California animal shelters don’t have to say how many pets they kill. A bill could change that
California law does not require public animal shelters to publish euthanasia data, but that soon could change.
Sen. Janet Nguyen, R-Huntington Beach, has introduced legislation that would require shelters in counties with more than 400,000 people to publish monthly animal outcome data on their websites — whether dogs, cats and other pets were adopted, died or were euthanized.
Shelters report that data as part of the rabies prevention plan to the California Department of Public Health, which provided that information to the public until 2016. The agency has said that with fewer people being bitten by rabid dogs or cats, there is no longer any value with making that data public.
“Surely they know the numbers, so what are they hiding?” Nguyen asked at a Monday morning press conference.
Senate Bill 1459 also would clarify that the state’s law against animal dumping, which makes it a misdemeanor. It doesn’t apply to municipalities and organizations that engage in “Trap-Neuter-Return” programs, where feral or community cats are trapped and sterilized to prevent them from breeding before being released back into their communities.
“Many counties do not support this practice because the law is unclear, now they clearly would have the green light,” Nguyen said.
California animal shelters house hundreds of thousands of animals, and when space grows limited, shelter staff often make the decision to euthanize animals in order to make more room. Four years ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged to make California the first “no kill” state, but results of that effort have been mixed.
Nguyen’s bill enjoys support from a number of Democratic lawmakers, including co-authors Sen. Josh Newman, D-Fullerton, and Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton.
On Monday morning, the bill was heard by the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee. The committee voted unanimously to send it on to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
