Sec. 1. 22 MRSA §1313, sub-§3, as enacted by PL 1993, c. 468, §23, is amended to read:

3. Costs associated with transportation, quarantine, testing and euthanasia. The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife shall pay all All costs for associated with rabid animals, including the transportation, quarantine, euthanasia and testing of an undomesticated animal suspected of having rabies, must be paid through a yearly appropriation from the State's General Fund to an account maintained by the Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory within the Department of Human Services, Bureau of Health. The owner of a domesticated animal suspected of having rabies shall pay all costs for transportation, quarantine, euthanasia and testing of the animal. If a domesticated animal is a stray or the owner is unknown, the municipality in which the animal was apprehended is responsible for transportation, quarantine, euthanasia and testing costs.

SUMMARY

This bill requires all rabies testing to be funded through a yearly appropriation from the State's General Fund to the Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory within the Department of Human Services, Bureau of Health. Current state law requires all laboratory costs, including transportation, quarantine, euthanasia and testing of undomesticated animals to be paid by the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and all laboratory costs relating to a domesticated animal to be paid by the owner of that animal.