‘Marauding dogs’ bill passed Senate.

The Senate just passed a bill that would repeal a very old Washington state law that said police should shoot any dog without a metal tag from August through February. The law also said that if a dog killed livestock, the dog owner would have to kill their animal within 48 hours or face misdemeanor charges.

To be clear: The Senate just passed a bill canceling all that. No one will have to kill their own dog. No police officer will shoot your dog just because he doesn’t have a tag.

Here’s the bill report.

But for a bill that had no opposition during hearings, there was some opposition. Why? Sen. Pam Roach wanted the bill to be amended to fix a problem she saw in the marauding dogs law: No requirement that owners of marauding dogs pay for damaged and killed livestock.

I’ll post the video soon. I’ve been waiting for a bit, but it’s not available.

Tags: marauding dogs