STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1364

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: S.B. No. 1022

S.D. 2

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Agriculture & Food Systems, to which was referred S.B. No. 1022, S.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ANIMAL ENDANGERMENT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to allow:

(1) Animal control officers, law enforcement officers, and firefighters to enter an unattended vehicle to protect the health, safety, or well-being of a pet animal that is endangered by being left or confined in an unattended vehicle; and

(2) Private citizens to retrieve a pet animal that has been left in an unattended vehicle, under certain circumstances.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Animal Rights Hawai‘i; AAA Hawaii; Animal Legal Defense Fund; and four individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Honolulu Police Department.

Your Committee finds that each year, numerous pet animals suffer and perish due to being left unattended in parked vehicles under extreme temperature conditions. Many pet owners are unaware that even on mild days, vehicle interiors can rapidly reach dangerously high temperatures in Hawaii. Given the severe risk of heat stroke, dehydration, and fatality, immediate intervention is often necessary to prevent harm. This measure authorizes designated public officials and private citizens to rescue pet animals from unattended vehicles under specified conditions, ensuring the protection and welfare of animals in distress.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Agriculture & Food Systems that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1022, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1022, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Agriculture & Food Systems,

____________________________

KIRSTIN KAHALOA, Chair