New federal law on animal cruelty, Ga. law
For those who dote on their pets, give them special Thanksgiving treats and buy Christmas gifts for them, animal cruelty is a hard thing to understand.
North Georgia Animal Alliance volunteer Dave Mayo says the worst case of animal cruelty he has seen locally was a dog from Lafayette that had both eyes put out. “It was just horrible,” he says.
“Even if someone doesn’t love animals,” says NGAA president Valerie Hayes, “there is no excuse for abusing them. How someone can intentionally injure or kill an animal is beyond comprehension.”
On Nov. 25, a new federal law was signed by President Donald Trump adding some muscle to the battle against animal cruelty.
The law, titled “The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act” (PACT), sponsored by Rep. Theodore Deutch, D-florida, District 22, and co-sponsored across party lines by 300 more members of Congress, addresses the most extreme forms of animal abuse, referred to in the bill as “crushing,” including the sharing of videos portraying animal abuse.
The bill states: “the term ‘animal crushing’ means actual conduct in which one or more living non-human mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians is purposely crushed, burned, drowned, suffocated, impaled, or otherwise subjected to serious bodily injury…”
The bill allows for fines and for imprisonment of up to seven years upon conviction. The bill lists “exceptions:”
“IN GENERAL. — This section does not apply with regard to any conduct, or a visual depiction of that conduct, that is —
“(A) a customary and normal veterinary, agricultural husbandry, or other animal management practice;
“(B) the slaughter of animals for food;
“(C) hunting, trapping, fishing, a sporting activity not otherwise prohibited by Federal law, predator control, or pest control;
“(D) medical or scientific research;
“(E) necessary to protect the life or property of a person; or
“(F) performed as part of euthanizing an animal.”
The bill goes on to define euthanizing: “the term ‘euthanizing an animal’ means the humane destruction of an animal accomplished by a method that — (A) produces rapid unconsciousness and subsequent death without evidence of pain or distress; or (B) uses anesthesia produced by an agent that causes painless loss of consciousness and subsequent death.”
Finally, the new federal law says it does not “preempt the law of any state or local subdivision thereof to protect animals.”
The Animal Legal Defense Fund rates states on their animal protection laws. Georgia ranks the 37th worst of all 50 states. The ALDF report says that Georgia has one positive and four negative factors that rank it so low.
On the plus side, says ALDF, veterinarians in Georgia have immunity when reporting suspected animal cruelty.
On the down side, ALDF says the definition of “animal” in Georgia’s animal protection laws is “limited” (it does not apply to fish or “any pest that might be exterminated or removed from a business, residence, or other structure”).
Also on the downside, ALDF says, Georgia addresses only dog fighting and not the staged fighting of other animals, that there are no “no statutorily authorized post-conviction
forfeiture or possession bans,” and that animals may not be included in protection orders.
Georgia law does state that “a person commits the offense of cruelty to animals when he or she: (1) Causes physical pain, suffering, or death to an animal by any unjustifiable act or omission.” This includes, says the law, inadequate food, water, sanitary conditions and/ or ventilation.
While PACT does not address neglect or abandonment, Hayes says it does draw important attention to how animals are treated. “I hope one effect it has will be to get more people to notice how the animals in their communities are cared for — or not cared for — and to take action when they see neglect or abuse.”