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Tougher Law Needed, Activist Group Says
By Deborah Baker
Journal Staff Writer
The white American bulldog with the protruding ribs, mangled leg and rotted foot is a poster pooch for this year’s efforts by animal advocates to strengthen the state’s cruelty laws.
The Grant County man who owned the dog, named Trinity, was charged with a misdemeanor count of cruelty, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to community service and unsupervised probation after the dog was dumped in 2007.
Animal Protection Voters says it’s time to tune up the law adopted in 1999, to make the crimes clearer and the penalties stiffer.
More than a decade of experience with cases brought under the current cruelty statute has shown where the weaknesses are, according to Executive Director Lisa Jennings.
“What we’re seeing is that there’s a category of cases that should be taken more seriously,” Jennings said.
The advocacy group proposes to make it a fourth-degree felony — punishable by up to a year in jail — to abandon or starve or mistreat an animal when it causes great bodily harm or death.
That could mean cases such as Trinity’s — who ended up losing her leg but finding a loving home.
Although under the current law someone can be charged with the fourth-degree felony of extreme cruelty — for torture or poisoning, for example — Jennings said there’s inconsistency in prosecutions because the law is not specific enough.
The proposed legislation also would make bestiality — rape or sexual assault of an animal — a fourth-degree felony. It is not now specifically a crime, and activists say that means some cases may not be prosecuted.
The bill also would put captive reptiles under the animal cruelty law.
They are now excluded, which means that when two people broke into a Las Cruces reptile rescuer’s home in 2006 and killed snakes, they could be prosecuted for the property-related crimes but not for the snake deaths.
Insects would continue to be excluded from the law, under the proposal contained in bills introduced in the Senate and House.
Posted with permission from the Albuquerque Publishing Company.
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