 t's not so much that Utah law
needs to better protect dogs
and cats and horsed and tur-
keys. It's more that it needs
to better protect people from liv-
ing in the kind of society where
cruelty to dogs and cats and
horses and turkeys may be too
easily winked at.
Animal Cruelty now is branded
here as a far more serious offense
than, say, littering. It is a class A
misdemeanor, with a penalty of
up to a year in jail. And that isn't
exactly a bed of roses for anyone
who might be prosecuted under
the existing statute.
But the simple fact that it isn't
a felony is thought by prosecu-
tors and other concerned people
to send the wrong message to
those who might think it's no big
deal to torture some poor dumb
animal to death just because you
can. It could also be read as tell-
ing the criminal justice system
that Utahns are not concerned
about the problem.
But we are.
House Bill 242 would remedy
that legal shortcoming and make
it a low-level felony to torture an
animal. And it would make it a
higher-level crime to do so in the
presence of a child.
Perhaps more important, this
bill would toughen the provisions
to steer those convicted of animal
abuse toward a psychological
evaluation and, when warranted,
treatment.
That is important because, like
laws against child abuse and
laws against drug abuse, a law |
against animal abuse does little
good to anyone if all it does is
whack the offender up side of the
head and walk away. The point
has to be to whack the offender
up side of the head and then, hav-
ing gotten his attention, get him
help.
While some people are of-
fended to their core by the very
thought of harming innocent ani-
mals, others find it hard to get
worked up about. But even those
too far removed from the animal
kingdom to care should under-
stand that animal abuse is not
jsut harmful to the animal.
Abusing or killing animals,
and suffering no rebuke, can all
too easily lead those who aren't
innately repulsed to do it again.
they may move from wild ani-
mals to pets, from their animals
to yours and then, in many docu-
mented cased, on to people.
It is also important to note that
this bill, whose sponsors include
a former Cache County prosecu-
tor, Rep. Scott Wyatt, R-Logan, is
not some kind of far-out animal
rights legislation. It would specif-
ically exempt, as does the exist-
ing law, raising animals for meat,
rodeos, scientific research, ac-
cepted animal training methods
or humanely putting down ani-
mals that are too injured or sick
to recover.
This bill recognizes that civi-
lized life is not a contest between
people and animals. Setting down
clear expectations against animal
cruelty is in the best interest of
all creatures, great and small. |