BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2243|
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CONSENT
Bill No: AB 2243
Author: Smyth (R)
Amended: 5/6/10 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE : 5-0, 6/15/10
AYES: Corbett, Harman, Hancock, Leno, Walters
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 76-0, 4/5/10 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT : Civil law: search and rescue dogs
SOURCE : California Emergency Management Agency
DIGEST : This bill clarifies the emergency service law to
ensure that the protections for emergency services dogs,
including protections appropriately prohibiting
discrimination against the dogs' handlers, apply during
non-declared disasters, and extends these protections to
search and rescue dogs handled by volunteers legally
registered with government agencies.
ANALYSIS : Existing law provides that a peace officer or
firefighter assigned to a canine unit, who is assigned to
duty away from his or her home jurisdiction because of a
declared federal, state, or local emergency, and in the
course and scope of his or her official duties, may not be
discriminated against in hotels, lodging establishments,
eating establishments, or public transportation by being
CONTINUED
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required to pay an extra charge or security deposit for the
peace officer's or firefighter's dog. (Civil Code Section
54.25(a)(1).)
Existing law further provides the peace officer's law
enforcement agency or the firefighter's fire agency is
liable for any damages to the premises or facilities caused
by the peace officer's or firefighter's dog. (Civil Code
Section 54.25(a)(1).)
Existing law states that any person, firm, association, or
corporation, or the agent of any person, firm, association,
or corporation that prevents a peace officer or a
firefighter assigned to a canine unit and his or her dog
from exercising, or interferes in the exercise of, the
rights specified in this section is subject to a civil fine
not exceeding $1,000. (Civil Code Section 54.25(b).)
This bill prohibits discrimination against the handler of a
search and rescue dog assigned to duty away from his or her
home jurisdiction because of a declared federal, state, or
local emergency, or an official mutual aid request or
training, and in the course and scope of his or her duties
in hotels, lodging establishments, eating establishments,
or public transportation by being required to pay an extra
charge or security deposit for the dog.
This bill expands the circumstances for the prohibition of
discrimination to include when the peace officer,
firefighter, or handler is away from his or her home
jurisdiction because of an official mutual aid request or
training in addition to declared emergencies.
This bill provides that peace officers and firefighters
assigned to a canine unit, or handlers of a search and
rescue dog shall not be denied service based on the
presence of the dog.
This bill requires the handler, in addition to the peace
officer's law enforcement agency or the firefighter's fire
agency, to be liable for any damages to the premises or
facilities caused by the search and rescue dog.
This bill defines "handler of a search and rescue dog" to
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mean a person in possession of a dog that is in training to
become registered and approved as a search and rescue dog,
or that is currently registered and approved for tasks,
including, but not limited to, locating missing persons,
discovering controlled substances, explosives, or cadavers,
or locating victims in collapsed structures, and assisting
with peace officer on-command searches for suspects and
victims at crime scenes.
This bill defines "search and rescue dog" to mean a dog
that has been trained and approved as a search and rescue
dog, or that is currently registered and approved for
search and rescue work with a search and rescue team
affiliated with the California Emergency Management Agency
(Cal EMA). The term also includes a dog that is in
training to become registered and approved for that work.
The bill specifies that the provisions of the bill is not
intended to prevent the removal of the search and rescue
dog in the event the search and rescue dog creates an
excessive disturbance to the quiet enjoyment of the
property. In the event of an excessive disturbance, the
peace officer, firefighter, or handler of the search and
rescue dog shall be given a minimum of one warning notice
of the excessive disturbance and an opportunity to correct
the disturbance. The mere presence of the dog within the
hotel, lodging establishment, food establishment, or public
transportation shall not be considered an excessive
disturbance.
