BILL NUMBER: AB 147	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Dababneh
   (Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Waldron)
   (Coauthor: Senator Leno)

                        JANUARY 15, 2015

   An act to add Section 66017.7 to the Education Code, relating to
postsecondary education.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 147, 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, 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, the California State University, or the California
Community Colleges, or an independent institution of higher
education, as defined, 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, shall offer the dogs or
cats to an animal adoption organization or animal rescue organization
for adoption prior to euthanizing those animals, after the
completion of any testing or research where the animal's destruction
is not required and the animal is no longer needed. A public
postsecondary educational institution or independent institution of
higher education that is required to offer dogs or cats to an animal
adoption organization or animal rescue organization under this
section may enter into an agreement with an animal adoption
organization or animal rescue organization for the implementation of
this section.
   (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.