Bill Description: Senate Bill 1241 would create a state preemption statute to protect the use of working animals from local regulation.
Rating: +1
AMENDMENT NOTE: The Senate Amendment to Senate Bill 1241 added more exceptions to the bill, weakening its practical application. The analysis has been updated, but the rating has not changed.
Does it give government any new, additional, or expanded power to prohibit, restrict, or regulate activities in the free market? Conversely, does it eliminate or reduce government intervention in the market?
Senate Bill 1241 would create Section 25-3514B, Idaho Code, titled “Protection of Working Animals” to recognize that “The right to utilize working animals for the mutual benefit and welfare of working animals and the person or enterprise that the working animals serve shall be guaranteed.”
The statute would preempt local regulation of working animals, saying, “No county, municipality, state agency, or political subdivision shall enact or enforce any ordinance, regulation, or rule that is more restrictive than state law or that terminates, bans, effectively bans, or creates undue financial hardship, on-the-job use of working animals or a working animal enterprise.”
It would also define a “working animal” as “any animal used for the purpose of performing a specific duty or function in commerce or service. Such term includes animals involved in hunting, entertainment, equine riding and carriage driving, transportation, education, exhibition, agritourism, ranching, livestock guardianship or herding, farming, logging, or other service or activity that has traditionally involved the utilization of working animals.”
Finally, it clarifies that cockfighting and dogfighting would remain prohibited.
The Senate Amendment to the bill added additional exceptions, saying the bill would not “prevent the enactment and enforcement of a zoning ordinance properly adopted pursuant to chapter 65, title 67, Idaho Code; an animal care law or regulation adopted pursuant to this chapter; or an ordinance concerning public health or public safety properly adopted pursuant to Idaho Code.”
These are unfortunate limitations that significantly weaken the practical application of the bill.
(+1)
