Today is a great day for Nevada communities. AB110, the bill to prohibit breed discriminatory laws on the state level, has passed the full Senate with a vote of 20-1.
AB110 was introduced February 13 and sat waiting for the first committee meeting until April 9th. It was amended during the second reading and passed the full House on April 15th with a unanimous vote.
When the bill was sent to the Senate committee it hit a road block. According to Laura Handzel of Best Friends Animal Society, the primary opposition centered around 2 issues. The first issue was a general lack of knowledge about breed discriminatory laws and how they impact the community both personally and financially. The second issue was about home rule. Simply put home rule is an amendment in a state constitution that grants cities, municipalities, and counties the ability to pass laws to govern themselves as they see fit. Several legislators expressed concern over telling municipalities what kind of dangerous dog laws they cannot pass. There was a general concern stepping on the rights of cities and towns to self govern. Once explain that the bill would protect citizens from the towns overstepping their rights this issue resolved in a vote that shock advocates involved. Some dissension had been expected but ultimately the bill passed the committee with a unanimous vote.
And now AB110 has passed the full Senate with only one opposing vote. This strong stand of almost complete agreement by all the Representatives and Senators is a wonderful thing to see. We know intellectually that support for breed discrimination is the small minority, but having such resounding legislative support shows concretely where the majority of people really stand on this issue.
The bill now moves to the Governors desk to be signed into law.
Nevada is the 14th state to enact this kind of protection for it’s citizens.
Congratulations to everyone involved in getting AB110 passed, for all the hard work put in to address the concerns of legislators.
Fred M. Kray
krisdiaz9
