From a ban on cat declawing to designating the state’s official marsupial, New Hampshire lawmakers thought outside the box when filing legislation this year.

But most of those efforts, which the Monitor previewed last year, have failed. As the House and Senate gear up for Crossover Day, when all the bills passed by the House go to the Senate and vice versa, a few lucky pieces of legislation have survived thus far.

Here’s where things stand with some of New Hampshire’s quirkiest legislation of 2025.

 Squirrels and raccoons as pets

Inspired by the social media-famous story of Peanut, a gray rescue squirrel who lived under the care of a New York resident for seven years and was euthanized by the state to test for rabies, Rep. James Spillane attempted to make it easier for Granite Staters to help their rodent friends.

House Bill 251 would have allowed people to keep gray squirrels and raccoons as pets if they are injured and cannot be rehabilitated to go back into the wild. State representatives tabled the bill this week, and Spillane said he won’t try to resurrect it this time around.

“I’m going to look at some other options that may be more palatable,” Spillane said.

He’ll try the bill again next year with some changes that would focus more on the permit process for people who already own one of those animals before moving to New Hampshire, making it easier for them to legally own the animal and get veterinary care.

Cats without claws

Last month, the House killed a bill to ban cat declawing in New Hampshire with a 191-177 vote. House Bill 201 had gained support on both sides of the aisle but ultimately failed.

The legislation would have kept discretion for veterinarians to perform the procedure if they deemed it medically necessary but banned it for aesthetic and convenience reasons. HB 201 also would have established a fine for individuals who declawed their cats. Opponents of the bill argued there are extenuating circumstances that legislators may not be able to predict and that the decision to declaw should be left up to the cat owner and veterinarian.

Supporters disagreed.

“If we gave cats a choice, I’m pretty sure that they would in fact support this legislation,” Keene Rep. Nicholas Germana, a cosponsor of the bill, told his colleagues on the House floor.

This wasn’t the first time lawmakers debated the issue. A similar bill survived the House last year but was killed in the Senate.

‘Magic mushrooms’

This session, the House reviewed its stance on psychedelics, specifically psilocybin, the active compound in magic mushrooms.

House Bill 528, put forth by Deerfield Republican Rep. Kevin Verville, was intended to legalize the possession of psilocybin for people ages 21 and up. The Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, however, removed that component and instead modified the penalties surrounding the drug. 

Based on the amended version passed by the House, the fines for using, buying, transporting and possessing psilocybin would start at $100 on first offense. Those would then rise up to $1,000 and a class B misdemeanor with subsequent offenses.

Only two states have decriminalized the compound: Oregon and California.

Outlawing sticky rodent traps

An attempt to ban the adhesive traps used to catch mice, rats and rodents failed in the House in a more dramatic style. The chamber voted to indefinitely postpone House Bill 152, meaning the legislation is blocked from returning for the rest of this session and next session.

Rep. Linda Haskins, a Democrat from Exeter, told the Monitor last year that the traps are “just inhumane” and cause animals stuck in them to die “slow, painful death." Some animals even chew their own legs off to escape, she said.

Haskins has tried to pass this bill before, but opponents have said these traps need to be an option for dealing with pest overpopulation.

The official animated film of New Hampshire

Goffstown Rep. Joe Alexander pitched the idea that a short film made by a local should be recognized as the state’s official animated film. “Within the Crystal Hills,” an eight-minute animation by Goffstown native Griffin Hansen, is an artistic retelling of the Old Man on the Mountain story rooted in Indigenous culture.

Lawmakers killed House Bill 89 after the Executive Departments and Administration Committee unanimously voted against it. The report from Derry Republican Erica Layon said there were concerns about picking just one film without seeking a larger pool of candidates. They also heard in testimony that the film “departs significantly” from Indigenous culture and had concerns that it could lead to “confusion or erasure.”

New Hampshire’s state marsupial

Sen. Donovan Fenton proposed Senate Bill 30, declaring the Virginia opossum to be New Hampshire’s state marsupial. After Fenton talked to a fourth-grade class in Chesterfield about how the government works, the students signed a petition requesting the legislation.

The Senate passed it, with one significant change: All opossums within the state’s borders shall be known as “New Hampshire opossums.”

 

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, subscribe to her Capital Beat newsletter and send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com.