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PRESS RELEASE
RELEASE DATE: Immediately (August 21, 2007)
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Gene Baierschmidt
(801) 261-2919 phone

PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE NEEDED ON HENRY’S BILL, SAYS HUMANE SOCIETY

Executives of the Humane Society of Utah today emphasized the critical importance of getting "Henry’s Bill," the proposal that would make deliberate animal torture a third-degree felony, passed in a form that would make the law applicable on the first offense.

"A law that can’t be enforced the first time it’s broken is no law at all," said HSU Executive Director Gene Baierschmidt. "Once an individual has been exposed as having tortured an animal, he’s going to be extremely crafty about not getting caught again. The chances that he will ever be prosecuted for second-offense animal torture are extremely slight."

Referring to the recent Michael Vick dogfighting scandal, he added, "What happened to those animals was torture, plain and simple. The ‘unworthy fighters’ were strangled, drowned, and clumsily electrocuted. Anyone capable of committing such egregious acts should be punished immediately, and not given another chance to commit further outrages before being held accountable."

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