Senator reveals new plan to halt animal cruelty
Posted on Thursday, May 15, 2008
State Sen. Sue Madison on Wednesday unveiled the latest draft of her proposal to make first-offense animal cruelty a felony crime and told lawmakers that she’s willing to do “some fine-tuning” if they have suggestions.
But several lawmakers said they’re worried about Madison’s proposal having unintended consequences such as allowing a horse owner, who shoots a horse after it breaks its leg, to be charged with a felony. Animal cruelty is now a misdemeanor offense.
Madison, a Democrat from Fayetteville, said she has eliminated a provision from her 2007 bill that would allow someone to be charged with the felony of animal cruelty if he subjects a dog, cat or horse to physical injury or trauma in the presence of a child.
“I got from a lot of people that was too vague to suit them,” Madison told the House and Senate Judiciary committees. “I might still disagree, but that’s what I am going to do.” During the 2007 session, Madison’s bill cleared the Senate only to die in a House committee. A Farm Bureau-backed bill, sponsored by Rep. Rick Saunders, D-Hot Springs, to make animal cruelty a felony on the second offense passed in the House but failed to clear a Senate committee.
Last month, Gov. Mike Beebe said he tends to favor a first-of- fense felony animal-cruelty law and will try to persuade the Farm Bureau to agree to it.
After the committees’ meeting, Beebe spokesman Matt De-Cample said Beebe doesn’t plan to propose his own bill and will be looking to support a bill that creates a stronger animal cruelty law that’s also fair to hunters and farmers.
Madison said her proposal creates the felony offense of aggravated cruelty to dogs, cats and horses — not “chickens or fish or goats or anything [else ].” Aggravated cruelty to a dog, cat or horse would be torturing the animal to inflict pain, killing the animal in an especially depraved manner or failing to provide care for the animal in a person’s possession resulting in prolonged suffering or death, she said.
Rep. Clark Hall, D-Marvell, said an older friend did “something traumatic” to a cat when he was a teenager.
“Under this bill, it would be considered a felony,” he said. “I know he regretted it right after it happened and for 55 years he has not done anything but be a model citizen in Arkansas. Had this bill been enforceable then and he was prosecuted, it would have ruined his life and taken away his future. Do we not have any sense of compassion ? Even though a terrible thing happened, he never made another mistake.” Madison said it’s difficult to say whether what Hall’s friend did would constitute a felony crime of animal cruelty.
“We have had numerous, numerous people in the state of Arkansas convicted of felonies that do not have their entire lives ruined but actually turn their lives around at that point and become model citizens,” she said.
Rep. Robert Moore, D-Arkansas City, asked whether he would be violating the provisions of Madison’s proposal if he shot his dog because he got mad at the dog.
Madison said she doesn’t believe that would be considered killing a dog in a depraved manner.
Moore said he worried that the proposal could lead to people being charged with felony crimes if dogs and cats dropped off at their backdoors die after not being fed.
Rep. Chris Thyer, D-Jonesboro, said he’s concerned that the proposal could lead to a person who shoots his horse after it breaks its leg being charged with a felony.
Eva Madison, a board member for the Human Society of the Ozarks and Sue Madison’s daughter, said the proposal includes an exemption for humanely killing a dog, cat or horse that is suffering from an incurable or untreatable condition.
“We all know when horses break their legs unless you are Barbaro’s owners you can’t do much for that horse,” she said, referring to the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner that broke his leg.
Thyer said it’s not an incurable or untreatable condition for a horse to break its leg.
Eva Madison, a Fayetteville attorney, replied, “I don’t think it will fall under the [proposed ] offense because I don’t think anything you have done caused that animal prolonged suffering.” In the 45 states with felony animal cruelty laws, “they are not putting people like you in jail,” she told Thyer.
Madison said animals have been starved, abandoned, shot in the head and even skinned alive since the 2007 legislative session ended. Three more states have passed laws providing for felony punishment for animal cruelty since then, she said.
Only Arkansas, Idaho, Mississippi, North Dakota and South Dakota have no felony provisions in their laws for animal cruelty, she said.
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