Many growling over animal bill

Erin Neff

Thursday, March 8, 2001 | 10:43 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A measure to impose statewide regulation on animal welfare issues ruffled a lot of fur Wednesday -- and not just because it prohibits anyone from banning a circus or rodeo.

Local city and county officials from across the state testified before the Assembly's Natural Resources and Mining Committee that Assembly Bill 208 will make it impossible for them to institute even an innocuous pooper-scooper bill.

Assemblyman Tom Collins, D-North Las Vegas, sponsored the measure to prohibit anyone from banning a circus, rodeo or other animal exhibition.

"The bill does allow the state to have the final say in many animal laws," Collins said. "But this will not change any regulations today on their (local government) books."

Collins said he was driven to sponsor the measure after efforts nationwide to ban circuses and other animal exhibitions. He said "extremist minority factions" have been able to persuade a handful of lawmakers in cities nationwide to pass laws banning zoos, circuses or other exhibitions.

But Tom Blomquist, director of the Silver Springs Spay-Neuter Project, said he doesn't know anyone in rural Lyon County who wants to ban a rodeo.

Blomquist said Lyon County is currently trying to establish regulations to deal with a growing feral cat problem.

"If you stop us from finding our own solution, you will have to have additional legislation for everything that comes up related to animals," Blomquist said.

A Clark County animal control officer presented similar testimony, saying the bill would prohibit Clark County from finding an answer to a growing problem with exotic animal ownership.

"If this passes, you all become the town board for the pound," lobbyist Bob Barengo told lawmakers on behalf of the Nevada Humane Society, which opposes the bill.

The bill also prohibits any local governmental agency from making rules requiring an animal to be spayed or neutered or prohibiting ownership of an animal.

Nancy Goldwater, the Douglas County animal control officer, said in some animal neglect and abuse cases the best solution for an animal is to be removed from a particular owner.

The bill's main focus, protecting circuses and rodeos, fits with Nevada's Western lifestyle and drew considerable support from other lawmakers. The bill is jointly sponsored by 33 Assembly members and 14 senators.

But lawmakers presiding over Wednesday's hearing began to raise significant questions about the bill.