Many acts of animal cruelty are closer to becoming federal felonies after the House’s unanimous passage Tuesday of the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act.
If passed by the Senate and enacted, the bill would outlaw purposeful crushing, burning, drowning, suffocation, impalement or other violence causing “serious bodily injury” to animals. Violations could result in a fine as well as up to seven years’ imprisonment.
Advocates say the PACT Act fills crucial gaps in existing national law, which previously banned only animal fighting and the making and sharing of videos showing the kind of abuse the PACT Act seeks to criminalize.
All states have provisions against animal cruelty, said Humane Society of the United States President Kitty Block, but without a federal ban, it’s hard to prosecute cases that span different jurisdictions or that occur in airports, military bases and other places under federal purview.
“This really is something that should pass,” Block told The Washington Post. “It’s not controversial. It’s what the American people want.”
As one proponent, Animal Wellness Foundation’s director of federal affairs Holly Gann, put it in a statement: “Most people are shocked” that the law isn’t already on the books.
The bipartisan Act, introduced by Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., and Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla.,, builds on a 2010 law that targets videos depicting animal cruelty, spurred by disgust over a gruesome genre of “crush” videos often showing small critters stomped under a woman’s shoe.
Block says videos capturing such torture needed to be addressed at the federal level because content shared online transcends state boundaries. But no national law singles out the acts behind the films – despite previous congressional efforts with widespread support.
The Senate has passed a companion bill to the PACT Act twice, making supporters optimistic that with the House version passed, the measure can sail into law. Advocates point to opposition from recently retired Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., a former House Judiciary Chairman, as blocking previous attempts to pass the bill in the House. The Post was unable to reach the ex-congressman Wednesday.
The Senate now needs to vote again on its version of the bill, which lists 38 co-sponsors. Jason Attermann, a spokesman for House sponsor Deutch, told The Post that PACT Act backers do not anticipate any hang-ups.
“It’s never been the Senate’s fault for this not happening,” he said.
The PACT Act has been cheered not only by animal welfare groups but by many members of law enforcement who want federal tools to – in Deutch’s words – “stop animal abusers who are likely to commit acts of violence against people.” Leaders of groups ranging from the Fraternal Order of Police to the Major County Sheriffs of America have thrown their weight behind the proposed law.
“And animal lovers everywhere know this is simply the right thing to do,” Deutch said in a statement.
The legislation outlines exemptions for humane euthanasia; slaughter for food; recreational activities like hunting, trapping and fishing; medical and scientific research; “normal veterinary, agricultural husbandry, or other animal management practice;” and actions that are necessary “to protect the life or property of a person.”
(c) 2019, The Washington Post · Hannah Knowles ·
{Matzav.com}
With such a devolving immoral culture from Hollywood, it’s a shame that משכב־בהמה was not criminalized in PACT
So now it’s illegal to stomp on spiders?
The proposed law is on-line and explicitly excludes “pest control” from the law. Now the courts will have to decide whether rushing a spider is “pest control”.
It further defines the “animal” as follows:
> living non-human mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians
So the courts will also have to decide whether a spider is a “living non-human mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians”.