Background
Fire and law enforcement agencies deploy dogs and their
human handlers outside of their jurisdictions to assist
with the search and rescue of people who are buried under
debris, trapped in mines, lost in the wilderness, drowned
in waterways, or otherwise missing. When these canines and
their handlers are deployed, they often travel long
distances and must stay in hotels and other lodging. Often
these highly trained canines cannot be left alone or in
vehicles because of high temperatures or other conditions,
and must accompany their handlers into restaurants or other
public buildings. Currently, existing law only provides
special privileges for these dogs when there is a declared
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disaster and the dogs are in the presence of peace officers
and firefighters. In many circumstances, a disaster has
not been declared but the dogs are requested through the
state's mutual aid system, which is managed by Cal EMA.
A majority of these canines are handled by volunteers and
not actual employees of the fire or law enforcement
agencies they serve. Members of these volunteer search and
rescue (SAR) groups are registered as Disaster Service
Workers under state law and must meet strict standards
established by Cal EMA. When requested by local
jurisdictions, these SAR volunteers are dispatched by Cal
EMA to support mutual aid operations in a city or county.
Teams are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to
respond to local, state, and federal agencies.
In 2008, the Legislature acted to protect a peace officer
or firefighter with a trained service dog from
discrimination by lodging and eating establishments, and
public transportation, during a declared emergency, (AB
2131 (Niello), Chapter 226, Statutes of 2008). This bill
extends this protection to handlers of search and rescue
dogs and provide that peace officers, firefighters, and
handlers with search and rescue dogs shall not be denied
service by lodging and eating establishments or public
transportation on the basis of the presence of the search
and rescue dog.
Prior Legislation
AB 2131 (Niello), Chapter 226, Statutes of 2008, passed on
consent with a vote of 40-0 on September 2, 2008.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/22/10)
California Emergency Management Agency (source)
Antelope Valley Kennel Club Inc.
California Federation of Dog Clubs
California State Sheriffs' Association
Concerned Dog Owners of California
Irish Wolfhound Club of America, Inc.
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The Humane Society of the United States
Peace Officers Research Association of California
PetPAC; Save Our Dogs
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The author's office writes,
"Existing law (Civil Code [Sec.] 54.25) provides
protections for canines under the control of a firefighter
or peace officer, exclusively. These canines are permitted
to work off leash in the course of their duties and their
handlers cannot be discriminated against in hotels, lodging
establishments, eating establishments, or public
transportation by being required to pay an extra charge or
security deposit. These protections only apply during
declared disasters and only to official firefighters and
peace officers.
"Without the protections currently provided to search and
rescue (SAR) dogs under the control of a firefighter or
peace officer, the volunteer dog handlers are often forced
to pay extra charges and security deposits, while peace
officer and firefighter units are not. AB 2243 would
remedy this problem by expanding these protections to SAR
dog teams registered by the California Emergency Management
Agency (Cal EMA). It would also clarify that the
protections also apply during "official mutual aid"
deployments and not only during declared disasters."
The author's office reported many instances of SAR dog
handlers being charged additional fees by lodging
establishments because of the presence of the SAR dogs.
Further, Save Our Dogs, a supporter of this bill,
demonstrates the critical need for this bill as follows,
"Many hotels/motels do not allow dogs, and many others have
limits on the size of dogs such 20 or 30 pounds. Almost
all SAR dogs are 30 to 90 pounds. . . . When a person is
traveling with their dog on vacation this is not a
significant problem - they have plenty of time in advance
to find a hotel/motel that will accommodate their dog.
SAR responders don't have time to do that . . . . We are
often paged out late in the day to arrive at a distant
location by early the next morning. SAR is an emergency.
When the pager goes off, we load up our truck with our gear
and dog, and drive."
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ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Bass, Beall,
Bill Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield,
Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles
Calderon, Carter, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De
La Torre, De Leon, DeVore, Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer,
Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines,
Galgiani, Garrick, Gilmore, Hagman, Hall, Harkey,
Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jeffries,
Jones, Knight, Lieu, Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma,
Mendoza, Miller, Monning, Nava, Nestande, Niello,
Nielsen, V. Manuel Perez, Ruskin, Salas, Saldana, Silva,
Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Audra Strickland, Swanson,
Torlakson, Torres, Torrico, Tran, Villines, Yamada, John
A. Perez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Blakeslee, Norby, Portantino, Vacancy
RJG:do 6/23/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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