|
Kansas City Star
By BRENT D. WISTROM
The Star’s Topeka correspondent
The torture and death of a mixed-breed puppy in Wichita may be enough to push stricter penalties for animal abuse through the statehouse this year, legislators said.
But when a Senate panel debates two bills this Thursday, the question will be: How tough is tough enough? Kansas is one of nine states that don’t have felony charges for severe animal abuse. This point has been magnified by the video-taped burning of a Yorkshire terrier named Scruffy in Kansas City, Kan., in 1997 and the death of Magnum, a 10- to 12-week old pup found severely burned by chemicals and wrapped with wire in a dumpster in Wichita last August.
Sen. David Haley, a Kansas City, Kan., Democrat, who has been pushing for tougher animal cruelty laws since 1997, hopes this is the year a bill passes.
"I think that the learning curve has been a little longer for the Kansas Legislature than for a lot of legislatures," he said.
Animal advocates said those highly publicized cases were examples of abuse that veterinarian’s offices and humane societies see every day.
"The situation with Magnum may never have been brought to light had the veterinarian not decided to keep it alive," said Ellen Querner, president of Pals Animal Rescue. "Many are just euthanized." Whoever brutalized Magnum would likely receive a misdemeanor charge under Kansas law. Prosecutors charged the four young men in the Scruffy case with arson.
Senate Bill 408, supported by the national Humane Society, would make it a felony to kill or seriously injure any animal. Convictions would draw a 30-day to one-year sentence and a minimum fine of $1,500, and offenders would have to go through psychological counseling and anger-management classes.
The bill has exceptions for hunting, ranching and rodeo, leaving animal treatment guidelines up to state and private agencies.
A separate bill, SB 402, was drafted by Sen. Phil Journey, a Haysville Republican, and has been endorsed by 16 other senators. It makes animal cruelty a Class A misdemeanor with a minimum 15-day sentence and requires anyone convicted to undergo a psychological evaluation, register as a violent offender and submit a DNA sample. It has exceptions for hunting, ranching, rodeo and slaughter. A second offense would draw felony charges.
Journey said the laws should avoid unintended consequences, such as charging a youngster who shoots the neighbor’s dog with a low-power BB gun with a felony.
"Nobody wants to give some 12-year-old kid a felony for doing something stupid that doesn’t really injure an animal," he said. "Well, maybe somebody does."
Senators on the judiciary committee expect a packed room on Thursday when hearings on the two bills open. Sen. John Vratil, a Leawood Republican and chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, said one of the bills or a combination of each would emerge.
Although the Humane Society and Querner think Journey’s bill is too weak, Querner supports having convicted animal abusers submit DNA swabs. Brian Withrow, an associate professor of criminal justice at Wichita State University, said serial killers he had studied started by killing or torturing animals.
"It is the most common thread throughout violent serial offenders’ lives," he said. "We don’t understand the psychosis behind it, what leads Edited: Feb 10 2006 at 2:10 pm
Back
|
