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An Act To Create an Animal Welfare Lottery Game
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 8 MRSA §374, sub-§6  is enacted to read:
 
6.  Animal welfare lottery game.     No later than January 30, 2008, the commission, in consultation with the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources, shall develop and initiate an animal welfare lottery game designed to raise funds to improve animal welfare and reduce the surplus of companion animals in the State. The sales commission paid to agents for the sale of animal welfare lottery game tickets must be one percentage point higher than the sales commission paid to agents for the sale of other instant lottery game tickets. The commission shall provide 2/3 of the net proceeds of this animal welfare lottery game to the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources and 1/3 of the net proceeds to the General Fund annually. The Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources shall split the proceeds received under this subsection equally between the animal welfare program under Title 7, section 3902 and the Companion Animal Sterilization Fund for subsidies to low-income persons for the spaying or neutering of those persons' companion animals under Title 7, section 3910-B. The commission shall change the animal welfare game ticket periodically throughout the year.
 
SUMMARY
This bill creates an animal welfare lottery game that will split the proceeds between the General Fund, the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources’s animal welfare program and the Companion Animal Sterilization Fund for subsidies to low-income persons for the spaying or neutering of those persons' companion animals.