2024 LEGISLATION & TESTIMONY
Key 2024 Animal Bills
* CVA Priority Bills
During the "short" session, bills are restricted to only those introduced by a committee, which limits the number of bills debated. Below are proposed bills that we are asking you to review and support or oppose to help protect Connecticut’s animals.
*HB 5217 - An Act Concerning the Use of Certain Rodenticides. Click for bill status updates - View CVA's testimony - View all testimony
Please support this bill with needed amendment to let the Environment Committee know the bill as drafted is deficient and must be amended to ban the use and sale of SGARs statewide.
SGARs are powerful poisons that stay in tissues and organs of rodents for months, making it easy for predators that naturally eat rodents – such as owls, eagles, and hawks -- to get a lethal dose of toxins. In this way, the use of SGARs is counterproductive to rodent control by poisoning, harming, and killing the very animals that naturally regulate rodent populations throughout Connecticut.
Tragically, unintentional secondary poisonings from Second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs) are increasing at an alarming rate and victims include wildlife, pets, and children. Click here to learn more.
*HB 5223 - An Act Concerning Minor Revisions to Agriculture Related Statutes. Click for bill status updates - - View CVA's testimony - View all testimony
Please oppose this bill as currently written. Section 1 of this bill is harmful to Connecticut’s animals and must be removed from the bill.
Please urge the Environment Committee to strike Section 1 of this Bill. Section 1 of this bill redefines “animal” to only animals that “humans selectively breed in captivity” and that live “in close association with humans”. It further narrows the definition of animal for amphibians, fish, and reptiles to only those “that are offered for sale by a pet shop for which there is certification of captive breeding”.
The protections provided to animals under this chapter of the statutes include the ability of Animal Control Officers (ACOs) to intervene to prevent cruelty (Section 22-329) and to seize or seek forfeiture of animals when they have reasonable cause to believe that cruelty is occurring (Section 329a). Feral cats and other animals would now be unprotected from cruelty under this bill as written. Many people keep animals as pets that are obtained from sources other than pet shops or places where they are selectively bred in captivity by humans. Under this definition, many pets would be excluded from protection as would thousands of animals across the state, perhaps including yours. Section 1 of this bill needs to be removed.
*HB 5224 - An Act Concerning the Protection of the Spiny Dogfish. Click for bill status updates - View CVA's testimony - View all testimony
Please support this bill which prohibits the possession, sale, trade, or distribution of shark fins. Shark finning is the cruel and despicable act of removing fins from sharks and discarding the rest of the shark back into the ocean. Please ask the Environment Committee to act favorably on HB 5224.
*SB 132 - An Act Concerning Dog Racing. Click for bill status updates - View CVA's testimony - View all testimony
Please support this bill. It is an opportunity to formally close the statutory book on live greyhound racing and ensure that the promise to the people of Connecticut is kept.
*SB 190 - An Act Concerning the Use of Neonicotinoids. Click for bill status updates - View CVA's testimony - View all testimony
Please oppose this bill as written. This bill would prohibit the nonagricultural use of neonicotinoids.
These pesticides are killing our pollinators and other vital insects in our ecosystems. PROTECT OUR POLLINATORS!
The wording from last year’s bill should be reinstated to ban the non-agricultural use of neonics. The bill should provide specifics about how and when neonics can be used to save trees under attack from invasive insects and ban their use on other trees and shrubs.
*SB 196 - An Act Concerning the Harvesting of Rabbits for the Local Food Supply. Click for bill status updates - View CVA's testimony - View all testimony
Please oppose this bill which would provide authority for the inspection and processing of rabbits in the state for the purpose of supplying local restaurants and consumers.
This proposal will bring factory-like farming of rabbits to CT under the guise of promoting farming in the state.
*SB 291 - An Act Concerning the Sale of Certain Balloons. Click for bill status updates - View CVA's testimony - View all testimony
Please support this bill to prohibit the sale of helium and lighter-than-air gas balloons that are not biodegradable.
This year, the proposal is to ban the sale, not just the release of, “lighter than air” balloons that are not biodegradable.
Birds, turtles, and other wildlife commonly mistake balloons for food. Once consumed, animals can choke or suffer grave internal injuries, eventually killing them. Many animals become entangled in balloon strings causing strangulation or rendering them unable to fly and become food for predators.
Although balloons only take moments to release, they can take hundreds of years to biodegrade and cause serious harm to wildlife.