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Senate gets new dog bill By PETER WONG SALEM -- The Senate will get another chance at a bill that changes Oregon's one-strike-and-you're-dead law for dogs that chase, injure or kill livestock. The bill that emerged Tuesday from the Senate Judiciary Committee did not satisfy the lawyer who defended Nadas, a Jackson County dog that ultimately was spared for chasing livestock. Senate Bill 795 requires counties with dog control programs to substitute a series of graduated penalties, based on the severity and number of prior offenses, for automatic death sentences unless counties choose otherwise. "But you have hard-line counties that oppose those requirements" for graduated penalties, said Robert Babcock, a lawyer from Lake Oswego and an animal-rights advocate. "More liberal counties, if I can call them that, do not want their hands tied in terms of flexibility." By a 4-1 vote, the committee approved the bill anyway. The lone dissenter was Sen. Ginny Burdick, D-Portland, who has labeled the issue "canine recidivism." Part of the impetus behind the bill was the fate of Nadas, the dog that Jackson County sentenced to death in 1996 for chasing horses in east Medford. A bill to lessen the penalties and spare Nadas cleared the Senate but died in the House two years ago. Babcock's appeals all the way to the Oregon Supreme Court failed, but pressure forced county commissioners to agree to transfer Nadas out of state. The bill approved Tuesday would require counties to conduct hearings on dog incidents 14 days after giving notice. They also would have to follow a series of graduated penalties, unless they choose to do otherwise in their own ordinance or charter, and implant microchips in dogs that are not put to death. The graduated penalties are: First-time chase, no previous offense: $500 fine to owner, other optional actions including confinement of dog, written pledge by owner to avoid a repeat occurrence. Second-time chase or first-time injury: Fine between $250 and $1,000; county may require adoption of dog by a new owner, relocation to someplace where dog is no longer a threat to livestock, or death of dog. First-time kill or second-time injury: Fine between $500 and $1,000; county shall require relocation or death of dog. Second-time kill: Fine between $500 and $1,000, county shall require death of dog. Counties may add to the fines if owners are repeat offenders. The bill does not change a decades-old Oregon law that allows livestock owners to shoot dogs they catch chasing, injuring or killing livestock on their land. The bill was the product of a year of negotiations involving several organizations. "I believe livestock producers have gone a long way getting to this point," said Richard Kosesan, lobbyist for the Oregon Sheep Growers Association. "It is not a panacea, but I think it is workable." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA