Local rescuer looks forward to enforcement.
Kudos to Louisiana for implementing 2 pretty tough animal protection laws. However you can have all the tough laws you want to protect animals from cruelty but if there is no enforcement, you still have nothing. Hopefully the enforcement facet of this issue will be as tough as the written law. I also hope other states will begin to follow suit.
New Orleans Pet Rescue Scene Examiner Teresa Rowell
Saturday, August 15, 2009, two new animal protection laws will take effect in Louisiana.
- HB 90 now Act 179- States those convicted of a second offense of simple cruelty will face felony penalties not less than $5,000 or more than $25,000 or imprisonment for not less than one year or more than 10 years, with or without hard labor or both. Second offenders must also undergo psychological testing or anger management and may be ordered not to own animals for a period of time determined by the court.
- SB 31 now Act 106- Provides harsher penalties for those who commit aggravated cruelty which is causing or permitting unnecessary or unjustifiable physical pain, suffering, or death to an animal.
Julia Breaux Melacon, the Louisiana director for the Humane Society of the United States, told gantdaily.com they "applaud a provision of the law that requires psychological counseling for repeat offenders…." Melacon believes there is a link between animal abuse and human violence.
Tangi Humane Society’s Randy Stegall, who does cruelty investigations in several Louisiana parishes, believes enforcement of the laws will be the only way to make a difference. Stegall told WAFB in Baton Rouge, "You can make all the laws you want…. If the courts don’t enforce them, what good are they?"
Stegall says he sees animal cruelty on a daily basis. He hopes the district attorney’s office and the courts will stand behind these new laws and implement them to the fullest.
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