LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Pet rescues and animal shelters hear it over and over: a family has to give up their dog because they had to move and the new place has a rule.
“It is heartbreaking to have to watch families come in day after day who truly love their pets and they have no other option but to surrender them because they have to move their family into new housing for whatever reason, maybe they lost a job, or the cost of living is so astronomical for the majority at this point,” Jill Dobbs, executive director of the Northern Nevada SPCA, said on Friday. She was testifying in support of Senate Bill 166 (SB166).
“They have no choice. And to watch these parents who are already in such a difficult place have to surrender their kids’ best friend is horrifying,” Dobbs said.
SB166 would expand existing state laws regarding insurance policies. Apartment complexes and other multifamily housing wouldn’t be allowed to exclude pets.
Another section of the bill would apply to housing units that are state-funded, making sure they would allow at least one pet.
“It’s actually known that if somebody has a pet, the family stays together,” according to Mindy Elliott, who spoke on behalf of the Nevada Rural Housing Authority.
Advocates said housing policies are among the most common reasons dogs, cats and other pets have to be given up. These policies also keep families from adopting pets from shelters, they said.
Susan Riggs, senior director of housing policy for the ASPCA, said the majority of insurance claims at multi-family housing units come from slip-and-fall cases. Vicious dogs aren’t a big problem, she said. Current state law prohibits an insurance company from refusing to issue, canceling, refusing to renew or raising premiums solely based on the breed of a dog. They can only do that if an individual dog is known to be dangerous or vicious.
SB166 is sponsored by Democratic Sen. Melanie Scheible, who represents District 9 in Clark County.
