Governor Signs Pet Protection Bill but Opposes Penalties

Responding to reports that members of some ethnic groups may be killing dogs and other pets for food, Gov. George Deukmejian has signed a bill that would make the practice a crime.

In an unusual letter to lawmakers released Monday, Deukmejian called for a follow-up bill that would soften the penalties in the new law--eliminating jail time and substituting civil penalties.

The governor recognized that one culture’s taboo can be another’s delicacy.

“Although I am signing this bill, I do not believe it is appropriate to impose criminal penalties for a violation of this law,” Deukmejian wrote. “If the killing of pets for food is a cultural practice that a few new arrivals to our country have as a custom, their assimilation to accepted practices can be accomplished with more sensitivity.”

The measure, by Assemblywoman Jackie Speier (D-South San Francisco), will make raising or killing a pet for food a misdemeanor, punishable by six months in jail or a $1,000 fine or both, beginning Jan. 1, 1990.

The legislation grew out of an incident earlier this year in Long Beach, where two Cambodian refugees were accused of cruelty to animals after they killed a German shepherd puppy for food.

The animal cruelty charges were dismissed when the judge in the case determined that there was no evidence that the men had “inflicted unreasonable pain on the animal. . . . To hold otherwise would subject every slaughterhouse employee or farmer to prosecution.”

But because of this and other incidents, animal rights groups called for legislation that would outlaw the killing of dogs and cats for food.

The Cambodian Assn. of America, contending that dog meat is not a customary food in Cambodia, supported the effort.

‘Don’t Eat Dogs’

“Cambodians don’t eat dogs,” said the association’s executive director, Nil Hul. But because of the Long Beach case “our community received death threats that our community did not deserve. So to take the heat off, I supported that bill.”

However, Hul said he is sympathetic with immigrant communities from parts of Asia where dog meat is considered a delicacy.

Members of those communities complained that by specifying “dogs and cats,” the measure was singling out certain ethnic groups and asked for a more general prohibition.

As a result, Speier agreed to amend her bill to apply the ban to “any animal traditionally or commonly kept as a pet or companion.”

The measure exempts “any livestock, poultry, fish, shellfish or any other agricultural commodity produced in this state”--a provision that would allow the slaughter of pet rabbits, pigs or chickens.

In other action Monday, Deukmejian announced that he had also signed a bill, by Assemblyman Terry Friedman (D-Los Angeles), that would force gas stations along major highways to keep their restrooms open to the public during business hours. The measure would not apply to stations built without restrooms before next January, when the bill goes into effect.