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Senate committee adopts substitute for bill to regulate pet cemeteries
Summary
The Senate Committee on Regulatory Affairs adopted the S-2 substitute for Senate Bill 157, a measure to create the state's first regulations for pet cemeteries, including notice and refund protections, local health-department approval for new sites and the removal of a proposed tax exemption.
The Senate Committee on Regulatory Affairs adopted the S-2 substitute for Senate Bill 157, a measure to establish state-level regulation of pet cemeteries and reported the bill to the Senate floor with a recommendation that it pass.
Senator Bayer, sponsor: "This bill does regulate pet cemeteries for the first time in Michigan," said Senator Bayer, who reviewed changes made after earlier testimony. The measure passed the committee substitute by voice vote and was later reported to the floor with a recorded roll-call.
The substitute makes four principal changes described in committee: it removes "big cats" from the bill's definition of "pet" (committee staff and witnesses said that the Michigan Large Carnivore Act already makes ownership of big cats illegal); it adds a requirement that new pet cemeteries obtain approval from local health departments; it extends the bill's consumer protections to people who have purchased plots but not yet interred a pet; and it removes a proposed property-tax exemption for pet cemeteries (committee testimony noted human cemeteries do not receive such exemptions).
Senator Bayer said the changes came at the suggestion of stakeholder groups including Michigan Humane, Eagle (identified in committee testimony as a stakeholder), and the Townships Association. A support card from Bet B. Freelander, representing Attorneys for Animals, was entered into the record but Freelander did not speak.
Procedural actions in committee: Vice Chair Paul Henke moved to adopt the S-2 substitute; the clerk recorded the substitute as adopted on an 11–0 voice/roll call. Senator McCann then moved to report the S-2 version of SB 157 to the Senate floor with the recommendation that the bill pass; that motion carried on a roll-call vote the clerk reported as 7 yeas, 3 nays.
The committee did not adopt a property-tax exemption and did not expand the definition of "pet" to include animals covered by the Michigan Large Carnivore Act. The committee did not take any additional amendments on the floor of the committee beyond the S-2 substitute. The bill will proceed to the full Senate for further consideration.
The committee record notes stakeholder involvement in drafting the substitute and lists Michigan Department of Health-related approval requirements for new cemeteries in the substitute language.
