Animal advocates leery of packing pistols to protect pets

Erin Neff and Cy Ryan

Thursday, April 5, 2001 | 10:51 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A bill designed to prevent abuse of an old law that gives Humane Society officers police power ran into some opposition Wednesday from an unlikely source.

It wasn't the police, but the Humane Society itself that objected to Assembly Bill 419 before the Assembly Natural Resources, Agriculture and Mining Committee.

"I do not want to be the doggie police," said Susan Asher, executive director of the Nevada Humane Society. "I do not want to be the pistol-packing pet protector."

Assemblyman Don Gustavson, R-Reno, sponsored the measure to require that board members of any society that forms to protect animals receive training as Category II peace officers.

Asher said the bill would force her to spend $30,000 to train each of her four Humane Society officers.

"Once our officers are trained as such, they'll be going to work for the men in green behind me," Asher said, referring to members of the Carson City Sheriff's Mounted Unit.

The mounted unit testified in support of Assembly Bill 463 -- a bill sponsored by Tom Collins, D-North Las Vegas, which would revise provisions of law governing abuse of horses used in police work.

The bill would exempt police horses from traffic laws, giving them the ability to gain protection from injury while working on streets. Current law only protects them on sidewalks.

Assembly Bill 208, also sponsored by Collins, originally would have barred any local government from imposing tougher animal laws than the state. The proposal originally barred local governments from requiring that animals be spayed or neutered or from banning the ownership of any animal.

The bill would bar local governments from banning rodeos, circuses or livestock shows.

Action on other measures Wednesday:

Confidentiality

Testifying on Senate Bill 411, Kent Lauer of the Nevada Press Association said the Firestone defective tire case is a "classic example" why confidential settlements in court cases involving public hazards should be open to the public.

Lauer told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Firestone paid millions in private settlements to people injured because of the defective tires, but the settlements were never disclosed to the public.

Lauer testified in support of SB411, which would ban out-of-court settlements from remaining confidential if a public hazard was involved.

The bill, sought by Sen. Mark James, R-Las Vegas, would also ban private settlement agreements between the state labor commissioner and contractors over such items as unpaid wages or other violations.

James Sala, director of organizing for the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters, urged the committee to "close a loophole" in the law that allows confidential settlements between the labor commissioner and private contractors.

James said the settlements "should not be used to shield the contractor from wrongdoing."

Experimental drugs

Senate Bill 371, which would allow doctors to prescribe dangerous or experimental drugs without regulation, ran into strong opposition from state officials who suggested it might lead to increased deaths and other abuses.

Louis Ling, counsel for the state Pharmacy Board, told the Senate Committee on Human Resources and Facilities that 174 people died from overdoses of prescription controlled substances in 1999 in Las Vegas.

"Without regulation, who can tell how high it would go,' Ling said. "There could be a tremendous upswing."

Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, the author of the bill, said the intent was to permit citizens to get medication for pain management and also to permit the use of experimental drugs. It would allow access to drugs that may save the life of an individual, he said.

Schneider, noting that patients are now going to Holland or Mexico to get the drugs, said Las Vegas could become "one of the premier medical centers in the nation" if the bill is passed.

"This is not to allow quacks," Schneider said. "It's to make this a real liberal research state."

Dick LeGarza, general counsel for the state Board of Medical Examiners, said the board worked since 1998 on regulations for physicians in prescribing controlled drugs and established regulations that follow uniform guidelines in other states.

Ling said a small percentage of doctors in Southern Nevada who are selling prescriptions without following the guidelines are "supporting addicts."

Without regulation, Ling said, a physician could sell "snake oil" and get away with it.

Larry Matheis, executive director of the Nevada State Medical Association, said the bill has "touched on a big problem," but he added it is too big a step to take initially. He suggested there might be some smaller changes that could be made.

Ling said doctors can prescribe experimental and other drugs under a research project endorsed by the federal government.

Pay increases

Elected county officials, testifying in support of Assembly Bill 256, told the Assembly Government Affairs Committee they deserve double-digit raises because they've been grossly underpaid for several years.

"We're just asking for them to be paid what they should have been paid," Robert Hadfield, executive director of the Nevada Association of Counties, told the

"We're losing elected officials because they have to move their families and get other work."

State law doesn't allow county elected officials to raise their own salaries. While the money for the raises would come from local government coffers, state legislators must approve the pay hikes.

Clark County's current salaries and proposed increase are the highest statewide. County commissioners, now paid $54,000 a year, would get a $21,000-a-year raise to $75,000 if the measure is approved. Associated Press

contributed to this report.