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PRESS RELEASE
RELEASE DATE: Immediately (March 1, 2007)
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Gene Baierschmidt
(801) 261-2919 - phone

SB 190, FELONY-LEVEL ANIMAL TORTURE BILL, DIES IN HOUSE

Last night at midnight time ran out for the 2007 Utah State Legislative session, and SB 190, which would have made the deliberate, egregious torture of domestic pets a third-degree felony, died after a 15-minute discussion on the House floor. An amendment was proposed and approved three minutes before midnight, which meant that the bill would have to go back through the entire process to be passed in its amended form. This step in actuality killed the bill.

Gene Baierschmidt, Executive Director of the Humane Society of Utah, said, "Naturally, we’re disappointed that this happened." He and other HSU officials nevertheless expressed sincere gratitude to Senator Gene Davis, the sponsor of SB 190, and the many other legislators who had supported and fought for the bill’s passage.

Mr. Baierschmidt reiterated one of the points that the bill’s supporters had stressed from the beginning, that SB 190 was more a bill about domestic violence than it was about animals. "Utah needs to join the other 42 states that have felony-level provisions in their animal cruelty statutes, because they recognize the direct and irrefutable connection between violence against animals and violence against other people," he said. "We hope to try again next year."

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