LITTLE ROCK — The chief of the nation’s largest animal-protection organization praised Arkansas legislators for stiffening penalties for animal cruelty and encouraged them to adopt new laws.
“We should be good to the least among us,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of The Humane Society of the United States. “We should use our power properly. In the relationship between humans and animals, we hold all the cards.”
Pacelle spoke Thursday at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock.
Gov. Mike Beebe in 2009 signed legislation making cruelty to dogs, cats and horses a first-offense felony in some instances. Arkansas was the 45th state to create such severe penalties for the acts, Pacelle said.
The measure, passed after several legislative sessions and much negotiation with the Arkansas Farm Bureau, makes acts of cruelty a felony if they can be defined as torture. It provides for escalating misdemeanor penalties for second, third and fourth offenses of cruelty to all animals if they occur within five years of a previous offense.
State lawmakers may need to consider further legislation if a proposed law in neighboring Missouri takes effect, which could drive irresponsible dog breeders into Arkansas, Pacelle said.
Missouri voters in November will consider Proposition B, which would regulate the size and conditions of dog breeding operations and create a misdemeanor offense of “puppy mill cruelty” for violators.
Animal-welfare advocates estimate that Missouri has 3,000 “puppy mills,” or largescale dog-breeding operations that often expose dogs to inhumane conditions such as cramped living spaces, making Missouri one of the worst offenders in the nation, Pacelle said.
“They treat breeding moms like production machines and treat puppies like a cash crop,” he said, describing dogs kept in 2-foot-by-2-foot cages with wire mesh floors and little food or veterinary care.
Families unknowingly contribute to the problem by purchasing the pure-bred dogs rather than adopting from animal shelters, Pacelle said.
He described his own experience as a child in Connecticut, adopting a West Highland white terrier from a puppy mill more than 1,000miles away in Kansas, when his city’s shelter was visible from his front door.
“That wasn’t malice,” Pacelle said. “That wasn’t anything but ignorance.”
Eight million animals live in shelters in the United States every year, he said. Of those, 3.7 million are euthanized, 3 million of them for space reasons.
If Missouri voters approve the law, Arkansas may be an appealing place for large scale dog breeders to move, he said.
Rep. Pam Adcock, D-Little Rock, whose term expires at the end of the year, said in an interview after the speech that it would likely take extensive discussions and compromise for lawmakers to approve regulations on dog-breeding operations.
Adcock, who supported the animal-cruelty legislation passed in 2009, said the state’s agricultural community needs assurances that rules are carefully crafted and won’t have unintended consequences for their activities.
When legislators passed cruelty legislation “it wasn’t our first try,” she said. “We’re going to have to educate, educate, educate.”
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 09/17/2010