New Virginia laws are taking effect on Monday.
The first one requires you to register your farm vehicle with the DMV if you use it on public roads.
You have until July 1. The DMV-issued placards will be required for farm-use panels, and pick-up trucks and sports vehicles.
They cost about $15, and they’re good for the lifetime of the vehicle.
If you don’t register your farm-use vehicle, you could be looking at a fine of about $250.
The Virginia Farm Bureau said that this new law eliminates vehicles that are not used for farming that have this tag.
“The exception itself is an exception from registration in regard to the farm use vehicle law. So, certain non-farming community populations were figuring out about this law and you would often see like Tesla or certain other types of vehicles riding down the road with a farm use tag,” said Local and State Advocacy Specialist Katelyn Jordan with the Virginia Farm Bureau.
Meanwhile, laws that help animals will also take effect in the Commonwealth.
The first one allows localities to create an online registry for public access that includes people who are convicted of animal cruelty felonies.
The registry will be available on a locality or police department’s website.
Another law now bans the de-clawing of cats except for therapeutic purposes.
“It’s an amputation at that first knuckle so when you do that to cats it can cause lots of arthritis issues in cats even if it doesn’t affect them right away but essentially, you’re asking them to walk on their knuckles,” said Rickmond.
The SPCA said they hear a lot of times from people that they declaw their cats because they might scratch the furniture or even someone else. However, the SPCA said scratching for cats is normal. The animal shelter said you can get nail covers for cats and you can also teach them to only scratch on appropriate things.
There are some gun laws that are taking effect across the state on July 1, too.
The first one bans devices known as auto-sears. They are used to convert semi-automatic firearms to shoot more than one shot without reloading manually.
The other law would make it a felony for any parent or guardian to let their child get access to a gun if they found out or know that their kid poses a threat to themselves or others.
“The laws that we were concerned about were all basically vetoed this year. So, these laws really didn’t affect the average gun owner at all,” said President of the Virginia Citizens Defense League.
Van Cleave said there is already a federal law that mimics the auto-sears ban.