California Bill Would Let Pet Owners Sue Negligent Boarding Facilities
Rep. James Gallagher introduced Dunkin’s Law after the death of a dog at a Los Angeles training facility and the discovery of 117 dogs’ remains at a Northern…
California Rep. James Gallagher introduced a bill targeting negligent pet boarding facilities after a dog died at a Los Angeles training business and investigators found the remains of 117 dogs at a Northern California rescue. The proposal, called “Dunkin’s Law,” would expand protections for companion animals and give owners a way to seek damages and other lost expenses.
The measure could increase the legal and financial consequences for facilities where pets are harmed or killed. Gallagher, a Republican, said he wants stronger safeguards for families who entrust animals to boarding and care businesses.
What Dunkin’s Law would change
The bill would expand California’s Animal Welfare Act to cover companion animals held or cared for at certain facilities, according to its text. It would also classify pets as “sentient beings” and allow owners to bring action against facilities to recover damages and other lost expenses when an animal is harmed or dies.
“There needs to be greater protections and teeth when something like this happens,” Gallagher told NBC News on Tuesday.
He said he hopes the measure protects families whose pets are hurt or die, while also ensuring no-kill shelters do not euthanize dogs and cats in “these horrific ways.” Gallagher said accountability should apply particularly to mistreatment and neglect.
“Hopefully, what it ultimately leads to is this doesn’t happen, that the disincentives are so strong that these guys really up their game and we don’t have bad actors,” he told NBC News.
Two cases behind the proposal
Gallagher said two events prompted him to introduce the bill. In June, investigators with the Humboldt County sheriff’s office uncovered mass burial sites at an animal rescue facility in Northern California. Officials recovered intact remains of 117 dogs, along with other skeletal remains. Preliminary examinations of some remains showed evidence of gunshot wounds.
“What investigators uncovered in Humboldt County is absolutely sickening,” Gallagher said in a release accompanying the bill announcement. He said people had entrusted animals to the rescue believing they would be protected.
The second case involved Dunkin, a Bernese mountain dog owned by DJ Andrew Fedyk and his wife, Madeleine White Fedyk. In August, the couple said Dunkin died at a board-and-train facility in Los Angeles.
Fedyk told NBC News in September that the couple left Dunkin and their other dog, Poutine, at Smart Dogs Training while they went on vacation. The business is owned and operated by trainer Jeff Todd. Fedyk said they found the business online and chose it after seeing positive reviews, hoping basic leash training would help their already well-behaved dogs.
Hours after the couple arrived in Europe, Fedyk said, Todd called to tell him Dunkin had died. According to Fedyk, Todd said the dogs had been playing outside during a heat wave and that Dunkin died while being taken to a separate boarding facility after “showing signs of heat exhaustion.”
The bill’s proposed legal remedy would matter directly to owners who face losses after entrusting pets to a covered facility: it would allow them to pursue damages and other expenses through an action against the business. Gallagher said stronger consequences could push facilities to improve how they care for animals.
Source: nbcnews.com
