Sponsored by:
Senator RONALD L. RICE
District 28 (Essex)
SYNOPSIS
Delay effective date of various provisions of P.L.2017, c.331 concerning animal cruelty law enforcement for two years until August 1, 2020.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning the enforcement of various animal cruelty laws and amending the effective date of P.L.2017, c.331.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 36 of P.L.2017, c.331 is amended to read as follows:
36. [This] Sections 1 through 32 and 35 of this act shall take effect on [the first day of the seventh month following the date of enactment, except that sections 25, 26, 27, and 28 of this act shall take effect on the first day of the fourth month following the date of enactment, sections 33, 34, and 36] August 1, 2020, the remainder of this act shall take effect immediately, and the Attorney General and any county prosecutor or governing body of a municipality may take any administrative action in advance [thereof] of those dates as shall be necessary for the implementation of this act.
(cf: P.L.2017, c.331, s.36)
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would delay the effective date of most of the provisions of P.L.2017, c.331 (C.4:22-14.1 et al.). That 2017 law revised the way in which animal cruelty law is enforced in the State by, among other things, transferring the power of humane law enforcement from the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NJSPCA) to the county prosecutor in each county, and requiring the designation of a municipal humane law enforcement officer in each municipality with an existing police department.
Specifically, the bill would delay the effective date of most of the sections of P.L.2017, c.331 from the first day of the seventh month after the date of enactment of P.L.2017, c.331 (i.e., August 1, 2018) for two years until August 1, 2020. The date of enactment of P.L.2017, c.331 was January 16, 2018.
The effective date of the following two sections of the 2017 law would remain as January 16, 2018:
Section 33 (which prohibits the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals from taking certain actions with regard to the charters of county societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals, and provides that the act should not be construed to require county societies to surrender any of their assets; and section 34 (which pertains to certain responsibilities of the Attorney General under the act).