Summary of 128th Legislative Session

The 128th Maine legislative session has been abnormally busy with veterinary and animal health bills. The MVMA was highly successful in advocating for veterinarians and ensuring that lawmakers were aware of the implications of their bills on veterinarians and their clients. Multiple bills were directly a result of high profile dog bite incidents and animal welfare cases that occurred over the past year. Multiple MVMA Board members were instrumental in helping testify to our recommendations at public hearings. The MVMA’s position was successful in most bills thanks to the hard work of our members.

 

MVMA Position Successful

LD 157 “An Act to Require the Reporting of Animal Cruelty or Neglect”

  • MVMA Position: Ought not to pass (ONTP)
  • Status: ONTP out of committee

This bill would have caused mandatory immediate reporting of all suspect cruelty and neglect cases by veterinarians. As many of us know, neglect issues are common, yet it is also common that education is all that is needed with many individuals. Note that it is still recommended that veterinarians report, which current law does allow for. It is already mandatory that veterinarians report aggravated cruelty cases in Maine.

LD 245 “An Act To Repeal the Affirmative Defense for Cruelty to Animals”

  • MVMA Position: ONTP
  • Status: ONTP out of committee

This indirectly affects veterinarians, but we felt prudent to discuss it. This would remove the ability of farm owners to argue against a cruelty case even if they were using best management practices. This opens up concerns that certain groups might cause turmoil and farmers would not be able to show what they were doing was deemed appropriate by current agricultural standards.

LD 624 “An Act Concerning the Transportation of Dogs in Passenger Vehicles.”

  • MVMA Position: ONTP
  • Status: ONTP out of committee

While it has some good points, the means of restraint of dogs in vehicles is not necessarily safe and there is no oversight on creation of these products. We recommended following the ASPCA guidelines for proper safety of pet travel in vehicles.

LD 653 “Resolve, To Establish a Working Group To Propose Changes to the Animal Welfare Laws”

  • MVMA Position: ONTP
  • Status: ONTP out of committee

The sponsor was not aware that this group is already in existence and so pulled the bill.

LD 982 “An Act to Protect Abused or Neglected Animals”

  • MVMA Position: ONTP
  • Status: ONTP out of committee

This bill would allow for shelters to be granted the power to seize dogs from pet owners if they had welfare concerns, and also allow them to make euthanasia/quarantine decisions without the involvement of law enforcement. We had grave concerns about giving this power to untrained law enforcement individuals and recommended ought not to pass.

LD 993 “An Act To Protect Pollinators from Neonicotinoid Pesticides”

  • MVMA Position: ONTP
  • Status: ONTP out of committee

Although this may seem surprising, the way it was worded it could have greatly impacted our use of pesticides on our animal patients. It would have removed the allowance for retail of flea and tick topical products (only allowed collars) with this class of pesticide. It also only allowed for application by a veterinarian. There was general strong opposition to this bill.

LD 1601 - An Act To Reduce Costs to Businesses by Phasing Out the Pet Food Surcharge”

  • MVMA Position: ONTP
  • Status: ONTP out of committee

This was also put forth two years ago. This would remove the surcharge that is currently on pet food in Maine. The pet food companies are strong proponents of removal of the surcharge. This surcharge makes up close to half of the total budget of the Maine Help Fix Me program. This program has seen enormous success and is a good example of spay/neuter state funded programs across the country.

 

MVMA Position Not Successful

LD 46 - Jury exemption bill

  • MVMA Position: ONTP
  • Status: Passed

The Judiciary Committee removed exemptions for doctors, dentists, veterinarians, and other professionals to serve on a jury. The MVMA, along with the Maine Medical Association, strongly voiced opposition to the proposed changes. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful. If called for jury duty, veterinarians can still request to be excused.

LD 828 “An Act To Require a Veterinarian to be Present at an Agricultural Fair”

  • MVMA Position: Support
  • Status: ONTP out of committee

This bill was short and to the point. We were proponents of how it was phrased as it did allow for the veterinarian to be on call and not on site. The fair representatives were strongly opposed.

 

Bills Still at Risk—Contact Your Representative

LD 419 “An Act To Clarify Damages for the Willful or Negligent Injury or Death of a Dog”

  • MVMA Position: ONTP
  • Status: ONTP out of committee by majority vote. Still at risk - please continue to contact your legislators in opposition.

This bill would allow for owners to sue for non-economic damages related to injury or death of a dog. Similar bills have been broached before, and also commonly come up in other states. We recommended this not pass to the Judiciary Committee, where most agreed with this statement. Some amendments were recommended by the sponsor, however those amendments would not particularly help the overall problem and still set up for litigation which would increase liability and veterinary fees.

LD 858 “An Act To Strengthen the Law Regarding Dangerous Dogs”

  • MVMA Position: ONTP
  • Status: Still in committee, TABLED

We had significant concerns with this bill as it would make requirements for seizing and euthanizing dog bite incidents very strict. Although we feel it is important to recognize the need for proper care and containment of dangerous dogs, it is difficult to recommend condemning them all knowing some can live appropriately in the right environment. We recommended ought not to pass as written and gave specific recommendations as to how our dangerous dog law could be strengthened and placing more responsibility on the owner of the dog instead of automatically euthanizing dogs in these cases.