Animal cruelty is considered a felony
Sunday, October 7th, 2007Betsy McLeod returned home last September to find her bunny’s cage empty. The bunny, Coco, wasn’t hiding under the bed or with McLeod’s roommates though. She was dead.
The bunny that McLeod, Overland Park sophomore, bought nearly three months before had been thrown off her balcony by a man who claimed he was too drunk to know what he was doing. “He blamed it on his alcoholism,†McLeod said.
On Sept. 28, that man went to court for charges of animal cruelty. He was sentenced to probation and fined $200. McLeod said she thought it was nothing more than a slap on the wrist for his actions. At the time animal cruelty was not considered a felony in the state of Kansas. Today, intentional animal cruelty is a felony according to the Senate Bill 408.
For Midge Grinstead, director of the Lawrence Humane Society, the bill was a nine-year battle. The bill finally passed unanimously through the house in March. Just last month Gov. Kathleen Sebelius signed the bill into law.
“It not only passed, but it was a slam dunk,†Grinstead said.
According to the bill, people convicted of intentional animal cruelty will be sentenced to jail for a minimum of 30 days or a maximum of one year and fined $500 to $5,000 depending on the severity of the abuse. They must have a psychological evaluation while in jail and they cannot own an animal for the next five years.
For McLeod though, the bill came too late.
“I wish they would have made it a felony a long time ago,†McLeod said. “It should have been a felony.†The Lawrence Humane Society performed more than 750 investigations on animal cruelty and neglect last year according to Grinstead. About 20 percent of the investigations resulted in the animals being removed from the home.
Dogs, especially larger breeds such as pit bulls and rottweilers, account for a majority of animal cruelty cases, Grinstead said. The most common type of abuse for all animals the Humane Society sees is neglect. Under the new law, neglect isn’t automatically a felony; only on the second offense of neglect can a person be convicted of a felony.
Animals that are removed from homes because of abuse or neglect are taken in at the Humane Society. After the police department gives releases for the animals, they can be adopted. Background checks for animal cruelty are done on anyone adopting a pet.
People interesting in adopting an animal rescued from abuse are informed about the animal’s history before adopting. Knowing the history of the pet doesn’t discourage people from adopting though.
“I think they all want to help,†Grinstead said. “People are very sympathetic and want to adopt.†Holly Romero, Colorado Springs, Colo., senior, is one such person. Last fall she went to nearly every pet store in Lawrence in search of a ferret, She ended up at the Humane Society. Quentin, a neglected ferret, arrived at the shelter with a family of ferrets.
“If you can take in an animal that’s been abused or neglected it’s an amazing thing,†Romero. “I immediately fell in love with Quentin.â€
The Humane Society told Romero that Quentin came from a home with a number of pets that had been neglected. Grinstead remembered that when the ferrets arrived at the shelter they were invested with fleas and underweight. When Romero first brought Quentin home he was less active than her other ferret, Baz.
“He slept a lot and seemed exhausted,†she said. “It would take Quentin awhile to come out of the cage, like he was scared.â€
Quentin is more active and less timid now, Romero said.
Today, the fleas and fears are gone, but Quentin deals with a more permanent problem because of his neglect.
“He doesn’t have good use of his back legs,†Romero said.
From what she had been told, Quentin’s legs suffer from being caged and walking on the wire floors of the cage for too long.Romero said the new law would give people more of a reason to not abuse their animals. Not that people should need a reason, she said.
SOURCE: The University Daily Kansan
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