Oct. 04, 2018
HARRISBURG – Rep. Frank Ryan (R-Lebanon) announced today that the governor has signed his Humane Society police officer legislation into law as
Act 77 of 2018.
I want to thank our state senators and Senate leadership for making sure this legislation got to the governor’s desk prior to the end of our legislative session,” Ryan said. “It is rare that a freshman legislator gets a bill signed into law, and even rarer when it is a bill that will have significant impact. I also want to thank Gov. Tom Wolf for sharing my concern for animal welfare and our agriculture community.”
Ryan introduced the measure,
House Bill 1917, in order to strengthen the training and oversight of Humane Society police officers. The bill would strengthen the current training and oversight requirements by:
- Increasing initial and annual training hours for humane society police officers.
- Mandating training of the proper procedure to file citations and warrants, including when and how to contact other law enforcement.
- Including training in farm operations and biosecurity, including at least one on-site visit to a working commercial farm operation.
- Requiring that a Humane Society police officer remain a resident of the Commonwealth to retain his or her appointment as an officer.
- Subjecting an officer to automatic revocation of his or her appointment in all counties if any one county revokes the appointment.
- Treating associations that employ Humane Society police officers as local agencies under the Right-to-Know Law.
“No one can countenance true cruelty to animals,” Ryan said. “But we must also be mindful to educate our Humane Society police officers about farms and rural communities so that they can focus their enforcement efforts against those who truly commit cruel acts.”
Representative Frank Ryan
101st Legislative District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Charles Lardner
717.260.6443
clardner@pahousegop.com
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