BILL NUMBER: AB 2431 INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Dababneh FEBRUARY 21, 2014 An act to add Section 66017.7 to the Education Code, relating to postsecondary education. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 2431, as introduced, Dababneh. Postsecondary education: animal research. Existing law establishes a state policy that no adoptable animal should be euthanized if it can be adopted into a suitable home. Existing law authorizes the State Department of Public Health to prescribe rules under which approval shall be granted to persons who wish to keep or use animals for diagnostic purposes, education, or research. Existing law authorizes the State Department of Public Health to make, promulgate, modify, amend, or rescind reasonable rules and regulations relating to the use of animals in diagnostic procedures and medical research. A person who violates these provisions is guilty of a misdemeanor. Existing law establishes the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges, and independent institutions of higher education, as defined, as the 4 segments of postsecondary education in this state. This bill would require any public postsecondary educational institution, as defined, to include any campus of the University of California, California State University, or California Community Colleges, or independent institution of higher education, or employee or student thereof, that confines dogs or cats for science or research purposes and intends to destroy the dog or cat used for those purposes to first offer the dog or cat to an animal adoption organization or animal rescue organization, as defined. The bill would not apply to animals suffering from a serious illness or severe injury, or to newborn animals that need maternal care and have been impounded without their mothers. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Section 66017.7 is added to the Education Code, to read: 66017.7. (a) Any public postsecondary educational institution or independent institution of higher education, or employee or student thereof, that confines dogs or cats for the purposes set forth in Section 1650 of the Health and Safety Code, and intends to destroy a dog or cat that has been used for those purposes, shall first offer the dog or cat to an animal adoption organization or animal rescue organization. (b) For purposes of this section, the following definitions shall apply: (1) "Animal adoption organization" or "animal rescue organization" means a not-for-profit entity that is exempt from taxation pursuant to Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or a collaboration of individuals with at least one of its purposes being the sale or placement of animals that have been removed from a public animal control agency or shelter, society for the prevention of cruelty to animals shelter, or humane shelter, or that have been previously owned by any person. (2) "Independent institution of higher education" means a nonpublic educational institution as defined in subdivision (b) of Section 66010. (3) "Public postsecondary educational institution" means any campus of the University of California, the California State University, or the California Community Colleges. (c) This section does not apply to animals within the meaning of Section 17006 of the Food and Agricultural Code.