House panel reviews H.841 to expand Vermont’s Division of Animal Welfare, require outdoor cat vaccinations and set licensing rules

Representative Shay Waters Evans, sponsor of H.841, told the House Government Operations and Military Affairs committee on Jan. 30 that the bill is intended to consolidate scattered animal-related statutes and give Vermont’s Division of Animal Welfare clearer authority to prevent and respond to animal mistreatment.

"There were some goats in Charlotte that were being mistreated," Waters Evans said, describing a case in which local and state agencies deferred responsibility. The anecdote framed the bill’s goal of creating a single, better-resourced point of contact for animal-welfare enforcement within the Department of Public Safety.

The bill would formally add rulemaking, inspection and some licensing powers to the Division of Animal Welfare (Title 20, chapter 190). It directs the director to adopt rules on several mandatory items, including a definition of "outdoor cat" and requirements that outdoor cats be vaccinated for rabies, spayed or neutered and licensed. Waters Evans and legislative counsel said indoor cats that use a screened-in enclosure (“catios”) would not be treated as outdoor cats for the requirement.

H.841 also would authorize a certified rabies vaccinator program overseen by the director. The program…