LogFAQs > #930696982

Maniac64 posted...

What was it before. A misdemeanor?

There was no specific federal law against animal cruelty. There was one against animal fighting and another for making certain animal abuse videos but not cruelty in general. All the states have various ones but without a federal law it could be tricky if a case involved multiple jurisdictions or took place in certain places governed by federal law like airports.

Anyway, it's a good first step and it's good it's being signed into law but it still leaves open some pretty big exception cases. It may not cover anything that is less than "serious bodily harm [to the animal]" and leaves exceptions to "agricultural husbandry" which means, for instance, puppy mills would still be allowed because previous court decisions have determined dogs are livestock in that case not pets and there was even a case where the defendant successfully got torture of dogs down to a misdemanor by arguing they were legally considered livestock.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?