News: Update: SB777 Felony Cruelty Bill Clears a Hurdle

The Arkansas State Congress Joint Committee on the Judiciary met Wednesday May 14 at 1 PM (agenda shown below). Below are two reports of the meeting:

Report by Eva Madison:

As you know, SB 777 was heard today before a joint meeting of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees in Little Rock. There was excellent turnout among the legislators, with at least 12 Representatives and 4 Senators in attendance, and the hearing lasted a good two hours. Senator Sue Madison (D-Fayetteville) and Representative Pam Adcock (D-Little Rock), the lead sponsors, were on hand to discuss the bill and the changes they plan on making for the 2009 session.

Major Barfield from the Arkansas State Police spoke about the differences between felonies and misdemeanors. Not only is there a penalty difference, but there are important procedural distinctions. Felonies are certain to appear on background checks, whereas misdemeanors might show up. (We would hope that someone who abuses animals would not be permitted to work with children, but a background check might not turn up a misdemeanor conviction.) Felons are prohibited from carrying firearms; there is no such protection for misdemeanors. Felony warrants can be served out of state, whereas misdemeanor warrants cannot. Currently, someone charged with animal cruelty can leave the state, and law enforcement cannot go after them, which results in them avoiding the consequences of their actions completely.

Next, Jay Sabatucci from the Humane Society of the United States spoke about the connection between animal abuse and criminal activity. He discussed study after study that show that people who abuse animals engage in other criminal behavior, from drug dealing to serial killings.

I spoke about some of the horrific cases of animal cruelty that have occurred just since the Legislature adjourned in 2007. I also spoke about how Arkansas is now just one of 5 states without felony protection. (The others are Mississippi, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Idaho.) Of those 45 states with felony protections, 40 provide felony punishment on the first offense.

The committee asked difficult questions, ranging from feral cats to horses with broken legs to protecting livestock and poultry. Some of the concerns were legitimate, and we plan to address them with changes to the bill.

Two private citizens spoke in favor of the bill, essentially begging legislators to come together on this issue and get it done for our state. No one spoke against the bill.

Despite the tough questioning, the overwhelming majority of legislators present expressed their approval for some form of first offense felony cruelty, and the bill picked up several supporters today. It definitely has people thinking on the issue, and there was good media representation at the hearing today - several stories have already appeared on the internet. See, for example http://www.pbcommercial.com/articles/2008/05/14/ap-state-ar/d90loujo0.txt.

Later tonight at a public gathering, the Attorney General indicated he will be including an animal cruelty bill in his legislative package. I have heard conflicting reports on whether he plans to have his own bill or support someone else's. I have previously had good conversations with the Attorney General about this issue, so I remain optimistic that he will put his support behind 777. The Governor is generally supporting the concept of first offense felony to cats, dogs, and horses, but remains uncommitted on any specifics.

Please continue to talk to your friends about this issue, and keep those letters to the editor coming!

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Report by an attending HSPC supporter/volunteer:

There were not very many people there from the public, but there was a good turn-out of representatives and senators which lead to a lengthy discussion about the bill (and a few tangential topics). Opposition definitely still exists; however, it appeared to me that Senator Madison is doing her very best to address intelligent concerns about the bill early in this interim phase, so hopefully the bill will have a better chance of passing in the 2009 congressional session. As you all probably remember from the 2007 session, the bill passed the Senate but never made it to the House, dying instead in the Agriculture Committee. It may be that bringing more attention to the bill in this early stage will help it to actually get to Congress for a vote in 09. The plan as it appears now is to amend Senate Bill 777 from the last session and get it into a “study” phase where a joint committee can discuss and modify it, so it will proceed. Eva Madison (Humane Society of the Ozarks) made a strong presentation along with input from the director of the Texas branch of the Humane Society of the United States and a representative from the Arkansas Police Association, discussing the penalties. Two people from the public spoke in favor of the bill.

The meeting resulted in a unanimous vote to take the bill to study for the interim. This means that additional discussion will occur (officially) of the bill. This is one of many hurdles obviously, but a promising take-away from today’s meeting was that there was discussion of this bill long before the session begins.