Nebraska LB25 (2007)

On Friday (March 30, 2007) LB25 passed its final reading 41-1-7, and was sent to the Governor for signing.
On April 4, 2007 (Wednesday) Governor Dave Heineman signed LB25 into law

Background:

(NOTE: LB25 is listed here, and was of interest to this website because its original wording included hybrid cats.)

LB25 was a bill introduced into the Nebraska Unicameral (Legislature) by Senator Chris Langemeier in their 2007 session in response to a village in his district (Malmo, NE) having tried to ban 9 wolf-dog hybrids from the town.

Malmo's attempt to ban the dogs arose from one neighbor's complaint about David Hall's dogs. The dogs had not bitten or scratched anyone, and were not even running loose--they were confined to his own property. The dispute centered on "what-if this" or "what-if that" might happen. When the town found itself in a costly legal battle (this dog owner happened to have the money to be able to fight for his rights), it asked Senator Langemeier to address it at the state level, which he did. This led to time and money-wasting effort at the state level to fix what was essentially a local problem involving two individuals. The rabies issue was thrown in to make it look like a legitimate State concern. But it was actually little more than misuse of a Nebraska State Senator's office to try to enforce one person's dislike of his neighbor's pets. By the time the issue was resolved in court (in Mr. Hall's favor, by the way), the complaining neighbor had moved away. Mr. Hall is reported to have personally spent about $20,000 for his legal fees, and much time was spent by many of the State Senators in dealling with this issue--all resulting from one neighbor's complaint and the local Village officials being too ignorant or stupid to resolve it themselves.

LB25 originally attempted to define (contrary to already-existing USDA policy) both hybrid cats and dogs in a class by themselves. (USDA policy is that a wild animal bred to a domestic animal [regardless of species] produces domestic offspring). The bill then went on to require such "hybrid animals" to be vaccinated with rabies vaccines that were scientificaly proven in each particular hybrid animal type. Since no vaccines are tested and labeled as-such, the initial bill amounted to a back-door ban on all such animals. Senator Langemeier denied that the purpose of his bill was to ban the animals, but it was clearly stated in the hearing on LB25 that the reason he introduced the bill was to help Malmo out of the legal difficulties they'd gotten themselves into, and he admitted that a ban would, in fact be its direct result.

Public response succeeded in removing hybrid cats (such as bengals, savannahs, chausies, etc.) from the bill, but the ban proposal remained for the wolf-dog hybrids--despite the fact that it is impossible to differentiate (100% accurately) between some mixed-breed dogs, wolves, and wolf-dog hybrids. There is no genetic test that can differentiate even between a wolf and a dog--let alone a wolf-dog hybrid and a dog or a wolf.

In the end, the most nasty effects of this bill appear to have been eliminated. Amendment AM231small pdf file logo made the bill much more honest with respect to what the introducing Senator repeatedly claimed it would do. That amendment delays the effective date of the bill until such time as a vaccine actually is created that's proven effective in wolf-dog hybrids. At that point, wolf-dog hybrid owners will have one year to have their animals vaccinated with the new vaccine, move the animals out of the state, or let the State confiscate them (probably to be killed).

The result of this bill is not just a single law or statue. LB25 actually ammended all the following (already existing) state statutes:
71-4401
71-4402
71-4403
71-4404
71-4405
71-4406
71-4407
71-4408
71-4409
71-4410
71-4412

Senator Kopplin was the first to raise the issue in floor debate about the deceptive nature of the bill, and the way it was introduced and promoted [January 30, 2007 floor debate]. He was also the only one who stood against it all the way to the end, voting against it in its final vote, and we thank him for that.

History

Here you'l find information about this bill--from actual Nebraska State Clerk of the Legislature transcripts and other records. The text of LB25 is here (the last version to be voted-on with AM231--on page 5).small pdf file logo There are transcripts of its committee hearing and floor debates, and exhibits that were provided by speakers at the committee hearing. You can read for yourself the deceptive way this bill was touted by Senator Langemeier, and the way things were misrepresented or facts conveniently ignored. There are also some records of how everyone voted at various stages of its progress towards becoming law.

Agriculture Committee hearing:

Additional reference--
Omaha World-Herald: Monday, September 8, 2008: "Village stymied by court's rebuff to cry of 'wolf'" by John Ferak

This page last modified: 10-18-2008

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