COPS Press Release
Contact Monty Holden 800-352-7516
For Release Monday, June 4, 2007 9:00 am pst

PUBLIC SAFETY OPPOSITION TO AB 1634 IS GROWING
Loss of K9 Dogs and Costs to Cities and Counties Cited

The California Organization of Police and Sheriffs (COPS) announced growing opposition to AB 1634, “The Pet Extinction Act” (Levine, D-Van Nuys) because it will decimate police dogs, dogs for the blind, hearing impaired and disabled and is an unfunded state mandate threatening local public safety budgets.

The newest opposition comes from the 25,000 members of the National Coalition of Public Safety Officers (NCPSO) CWA/AFL-CIO along with the California Rescue Dog Association, the largest K9 search-and-rescue organization, the United States Police Canine Association, Western States Police Canine Association, Manteca Police Officers Association, Manteca Police Employees Association, Canine Specialized Search Team, and John Riboni, K9 Training Director for Placer County Sheriffs Department, Roseville Police Department, Lincoln Police Department, and Rocklin Police Department.

AB 1634 will decimate future law enforcement K-9 departments. At a time when we need more dogs, especially for bomb detection, this bill calls for the extinction of the mixed breed dogs used as working dogs for these duties and drastically reduces the availability of purebred working dogs. The so-called “exemptions” for law enforcement in the bill language do not make sense. Aside from current dogs in service, this legislation does not provide adequate exemption for the next generation of police dogs used for crime prevention, bomb searches, drug detection and search and rescue operations.

COPS Executive Director Monty Holden said, “In addition to eliminating dogs for law enforcement, the blind, hearing impaired and disabled, AB 1634 is an unfunded state mandate costing cities and counties over $1 billion annually. Local public safety funding is put at risk because of the unfunded state mandate in AB 1634.”

Over 50% of cities and counties general fund revenues are budgeted for public safety. AB 1634 will be a financial drain on cities and counties. Mandatory/spay neuter policies previously enacted have seen animal services budgets skyrocket. Law enforcement costs alone will increase by over $42 million if AB 1634 is passed into law.

“All of the major organizations involved with providing K9 dogs to law enforcement officers and blind, hearing impaired and disabled citizens are opposed to this bill because they understand the next generation of dogs will be decimated. AB 1634 will leave our law enforcement officers and blind, hearing impaired and disabled citizens vulnerable to great harm without the assistance of their dogs”, Holden added. For more information go to www.cops.cc