posted 06/18/10 08:39 AM | updated 06/18/10 08:49 AM
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Animal Cruelty Legislation stopped

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Guest Opinion from Representatives Donna Pence & Wendy Jaquet

Our constituents have expressed disappointment in the failure of animal cruelty legislation to pass in the 2010 legislative session.  Senate Bill 1317, which passed the Senate 34 to 1, was a consensus bill which had many reviewing and changing the content.  Led by Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Tim Corder, R, Mountain Home, groups such as Food Producers (an umbrella group), the dairy, pork and poultry groups, the Department of Agriculture, the Idaho Kennel Club, the Idaho Humane Society and the Humane Society of the United States, a broad group of Idaho citizens looked at the drafts and made changes.

The bill clarified the following:

If standards were to be guidelines, they had to be standards developed by national animal associations

Required a list of animal shelters who would provide medical attention for neglected animals

Doubled fines with revenues split between the courts, the Department of Agriculture and local governments to compensate entities directly involved in situations

Removed the Department of Agriculture from the enforcement of animal cruelty with regard to companion animals (which were defined ) but enforcement remained for production animals

Allowed for fines for the reporting of false information

Clarified and added emphasis to the misdemeanor penalty for the abandonment of horses

Clarified that all animal organized fighting events are felonies, not just dog fighting events.

So, what happened to this bill?  The House Speaker chose to send the bill to the House State Affairs Committee rather than to Representative Tom Trail, Chair of the House Agriculture Committee.  The Chair of the State Affairs Committee, Representative Tom Loertscher, R, Iona, had some concerns about negligence including the failure to provide “medical care”.  A remedy for this concern could have been a meeting during the legislative session of the above stakeholders and anyone else interested, to define “medical care”.  Lastly, personalities had entered the fray.  There is some concern that House leadership does not trust the chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee and see him as a threat to Idaho agriculture.  Although Senator Corder owns and manages a trucking company, he is a farmer and has been in agriculture his entire lifetime.

We are hopeful that this bill or a similar one will return to the legislature in January, 2011.  It is important that we, as elected officials, support efforts to reach consensus among groups and citizens with different perspectives to protect animals from animal cruelty.

A second bill, Senate Bill 1411, the Poultry and Swine Act, known as the “ham and eggs” legislation passed the Senate 24 – 11 and sat in the House Ways and Means Committee until the session ended.  You may know that Californians passed tough animal cruelty laws requiring a certain amount of space for farm animals.  This has motivated poultry producers to relocate in states like Idaho.  This is similar to the dairy industry moving from California to Idaho to escape strict environmental laws.

While there are some concerns about this bill moving oversight of these operations from the Department of Environmental Quality to the Department of Agriculture, we need to do something to ensure that appropriate regulations are in place.  Because this bill was sent to Ways and Means to be killed, we have little protections from these large poultry operations.  This is unacceptable.

Representative Donna Pence, 208/308-0046

Representative Wendy Jaquet, 208/720-0068

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HSUS - Good thing it failed
Since the HSUS has no real concern for animals and only concern for advancing their own agenda (NON USE OF ALL ANIMALS) I'm glad we stopped their input. Why would we want standards set by the people who have put poultry and dairy farms out of business in CA and Ohio? That's NOT good for Idaho. Where were those with serious animal husbandry credentials? Idaho doesn't need CA regulation. There are already strong animal cruelty laws on the books, let's try enforcing those first.

Kathy Clark
www.animaltruth.typepad.com
Comment by Kathy Clark
June 18, 2010
( 0 votes )
Animal cruelty endorcement
I would like to know when animal cruelty enforcement was placed under the Dept of Agriculture, and why the legislature chose to make that change at that time.

Could it have had anything to do with the fact that most of our law enforcement agencies in Idaho are small and did not have resources or training in how to respond to animal cruelty complaints? Did the defeated legislation address jurisdiction for violations, or would animal cruelty simply go back under local jurisdictions? I can tell you from experience that animal crimes ("dog calls") are pretty much the lowest priority for law enforcement agencies, which are seriously strapped in the human resources department. We have traffic accidents, burglaries, robberies, rapes, homicides, and numerous other crimes that our local agencies struggle to keep up with. Where do YOU think animal cruelty will rate?

I am a proponent of improved and stricter animal cruelty laws, but we do need to be cognizant of our history. Do we really want to bounce this enforcement back to local law enforcement entities that are ill trained and ill equipped to deal with animal problems? Perhaps we shouldn't toss the baby with the bath water here. The Dept of Ag is probably best trained and equipped to handle animal cruelty cases.

After speaking with the local Dept of Ag enforcement officer, I was actually pretty impressed that Idaho had made this change because my past experience with local LE agencies was not good. Oftentimes, responding officers would not have any knowledge of the Idaho statutes involved, much less what they could do to alleviate immediate... read more
Comment by Anita Crafton
June 18, 2010
( 0 votes )
Cruel Idaho Rednecks
Cruel Idaho Rednecks win again!
Comment by Mick Garcia
June 18, 2010
( 0 votes )
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