AB 147: Postsecondary education: animal research.

Existing law establishes a state policy that no adoptable animal should be euthanized if it can be adopted into a suitable home.

Existing law authorizes the State Department of Public Health to prescribe rules under which approval shall be granted to persons who wish to keep or use animals for diagnostic purposes, education, or research. Existing law authorizes the State Department of Public Health to make, promulgate, modify, amend, or rescind reasonable rules and regulations relating to the use of animals in diagnostic procedures and medical research. A person who violates these provisions is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Under existing law, the segments of postsecondary education in this state include the University of California, the California State University, the California Community Colleges, and independent institutions of higher education, as defined.

This bill would require a campus of the University of California, the California State University, or the California Community Colleges, or an independent institution of higher education, as defined, or an employee or student thereof, that confines dogs or cats for science or research purposes, if the institution assesses the health of an animal and determines, after the completion of any testing or research, that the animal is suitable for adoption, the animals destruction is not required, and the animal is no longer needed, and if the institutions existing procedures for adopting the animal do not result in an adoption, to offer the dog or cat to an animal adoption organization or animal rescue organization, as defined, prior to euthanizing the animal. The bill would not apply to animals suffering from a serious illness or severe injury, or to newborn animals that need maternal care and have been impounded without their mothers.