The Virginia House Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns advanced more than a dozen House and Senate bills, with the most contentious action centered on HB 1238, a permissive pet shop regulation bill that was initially voted down, then reconsidered and ultimately reported 11–8 after a procedural reversal. Several Senate bills were substituted with preferred House language before being reported on divided votes.
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Delegate Greene Shin and PETA's Daphne Nakmanovich argued that state enforcement is inadequate — with only two VDACS staff covering the entire commonwealth and just one annual inspection — while pet store operator Amanda Friedl countered that allowing each locality to create its own rules would result in a confusing patchwork of regulations and requested that oversight remain at the state level.
“House Bill 1238 is actually a permissive bill that allows localities to adopt an ordinance that best works for their communities. This comes after several localities, including Prince William County, Fauquier County, Greene county and others, they've struggled to hold bad actors accountable for the abuse or mistreatment of animals in their care. In absence of a stronger enforcement mechanism for complaints or violations relating to pet shop regulation in the commonwealth.”
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Sign in to subscribeThe committee will come to order. The committee will be at ease. Committee will come to order. Welcome to counties, cities and towns Our favorite of dream it, plan it, build it Committee of spires and shires. Let's go ahead and get started. With block one. We have. Let's go ahead. And the clerk will open the rolls. That will be block one. The clerk will please close the roll. A quorum is present. We will begin with block 1. House Bill 792 and 1050. These were bills that reported without opposition. Is there anybody who would like to take those out of the block? Then I would entertain a motion to report those bills as amended. Mr. Chair, I move that we report House Bill 792 and House Bill 1050 as a block. Thank you. Been properly moved and seconded the block. With amendments. With amendments. The clerk shall open the rolls, please. Clerk shall please close the roll. The bills report on a vote of 19 to 0. All right. Next in front of us are House bills that have not been heard in subcommittee. These will be the only bills that we will hear testimony on today.…
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