Idaho Ponders First Felony Animal Abuse Penalties

Idaho's powerful agriculture industry has been wary of animal cruelty measures and their sponsors, but the Idaho Cattle Association now favors legislation that protects animals without harming ranchers' livelihoods.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — For a decade Jeff Rosenthal has campaigned to toughen the consequences for people who neglect, abuse and torture animals in Idaho.

And for just as long, the director of the Idaho Humane Society has received the legislative stiff-arm from the state's senators and representatives in what he said has been a slow and frustrating saga.

"For 10 years we've been attempting to make progress on improving the situation for animals in Idaho," Rosenthal said. "It still doesn't seem to resonate with these legislators for some reason."

Idaho, North Dakota and South Dakota comprise the last front in a battle by animal welfare advocates to ensure all states have a law making animal cruelty a felony.

In these three rural states, jarring acts of animal abuse or torture can at most be punished by courts with a misdemeanor slap on the wrist.

But animal rights activists in Idaho and North Dakota, spurred by repeated statehouse defeats and amid growing public support, are now circumventing the statehouses and taking their case straight to voters with ballot initiatives that could appear in November.

Lawmakers in Idaho are starting to take notice.

Historically reluctant to entertain animal cruelty bills, the legislative body took two of them head-on Wednesday — either of which would put felony animal abuse laws on the books in the state for the first time.

The specter of the much more severe proposed ballot initiative from animal rights groups galvanized the House to pass a measure that could slap felonies on people convicted of torturing pets and organizing gamecock fights where drugs and gambling are present

Later, the House Agricultural Committee passed a Senate animal abuse bill sponsored by the livestock industry but considered less appealing by animal advocates.

Idaho's powerful agriculture industry has been wary of animal cruelty measures and their sponsors, fearing the groups' end goals threaten their businesses, according to Wyatt Prescott, vice president of the Idaho Cattle Association.

But his group is in favor of legislation that protects animals without harming ranchers' livelihoods.


House lawmakers voted 64-4 to pass the anti-torture plan sponsored by state Sen. Ken Andrus, which he calls a realistic proposal that toughens state laws while still protecting Idaho's agriculture industry by exempting livestock and production animals. The measure was applauded by animal welfare groups.


That committee later approved the agriculture industry-backed plan passed by the Senate in February, which would apply to all animals, including livestock, and make certain animal cruelty convictions felony offenses.


Animal activists say the plan doesn't go far enough because it fails to address torture or rooster fights.

Both bills face legislative steps before passing, though the industry-supported plan is closer to becoming law.

John Goodwin, animal cruelty policy director for the Humane Society of the United States, is putting the heat on the remaining three states, backing a ballot initiative in North Dakota to add a felony to state law.




If efforts to enact felonies in North Dakota and Idaho succeed, Goodwin plans in 2013 to hone in on the South Dakota, which has neither a ballot initiative nor a major animal cruelty bill in the works this year.

Meanwhile, some animal rights advocates in Idaho are in the process of collecting nearly 50,000 signatures to put an initiative in front of voters in November asking for much stiffer consequences, including first-offense felonies in some instances.


Goodwin's and Rosenthal's groups, once in favor of the ballot initiative, lauded the Idaho Legislature for passing the anti-torture measure.


