Bill # S04706 and Bill # A01006
They are essentially identical as far as I can tell.
They are written to prohibit the tieing, tethering, restraining, caging, or penning of “any dog or animal”, whether “working or non-working” during the hours of 7pm to 6am.
There is nothing that says that these restrictions are for outdoors only, so the indoor crating of a destructive dog could be considered illegal under these bills.
There is nothing that defines what those other “animals” are. So in theory these bills could be applied to horses and livestock.
In addition to the above these bills also state that “dog or animal” that is penned, caged (etc)….during the day must be housed in an pen or cage that is at least 4 times the height and length of the animal.
There are sections of my house where the ceilings are only 7ft high. Which means that per that law it could be considered illegal to contain my Tibetan Mastiff INSIDE MY HOUSE. Nevermind what it would do to housing horses…..
ALSO, Bill # A06406
Adds additional restrictions to the tethering of dogs. While I agree with some of the restrictions I have problems with some of them.
There is no provision for working dogs.
Tethering would be prohibited completely between the hours of 11pm and 6am.
Tethering during the day could only be for a maximum of 3hrs unless you have WRITTEN permission from your local Animal Control AND your veterinarian. And even then the max length of time the dog could be tethered would be 12hrs. AND that written permission would have to be renewed every 60 days including having a NEW written statement from your vet.
While I can sympathize with the desire to restrict the length of time a dog is tethered this is NOT the way to go about it…..
No “restraining”? Isn’t being in a house restraining? Apparently everyone is supposed to let their animals run wild during the night.
Guessing mushers will have to get permits every 60 days.
And no one who works nights can place their dog in a pen outside regardless if they have food/water/shelter.
Bad bill.