PHOENIX — Arizona could soon have a state law to mandate the kind of advice your mother would give you: Wash your hands after petting farm animals.
Sen. John Kavanagh says it makes common sense, but that the fact children got sick with E. coli after being at a petting zoo last year at the Arizona State Fair means it's not necessarily happening. So he wants to make it the law.
His Senate Bill 1082 would mandate that operators of petting zoos, animal encounter exhibits and other similar operations ensure that visitors wash their hands with soap or water or use a hand sanitizer immediately upon leaving any area where animals are accessible to the public. Someone would have to supervise the process.
Kavanagh, a Fountain Hills Republican, said the measure also would require the area be set up so that people just walking by can't touch the animals, "so they don't catch anything.''
He said what he's proposing is not government overreach. He told Capitol Media Services it's not different than other requirements in the health code that food handlers must go through special training to be certified by the state and that restaurants are routinely inspected.
"If you have a petting zoo and there's a chance you could be spreading serious illnesses which can hospitalize children, have a hand washing station,'' Kavanagh said.
A proposed Arizona law would mandate that operators of petting zoos, animal encounter exhibits and other similar operations ensure that visitors wash their hands with soap or water or use a hand sanitizer immediately upon leaving any area where animals are accessible to the public.
The measure was sparked by reports from Parker's Promise, a national nonprofit group that works with children who have become infected because of environmental factors, that it was contacted by parents of several Arizona children who became ill after petting pigs at the state fair's petting zoo. It said multiple children were hospitalized to be treated for bacteria expelled in the fecal material of all animals.
Some forms of the bacteria are benign. But others cause serious infection, including the possible need for kidney transplants.
"Obviously, we've got a problem,'' said Will Humble, executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association.
But does it require legislation?
"In an ideal world, you could just rely on the state fair people and the county and state health departments to ensure that the petting zoos are run properly and safely,'' said Humble, a former state health director who helped Kavanagh craft the measure.
"But, as we saw with the state fair, sadly, it looks like you can't rely on just good public health practice,'' Humble said. "You probably need some legislation to ensure that people take it seriously and are held accountable for making sure that just the basic safety measures are in place.''
The biggest potential problems, he said, are at petting zoos that are the largest and are set up for the longest periods of time, such as at a county or state fair.
"You've got kids running through, day after day,'' Humble said. That is far different, he said, than a parent who may contract with someone to bring a few animals to a birthday party.
There's another big difference. "Those ones that come to birthday parties tend to be goats and sheep and stuff,'' he said.
But Humble said operations like the one at the state fair are different.
"At the fairs, you have pigs that lay around in their own feces which, is a different behavior and puts them (visitors) at higher risk in terms of animals,'' he said. That requires not only that there be places to wash hands or sanitize but also that someone to make sure those who have been inside the area, and petting the animals, are washing up afterwards, he said.
"Had that been in place, all of those kids wouldn't have gotten sick,'' he said.
The proposal would not force homeowners who invite petting zoos to their parties to put in and enforce hand-washing stations, but it would require them to post a sign saying people who came into contact with the animals must wash their hands.
No date has been set for a legislative hearing.
