Sun-News Reports –
The New Mexico House of Representatives passed a bill establishing a new $100 fee on pet foods sold in the state, with the money going to fund low-cost spay and neuter programs throughout the state.
The bill passed on a 48-19 vote Thursday, and now moves to the Senate.
New Mexico has a serious pet overpopulation problem, Rep. Carl Trujillo, D-Santa Fe argued, with somewhere between 112,000 and 115,000 cats and dogs picked up every year. The majority of those are euthanized, he said.
“We’ve heard testimony that this is a public safety issue,” he said. “We’ve had children who have been killed, mauled by packs of dogs.”
Pet food manufacturers already pay a $2 registration fee, which goes to the Department of Agriculture. This bill would add $100 to that fee.
The Animal Sheltering Board would be responsible for determining where the needs are greatest and how to address them, Trujillo said. That would likely include mobile spay and neuter clinics, as well as working with veterinarians in each community to provide low-cost services.
Pet owners whose income is within 200 percent of the federal poverty level would qualify for services.
Rep. Rick Little, R-Chaparral, opposed the bill, saying he feared it would lead to other new taxes being added in the future.
“You can call it a fee; I would call it a tax,” he said.
Rep. Larry Scott, R-Hobbs, said that if spay and neuter services were important, they should be paid for through the general fund, not by creating a new fee.
Rep. Joanne Ferrary, D-Las Cruces, noted that Doña Ana County established a goal in 2012 of having no more animals euthanized within the next seven years.
“If we can put these funds into the great use of spay and neuter, we can not only become a no-kill county, but a no-kill state,” she said.
While it is expected that the cost of the new fee will be passed on to consumers, a legislative analysis on the bill described the impact as “negligible” given the size of the fee.
