Title: Research Animals

Summary: Requires research facilities to offer certain dogs & cats for adoption to societies or associations before euthanizing such dogs & cats; authorizes facilities to enter into collaborative agreements; provides immunity from liability for research facilities acting in good faith; requires certain publicly funded institutions report concerning animal testing activities; provides requirements for report.

Full Text:
An act relating to research animals; creating s. 828.067, F.S.; requiring research facilities to offer certain dogs and cats for adoption to societies or associations for the prevention of cruelty to animals before euthanizing such dogs and cats; authorizing research facilities to enter into collaborative agreements with such societies and associations; providing immunity from liability for research facilities acting in good faith; requiring research facilities to submit specified annual reports to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services beginning on a specified date; providing penalties; creating s. 828.068, F.S.; providing definitions; requirin gcertain publicly funded institutions to make an annual report concerning animal testing activities; providing requirements for the report; providing an effective date. Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: Section 1. Section 828.067, Florida Statutes, is created to read: 828.067 Adoption of research dogs and cats. (1)(a) Before euthanizing a dog or cat that is no longer HB 1201 2024 needed for laboratory research purposes, a research facility located in the state shall offer the dog or cat for adoption to any society or association for the prevention of cruelty to animals, unless euthanizing the dog or cat is required for health or safety reasons. (b) A research facility may enter into a collaborative agreement with a society or ass ociation for the prevention of cruelty to animals for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this subsection. (2) A research facility that offers a dog or cat to a society or association for the prevention of cruelty to animals pursuant to subsect ion (1) is immune from civil liability for or resulting from the transfer of the dog or cat if the research facility acted in good faith concerning the health and physical condition of the dog or cat. (3) Beginning January 31, 2025, and each January 41 thereafter, a research facility that uses dogs or cats for laboratory research shall submit to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services a report that includes the following information for the preceding year: (a) The total number of dogs and ca ts owned by the facility. (b) The total number of dogs and cats used for research conducted at the facility. (c) The total number of dogs and cats released by the HB 1201 2024 facility to a society or association for the prevention of cruelty to animals for the pur pose of adoption. (d) The name and address of each society or association for the prevention of cruelty to animals to which a dog or cat was released by the facility. (4) A research facility that violates subsection (1) may be ordered to pay a civil fi ne of up to $2,000 per violation in an action to be brought by the state attorney of the county in which the violation occurred. Section 2. Section 828.068, Florida Statutes, is created to read: 828.068 Reporting on animal testing.-(1) As used in this section, the term: (a) "Animal" means any live vertebrate nonhuman animal. (b) "Animal testing facility" means a facility of a state agency or institution of higher education that confines and uses animals for research, education, or testing or ot her experimental, scientific, or medical purposes. The term does not include any facility exclusively engaging in agriculture,as defined in s. 570.02, or any agricultural education event. (c) "Animal test method" means a process or procedure that uses animals for research, education, testing, or experimental, scientific, or biomedical purposes. (d) "Contract testing facility" means any partnership, corporation, association, or other legal relationship that HB 1201 2024 conducts research, education, testing, or expe rimental, scientific, or biomedical studies on behalf of another entity. (2) Each publicly funded animal testing facility, contract testing facility, or manufacturer that uses an animal test method shall submit an annual report on or before January 31, 2025, and each January thereafter, for the preceding year to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in a form prescribed by the department. The annual report shall include the following information: (a) The total number of animals used for research, education, testing, experimentation, scientific, or medical purposes with such animals identified and grouped according to species. (b) The total number of animals per species used for each of the following purposes: 1. Studies of a fundamen tal nature in science relating to essential structures, functions, or disease processes. 2. Research and development of treatments, products, or devices for human medicine and dentistry and for veterinary medicine, excluding toxicological and other safet yevaluations described in subparagraph 3. 3. Toxicological and other safety evaluations, including, but not limited to, safety evaluations of products and devices for human medicine, human dentistry, and veterinary medicine. 4. Quality control of prod ucts and devices for human or HB 1201 2024 veterinary medicine. 5. Education and training of scientists or health care providers. 6. Any other purpose not described in this paragraph, to be specified by the person providing the information required by this section. (c) A detailed description of the methodology that was used for obtaining the counts of animals under paragraphs (a) and (b). Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2024.