WAYNE KRIEGER

[July 13th, 2005] For more than 100 years, agents from the Oregon Humane Society have enjoyed law-enforcement authority to investigate crimes against animals. They handle more than 1,000 cases a year. (See "Unsolved Murders," page 13, for an example.) Now, OHS stands to lose that authority, thanks in large part to some Roguish legislative legerdemain perpetrated by state Rep. Wayne Krieger .

Until this year, the "humane agents" operated under a dusty, decades-old statute that put the governor directly in charge. Gov. Ted Kulongoski decided his office should no longer oversee the program and asked the Humane Society to draft a bill transferring command to the state's Department of Public Safety.

So far, so boring. OHS wrote the bill, which started life in the House Judiciary Committee. Krieger, the committee's chair, promised to work to pass it. But in March, Krieger stalled the bill by refusing to schedule a necessary work session or a public hearing. Why? The Gold Beach Republican soured on the housekeeping measure after a spirited campaign by the Humane Society of the United States (a completely separate organization) to stop legislation loosening cougar- and bear-hunting laws. Krieger, a tree farmer, was a big supporter of that bill; bears damage his crops.

"You can't poke people in the eye to the tune of $400,000 worth of future benefit to my family and my children and then expect me to accommodate their needs," Krieger says.

The OHS jumped the bill to the Senate, where it breezed through. Now, though, the bill is snagged in the end-of-session backlog of pending legislation. If the House doesn't move (or if Kulongoski doesn't sign an order renewing the program's current status, which he's said he doesn't want to do), OHS agents must turn in their badges in September.