It’s hard to imagine that some people don’t love their dogs like family. Unfortunately animal cruelty continues to be a huge problem all over the world.
In 2010 the House passed the Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act, which made it illegal to create videos of animals being ““intentionally crushed, burned, drowned, suffocated, impaled, or otherwise subjected to serious bodily injury.” However, the law only applies to those who make videos of their sick acts. The actual harm and torture of animals is not prohibited by the law.
The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, or PACT Act, hopes to put an end to animal abuse by making it a felony to harm or torture animals. Florida representatives Ted Deutch, and Vern Buchanan believe that animal abusers – including those who don’t record their actions on video – should be subject to harsher penalties for their crimes.
“The purpose of the PACT Act is to strengthen the 2010 law that makes the depiction of animal cruelty a crime, but allows the cruelty itself to go unpunished. The PACT Act would make it a federal crime for “any person to intentionally engage in animal crushing if the animals or animal crushing is in, substantially affects, or uses a means or facility of, interstate or foreign commerce.”
The act will not replace the animal cruelty laws in individual states, but rather will be a “federal overlay.” Some states do already consider acts of cruelty against animals to be felonies, but others may treat them as misdemeanors. This bill will make animal cruelty a crime at a federal level, and abusers may recieve as much as 7 years in prison.
H/T: ABCActionNews.com
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