the limits on adult males and females maintained falls below the minimum necessary for closed catteries to maintain genetic diversity. Under the proposed bills, all pet stores located in the state would also be limited to sourcing cats and dogs from authorized sources, including hobby breeders and adhere to the other licensing, standards, and record-keeping mandates of the legislation. As is often the case with companion bills, they can progress at different speeds if at all. House Bill 1237 by Representative Brian Avila (R-111), is still in its original form. However, S.B. 1698, by Senator Manny Diaz (R-36), has been significantly amended although neither bill has been heard in committee. In the Senate Committee on Innovation, Industry, and Technology Amendment 706506 filed on January 31, 2020, everything after the enacting clause was deleted and replaced with new language. In this amendment, the pet store regulation provisions remained, and hobby breeders were removed. However, cat fanciers that are licensed as a Class A animal dealers by the United States Department of Agriculture may qualify to be a source for licensed pet stores under the amendment. If a cat fancier is unfamiliar with the USDA APHIS Pet Dealer exemptions, the Hobby Dealer Exemption Flowchart available on the CFA Legislative Group Blog will help with your analysis.

New Hampshire

Representative Howard Pearl (R-26) introduced House Bill 1630-FN on January 6, 2020, that would once again amend the definition of pet vendor. Fanciers may recall the legislative maneuverings relating to the definition of pet vendor from 2019 when legislators succeeded in expanding the definition of pet vendor by including the language in the budget bill H.B. 4 after efforts through regular procedural channels failed. With the budget bill, the Pet Vendor definition decreased the threshold for licensing to anyone who “transfers 25 or more dogs, 25 or more cats, 30 or more ferrets, or 50 or more birds customarily used as household pets, with or without a fee or donation required, and whether or not a physical facility is owned by the licensee in New Hampshire, between July 1 and June 30 of each year.” Representative Pearl’s bill would raise the threshold to 35 for dogs and 50 for cats. Pet Vendor also includes transferors of other live animals as described in the rules promulgated by the Department of Agriculture, Markets, and Food. The bill has been referred to the Committee on Environment and Agriculture. See more on the history of the 2019 legislation in the October 2019 What’s Hot article available here .

Recent Legislative Group Blog Posts:

Legislation – What’s Hot………… Anticipating Future Legislation, January 2020