HB 300 North Carolina House · 2025-2026 Session

Vet Care for Retired First Responder Dogs.

HB 300 establishes a program to reimburse owners of retired first responder dogs for veterinary care. It directly affects owners of canines that served with law enforcement, fire departments, or correctional agencies in roles like narcotics detection or search and rescue, after retiring on or after July 1, 2024. The bill requires registration of the dog and owner with the Department of Public Safety, then allows reimbursement of up to $1,500 annually for covered care - including routine check-ups, vaccinations, emergencies, surgeries, and euthanasia. Owners must submit itemized vet bills within 90 days of service.

Issues: ✓ Budget & Taxes

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Mar 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Mar 5, 2025 Last action Apr 1, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

Edition 1 → Edition 2 · 4 edits

MODERATE

This bill revision adds a requirement that retired first responder dogs must be certified by a nationally recognized organization to qualify for reimbursement. The document also includes formatting changes to the header and some minor text adjustments throughout the bill text.

Scope change

The bill now requires additional certification documentation from nationally recognized organizations for dogs to be eligible for the veterinary care reimbursement program.

ELIGIBILITY

Added requirement that retired first responder canines must receive certification in their specific work type from a nationally recognized organization to be eligible for the reimbursement program.

TECHNICAL

Changed the term 'approved Fund recipient' to 'approved Retired First Responder Canine Fund recipient' in the owner registration section for clarity.

Removed sponsor names and committee referral information from the header section, likely due to formatting updates in the legislative process.

Added a new subsection (b) to the reimbursement application section requiring owners to submit an application when seeking reimbursement.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Apr 1, 2025

Committee

Re-ref Com On Appropriations

lower

Apr 1, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reptd Fav Com Substitute

lower

Mar 6, 2025

Committee

Ref to the Com on Homeland Security and Military and Veterans Affairs, if favorable, Appropriations, if favorable, Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House

lower

Mar 5, 2025

Introduced

Filed

lower

3 primary · 39 co-sponsors