House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda

        The way a dog’s body is designed makes it more susceptible than most species to heat stroke. On a typical summer day, exposure to direct heat, without the reprieve of shelter or shade can have fatal consequences. Without cooler air to regulate its body temperature, a dog’s body temperature rises, its protein structures begin to fail, the linings of its blood vessels become damaged, and the blood begins to clot. Once that happens, the heart, liver, kidney, and gastrointestinal tract begin to fail, causing brain damage and, eventually, death. In temperatures above 110 degrees, this whole process can take anywhere between 5 to 10 minutes.
 
      Libre’s Law, passed in 2017, provided some protection for dogs tethered in temperatures above 90 degrees and below 32 degrees by prohibiting such outdoor tethering for periods longer than 30 minutes. As you can see, this time period needs to be even shorter for dogs to receive adequate protection from the permanent damage that extreme heat and cold can cause.  Therefore, I will be introducing a companion bill to Senator Kim Ward’s Senate Bill 551 that: