---
type: "Bill"
title: "Animal testing facilities; definitions, adoption of dogs and cats, civil penalty."
description: "Animal testing facilities; adoption of dogs and cats; civil penalty. Requires any animal testing facility, defined in the bill, that no longer has need for a dog or cat in its possession that does not pose a health or safety risk to the public or itself to offer, for a reasonable period of time prior to euthanasia, such dog or cat for adoption to a releasing agency or through a private placement or in the case of a testing facility operated by an agency or institution of higher education, develop its own adoption program. The bill authorizes an animal testing facility to enter into an agreement with a releasing agency for the implementation of the adoption. Violation is subject to a civil penalty of not more than $5,000 and any court costs and attorney fees."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2021"
identifier: "SB 1417"
citation: "Virginia SB 1417 (2021)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["William M. Stanley, Jr."]
version_count: 4
action_count: 35
vote_count: 9
first_action: "2021-01-13"
last_action: "2021-03-24"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/c9d6db0a-8984-4011-a1fb-9be442fd7a63"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+sum+SB1417"
source_hash: "b4538aaa3691eebf66bc5e2e20149a25b4f0144c9fbd6e2882d015ba846f0423"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia SB 1417 (2021) — Animal testing facilities; definitions, adoption of dogs and cats, civil penalty.

Animal testing facilities; adoption of dogs and cats; civil penalty. Requires any animal testing facility, defined in the bill, that no longer has need for a dog or cat in its possession that does not pose a health or safety risk to the public or itself to offer, for a reasonable period of time prior to euthanasia, such dog or cat for adoption to a releasing agency or through a private placement or in the case of a testing facility operated by an agency or institution of higher education, develop its own adoption program. The bill authorizes an animal testing facility to enter into an agreement with a releasing agency for the implementation of the adoption. Violation is subject to a civil penalty of not more than $5,000 and any court costs and attorney fees.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **CHAP0340** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+CHAP0340)
2. **Committee substitute printed 21103722D-S1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1417S1)
3. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21100835D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1417)
4. **SB1417ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1417ER)

## Votes

- Reported from Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources with substitite (15-Y 0-N) — **15–0** (pass) · upper
- Read third time and passed Senate (38-Y 0-N) — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed (38-Y 0-N) — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- Continued to Special Session 1 in Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources — **0–0** (fail) · lower
- Subcommittee recommends reporting (8-Y 0-N) — **8–0** (pass) · lower
- Reconsideration of passage agreed to by Senate (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Passed Senate (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Block Vote Passage (100-Y 0-N) — **99–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources (22-Y 0-N) — **22–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- William M. Stanley, Jr. — primary (person)
- Jennifer B. Boysko — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2021-01-13** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21100835D `introduction`
- **2021-01-13** Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources `referral-committee`
- **2021-01-18** Assigned ACNR sub: Companion Animals `referral-committee`
- **2021-01-25** Impact statement from DPB (SB1417)
- **2021-01-25** Senate subcommittee amendments and substitutes offered
- **2021-01-26** Senate committee, floor amendments and substitutes offered
- **2021-01-26** Reported from Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources with substitite (15-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-01-26** Committee substitute printed 21103722D-S1 `substitution`
- **2021-01-28** Constitutional reading dispensed (38-Y 0-N)
- **2021-01-29** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2021-01-29** Reading of substitute waived
- **2021-01-29** Committee substitute agreed to 21103722D-S1
- **2021-01-29** Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute SB1417S1
- **2021-02-01** Read third time and passed Senate (38-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2021-02-01** Reconsideration of passage agreed to by Senate (39-Y 0-N)
- **2021-02-01** Passed Senate (39-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2021-02-01** Impact statement from DPB (SB1417S1)
- **2021-02-05** Placed on Calendar
- **2021-02-05** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2021-02-05** Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources `referral-committee`
- **2021-02-08** Continued to Special Session 1 in Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources
- **2021-02-09** Assigned ACNR sub: Agriculture `referral-committee`
- **2021-02-17** Subcommittee recommends reporting (8-Y 0-N)
- **2021-02-17** Reported from Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources (22-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-02-18** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2021-02-19** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2021-02-19** Passed House BLOCK VOTE (100-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2021-02-19** VOTE: Block Vote Passage (100-Y 0-N)
- **2021-02-24** Enrolled
- **2021-02-24** Impact statement from DPB (SB1417ER)
- **2021-02-24** Signed by President
- **2021-02-25** Signed by Speaker
- **2021-02-26** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on February 26, 2021
- **2021-02-26** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., March 31, 2021
- **2021-03-24** Approved by Governor-Chapter 340 (effective 7/1/21) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/c9d6db0a-8984-4011-a1fb-9be442fd7a63`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).