Proposal to grant officials leeway in wild-animal bite cases stalls
A House committee halted a proposal Tuesday that would have amended the rule requiring the state to euthanize any wild animal that attacks a human, citing testimony from state health and wildlife officials who argued the bill would pose a significant risk to public health.
The State Government, Indian and Veterans Affairs Committee tied 4-4 in a vote to table House Bill 109.
But Rep. Derrick Lente, D-Sandia Pueblo, voted with the dissenting committee Republicans. Without a vote needed to advance it, the bill is effectively dead.
“This puts me in a tough spot,” Lente said, referencing his political affiliation and drawing a few chuckles from the crowded committee room. He went on to say he could not support the bill because of the many cattle growers in his district who had voiced their opposition.
House Bill 109 would have amended state law to give officials more leeway in evaluating circumstances of a wild animal attack and whether an animal should be killed, an attempt to write some discretion into the 1970s-era law that mandates death when a human is bitten.
In place of mandatory euthanasia, the bill would have required state officials to consider several conditions, namely the animal's species, the circumstances of exposure, the epidemiology of rabies in the area, the exposing animal's history and current health status and the animal's potential for exposure to rabies.
Those who testified in opposition argued the conditions would place an undue burden on state officials in a situation in which a timely response is necessary to determine whether a person might have been infected with rabies, a disease with low prevalence in humans that is nonetheless almost always fatal.
The bill, as written, "creates a major public safety issue for the citizens of the state of New Mexico," said Alexa Sandoval, director of the Department of Game and Fish.
The issue came under a national spotlight last year when a marathon runner in the Valles Caldera was attacked by a bear. State officials tracked the bear, which wore a collar as part of a study, and euthanized it, sending its brain to a lab in Albuquerque for rabies testing. The tests were negative. Public backlash was fierce.
The marathoner, Karen Williams, 54, a nurse, suffered injuries but survived. She said the bear was simply protecting its nearby cubs and should not have been punished for acting within its nature.
Williams subsequently worked on the proposed legislation with Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard, D-Los Alamos, who sponsored the bill.
“It wasn't my fault, it was not the bear’s fault,” Williams said Tuesday during the committee hearing. “… We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, both of us.”
The Santa Fe New Mexican is a sister-paper of The Taos News.
