By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)
Governor Kim Reynolds has signed a bill into law that raises the penalty for animal torture to a felony for a first offense, with a potential sentence of up to five years in prison.
“This is already the legal standards across the rest of the country and it’s only common sense that we adopt it here in Iowa because this isn’t just about being punitive,” Reynolds said. “This is about cracking down on intentional, willful and malicious infliction of pain or prolonged death on innocent animals.”
A dog named Ember stood on the table near the bill as Reynolds signed it. Tom Colvin, CEO of the Animal Rescue League of Iowa, said Ember was brought to their facility when she was eight weeks old with a broken leg, a broken jaw, a severly injured eye and other injuries. Police had rescued the puppy during a domestic violence investigation.
“We are very happy today to introduce you today to Ember,” Colvin said, and the crowd gathered for the bill signing yesterday applauded the puppy. “And Ember was fortunate enough to be a survivor of animal torture, but there are so many other ones that aren’t.”
Colvin and other advocates cite studies indicating 70% of people who torture animals have committed another crime and 40% of those crimes involved violence against a human. “We are actually going to have another tool in the tool box to address law enforcement issues that affect so many,” Colvin said, “not only animals, but people.”
The bill passed unanimously in the House and Senate this year. Senator Mike Bousselot of Ankeny said a felony is an appropriate punishment for anyone torturing an animal. “Data shows (in) the FBI studies that someone commiting the horrible act of torturing an animal is more likely, in fact extremely likely to commit that same type of an act against a person,” Bousselot said. “Protecting animals and protecting our communities from terrible acts and future violence is worthy of broad support.”
Representative Samatha Fett of Carlisle, who has three German Shepherds as pets, said bill was the right thing to do. “Our pets are there for our companionship, for comfort, for therapy, for service, for working,” Fett said, “and what better way to protect them…than by passing something like this.”
