PUBLIC HEARING – Thursday, February 10 at 11:00AM
HB 526 – Requires those convicted of animal abuse to registry on a public abusers list.
- House Criminal Justice Committee, Room 204
- Legislative Office Bldg., 33 North State St., Concord
The Legislative Office Bldg. is directly behind the State House (directions to the statehouse are at: http://gencourt.state.nh.us/misc/directions.htm )
You are encouraged to attend this public hearing. Testifying is recommended but you can sign in “opposed” rather than speaking at the public hearing. If speaking, bring at least one copy of your comments to submit (20 copies is best). Contact Yvonne Nanasi, DOGS Legislative Liaison, for assistance with testimony (yln@comcast.net).
HB 526: Requires those convicted of animal abuse in NH or another state to register on a public animal abusers list. A copy of HB 526 is available on line at http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2011/HB0526.html
DOGS opposes HB 526 because:
- abuse registries have not proven effective,
- abuse registries are costly to maintain,
- law enforcement already has the ability to find out about a person’s criminal history,
- many reputable firms currently do comprehensive criminal background checks for employment, financial and volunteer purposes,
- the potential for invasion of personal privacy and identity theft if the registry is accessible on the internet,
- many animal cruelty cases in NH involved “hoarders”, people who would be better served by mental health services.
Supporters of HB 526 maintain that an animal abuse registry will discourage and prevent “puppy mills” and animal abuse as well as identify those with animal abuse records who relocate to NH.
