Next Monday, February 9, 2015, the North Dakota House Human Services Committee will consider House Concurrent Resolution 3010. If ultimately approved, the resolution will direct legislative staff to study the identification of properly trained assistance dogs providing legitimate service to their owners, waivers of local registration fees, and the effect of various local ordinances on the acquisition and use of assistance dogs. Results of the study will be furnished during the next legislative assembly.
AKC’s Positions:
Use of Working, Assistance, and Service Dogs – The American Kennel Club strongly supports the training and use of dogs by humans, whose lives are enriched by dogs’ performing essential services. Dogs provide a wide variety of valuable services including: handicapped assistance dogs; drug, bomb, and arson detection dogs; and tracking dogs to locate missing persons and fugitives. The AKC opposes those who seek to define the assistance and service that dogs provide to humans as exploitative. The AKC encourages the continuation and further development of the use of dogs for these and similar purposes.
The AKC supports the right of persons who require a dog to perform essential services to be permitted to keep a dog without regard to the dog’s size, phenotype or breed.
Misuse of Service Dogs – Service dogs are defined as those that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. The AKC strongly supports public accommodations that allow individuals with disabilities to use service dogs. The AKC strongly condemns characterizing dogs as service animals when they are not, or attempting to benefit from a dog’s service dog status when the individual using the dog is not a person with a disability.
What You Can Do:
North Dakota residents can contact the members of the House Human Services Committee (listed below) expressing their support or concerns with HCR 3010.
Representative Robin Weisz, Chairman – rweisz@nd.gov
Representative Curt Hofstad, Vice Chairman – chofstad@nd.gov
Representative Bert Anderson – bertanderson@nd.gov
Representative Dick Anderson – dickanderson@nd.gov
Representative Rich S. Becker – rsbecker@nd.gov
Representative Chuck Damschen – cdamschen@nd.gov
Representative Alan Fehr – afehr@nd.gov
Representative Dwight Kiefert – dhkiefert@nd.gov
Representative Gail Mooney – gmooney@nd.gov
Representative Naomi Muscha – nmuscha@nd.gov
Representative Kylie Oversen – koversen@nd.gov
Representative Todd Porter – tkporter@nd.gov
Representative Jay Seibel – jayseibel@nd.gov
For more information, contact AKC’s Government Relations Department at (919) 816-3720, or email doglaw@akc.org.