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Sponsor proposes hospitality check‑in form for service animals; committee sends subject to interim study
Summary
Representative Jerry Stringham, sponsor of HB 1117, urged a committee to study tools to help businesses distinguish service animals from misbranded pets and suggested referring a sample hospitality check‑in form to the Department of Agriculture for review; members raised legal limits on questions businesses may ask and civil‑rights concerns.
Representative Jerry Stringham, the bill’s prime sponsor, told the Commerce and Consumer Affairs committee that HB 1117 was intended to help restaurants, hotels and other businesses dealing with misbranded service animals and the disruptions they sometimes cause. Stringham said he created a sample hospitality check‑in form and suggested the committee refer the idea to the Department of Agriculture to draft state‑compliant language.
The proposal would not expand the scope of questions allowed under federal law, Stringham said, but would give establishments a short form they could post or use when handling service‑animal disputes. “What they thought would be helpful would be information … one short form that talks about or that they can post and put on their wall,” Stringham said during the hearing.
The committee heard questions about whether completing such a form could be made a legal requirement. Representative Burrows asked if a restaurant could mandate that a patron sign the form as a condition of bringing the animal inside; Stringham said he thought it would be reasonable to ask but that his recommendation was to report back on whether legislation was needed.
Members also raised civil‑rights limits on what proprietors may require. Representative Gibbs warned that it would be problematic — and potentially unlawful — to require a person with a disability to write down details about their disability or to sign off on the services their animal performs. Members repeatedly noted that under federal law the allowable inquiries are narrowly limited to whether an animal is a service animal and what task it is trained to perform.
Vernon Madden, representing the New Hampshire Coalition for the Support of Service Dogs, urged businesses to use the two permitted questions and pointed to education and advocacy as part of the solution: “The…questions are: is it a service dog, and what tasks is it trained to perform?” Madden said, and added that businesses also have the right to remove an animal that is misbehaving.
No committee vote was taken on HB 1117. The chair indicated the committee’s process will treat many items as interim studies and directed staff and members to use the upcoming study period to flesh out options, with the expectation that the bill will be handled in that context.
