New legislation has been proposed in Arizona that would allow pet owners to walk their dogs off the leash assuming that those animals are adequately insured.
Lawmakers in the state are debating whether or not to let people who have insured their pets forgo the current leash laws and homeowner association rules because the coverage will pay for any injuries that could occur as a result of the behavior.
Senator Lori Klein (R-Anthem) created the proposed legislation that would negate the current county ordinances that say that dogs on public lands such as parks must be kept on a leash, provided that those dogs have a minimum of $50,000 of liability coverage. According to Klein, there is no reason that a well-behaved, responsible, and insured dog should not be permitted to run free.
Klein has already shown her specific distaste for homeowner association leash laws regulations, and she has said that SB 1065, her new legislation, would stop these groups from being able to stop a dog from moving about its owner’s unfenced front yard without being on a leash.
This concept, though, is not without its opposition, and it faced this resistance from animal control and law enforcement officers at the Senate Committee hearing on Government Reform. Even other senators, such as Sen. Frank Antenori (R-Tucson) has questioned the proposed legislation’s logic.
Klein has since been forced to make further changes to the proposal – which has now already had the element including city parks removed – in order to have any hope at all of having it passed.
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