Since it has been a slow month in the world of animal law, this blog update will focus on the myriad changes to New York’s Agriculture and Markets Law (“Law”) that went into effect January 1, 2011 which involve animals and animal related businesses.
There were significant changes to Article 7 of the Law concerning dog licensing and animal population control. Many sections of article seven were renumbered, and as such, municipalities and the courts should review their existing forms to ensure that the correct section numbers are cited.
§107 was amended to allow for a licensing municipality to exempt dogs present in a municipality from licensing for a thirty day period when such dogs are licensed in New York City or by a jurisdiction outside of New York State.
§108 was amended to reflect numerous administrative changes to the dog licensing process as it is now the responsibility of local municipalities or counties to run their own licensing programs.
§109’s highlights include the allowing the manger of a pound or shelter under contract with a municipality for shelter services to issue a license to owners who adopt from the pound or shelter; allowing refunds of license fees; repeals the entirety of subdivision 2 relating to purebred dog licenses and substitutes in its place a requirement that all dogs be rabies vaccinated prior to licensing.
§110 was entirely repealed and replaced with laws regulating the establishment of fees for dog licenses.
§111 was renumbered and amended, it was previously §112.
§112 was renumbered and amended, it was previously §113.
§113 was renumbered and amended, it was previously §114.
§114 was renumbered, it was previously §115.
§115 was renumbered, it was previously §116.
§116 was renumbered, it was previously §117
§117-a was amended to require the Agriculture and Markets Department to seek competitive proposals from not-for-profit entities to administer New York’s Animal Population Control Program. The criteria for both eligibility and program administration proposals is set forth within the amended section.
§117 was renumbered and amended, it was previously §118. The amendments remove the monetary restriction on the amounts imposed by a licensing municipality upon an owner who redeems a seized dog from an animal shelter. The section also sets forth minimum fees.
§118 was renumbered and amended, it was previously §119. The amendment adds a violation where a dog owner fails to notify a licensing municipality of a change in address.
§119 was renumbered and amended, it was previously §120.
§120 was renumbered, it was previously §122.
§121 was renumbered, it was previously §123.
§122 was renumbered and amended, it was previously §124. The amendment removes the limitation which had previously prohibited a municipality from enacting its own licensing requirements.
§123, the Law’s “Dangerous Dog” section was renumbered and amended, it was previously §121. The section was amended to include reference to the definition of the term “companion animal” in §350 of the Law. It is important for dog control officers and local courts to change their forms to reflect this change so as to reduce the opportunity for a challenge to the proceeding based upon a failure to correctly charge.
§§ 123-a and 123-b were also renumbered to match the new §123, they were previously §§121-a and 121-b. No amendments were made to these sections.
§124 was renumbered and amended in a minor fashion, it was previously §126.
Finally, §125 was repealed.
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