Gail Fisher, All Dogs Gym & Inn - The perfect place for pets and their people

I had this week’s column almost finished, and then a time-sensitive topic arrived in my email Inbox. January is National Train Your Dog Month—and a relevant topic will be next week’s column. In the meantime, check out www.trainyourdogmonth.com for great articles, free webinars and ideas for training.

The email I got was from the Dog Owners of the Granite State (DOGS) www.nhdogs.org. DOGS is a legislative watchdog organization formed in the early 1990’s (originally named the Dog Organization of the Granite State). As an historical footnote, I was one of the original representatives to DOGS, when local kennel clubs and other interested groups formed an alliance out of concern about several bills that would have radically affected dogs and dog owners in New Hampshire. The first bills that DOGS got involved with were the state-wide “leash” law, which DOGS was able to turn into our current “control” law – a sensible approach that allows responsible owners to have their dogs off leash as long as they are trained and under control. The other bill DOGS provided important input on was to require a licensed veterinarian’s health certificate for any dog transferred or sold in NH, defining a “breeder” as anyone “who breeds dogs for sale, gift of transfer in any manner,” and establishing a minimum age of eight weeks for sale or transfer of puppies.

In the past ten years, DOGS has continued to monitor the Legislature, and inform members and the public about pending bills. The latest is HB1498 “To repeal dog licensing requirements.” On its face, this bill may seem advantageous—after all, if we don’t have to license our dogs, won’t we all save money? This bill creates a new $4.00 fee that your veterinarian will have to pay for every blank rabies certificate – which you know we’ll be paying. Plus it includes new onerous administrative and reporting requirements for veterinarians—thereby increasing your veterinarian’s overhead expenses, which you know we’ll be paying for, too. So it’s guaranteed that this bill will increase the cost of a rabies inoculations, perhaps as much as $10 or more per dog. And it’s likely your town or city will still require licensing!

There are several other reasons that this is a terrible bill, potentially affecting the health and welfare of dogs in New Hampshire. But the bottom line for bills in committees is the Fiscal Notes statement at the end of proposed legislation. I can’t imagine that the Municipal and County Government Committee can possibly pass this bill out of committee when the fiscal impact statement says that this bill will “decrease local revenue ... and may increase state expenditures by an indeterminate amount.”

Further, our licensing fees help fund an animal population control program—a tremendous success in New Hampshire, greatly reducing the number of unwanted puppies. The Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, as well, will be affected by the loss of revenue from licensing. To quote from the Fiscal Impact Notes:

“The Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food states this bill repeals dog licensing requirements and establishes a fee for rabies certificates. The Department states revenue to the state and municipalities will decrease as a result of this bill. The animal population control program revenue ... will decrease by approximately $335,000. ...The Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory receives revenue of $.50 of every dog license fee, a loss of approximately $83,750 for the lab. ...Local revenue will decrease by approximately $724,437 ($808,187 license fee collected - $83,750 directed to Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory)."

If you believe, as I do, that this is ill-conceived legislation should be found inexpedient to legislate, the Public Hearing will be held on Thursday, January 12^th at 11:35 am in Room 301 Legislative Office Building. I encourage you to attend, or if you can’t go to the hearing, contact your NH State Representative, or write directly to the Municipal and County Government Committee. You’ll find links and information on www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house. Our NH Legislators do listen to their constituents. Have your voice be heard—you can make a difference.

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