National Legislation — U.S. & world

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2003:

WASHINGTON D.C.–The U.S. military is exempted from complying
with the Marine Mammal Protection Act under a rider to the 2004
defense construction authorization bill, signed on November 22 by
President George W. Bush. The rider enabled the U.S. Navy to try to
overturn an October 2003 legal settlement in which it agreed to
extensive restrictions on the use of low-frequency sonar, believed
to be lethal to whales.
WASHINGTON D.C.–Associated Press reported on December 8 that
U.S. President Bush is expected to sign the Captive Wildlife Safety
Act, despite the opposition of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service,
which will be mandated to enforce it. The bill, requiring a federal
permit to sell exotic cats across state borders, cleared Congress on
December 7.

AUCKLAND–Dogs first registered after 2006 must be
microchipped, the New Zealand Parliament decreed on November 11.
The bill also forms a national dog registry, requires dogs deemed
dangerous by animal control officers to be neutered and be muzzled in
public, requires that dogs be leashed in public except in designated
off-leash areas, and bans the import of pit bull terriers, Fila
Brasieros, tosas, and dogo Argentinios.
Ottawa–23 Liberal members of the Canadian Senate on November
6 crossed party lines to kill the most recent and most nearly
successful of many efforts to update a national anti-cruelty law
dating to 1893.