H. 4911: An Act relative to animal welfare and reporting of animal cruelty, abuse or neglect
MSPCA Position: Support
Sponsor: Senator Adam Gomez and Representative Jack Patrick Lewis
Status: Reported favorably and referred to House Committee on Ways and Means. Passed the House on July 25, 2024. Passed the Senate on September 26, 2024. Signed into law October 9, 2024. Takes effect January 7, 2025.
This law requires a breed-neutral approach to determine whether a family can adopt or foster children. Currently, the regulations impact children where a dog of a certain perceived breed (German Shepherd, for example) or a dog which mixes certain breeds, lives in the prospective adoptive or foster home for children.
At the recommendation of PAWS II commission on animal cruelty reporting, this bill will also remove timing restrictions in the statutes that allow employees and contractors of human services agencies to report suspected animal cruelty. Currently, the timeframe for this reporting has been interpreted to apply only to the 10-day investigation period. This bill will ensure that suspected animal cruelty can be reported at any time the employee or contractor suspects it.
Dogs should be judged as the individuals they are — not based on outdated and long-ago-disproven stereotypes. Policies that target specific dog owners based on the size, weight, or perceived breed of their pet discriminate against those who properly train and socialize their dogs. Families are broken or kept apart due to these types of policies.
In 2012, the legislature recognized the irrelevance of dog breed in assessing the risk posed by dogs by passing a comprehensive law that strengthened the state’s dangerous dog law while prohibiting municipalities from discriminating against dogs based on breed because no such legislation has ever proven effective at reducing dog bites.
There are many reasons why there is no accurate data on the number of aggressive incidents involving a specific breed. Studies show that there is often a significant discrepancy between visual assessment of breed, and actual genetic determination of the dog’s breed — even when the visual assessment is conducted by individuals who have substantial experience working with dogs. One study that asked experienced shelter staff to make a visual identification and then compared their assessment to a DNA test found that only ¼ had actually identified the “predominant ‘dog breed’”. Experts also agree that the best predictor of a dog’s behavior comes from an evaluation of individual adult dogs — not selection based on breed.
