While most of us love and treasure animals (or at least are indifferent to them), there are some people who are deliberately cruel to them and will torture, harm, or even kill them for no reason at all. This is a horrendous act and should be punished as such, and now it will be since torturing animals is a federal crime as of Tuesday, November 26.
- It’s called the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act (PACT). Believe it or not, this was a bi-partisan bill that effectively prohibits the intentional harm of “living non-human mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians.” The “harm” includes everything from crushing, suffocating, burning, and other acts of deliberate infliction of suffering, according to NPR.
- That means videos of animal torture are outlawed too. Included in the bill was the banning of “animal crush videos,” so being in possession of or distributing any images or videos, digital or otherwise featuring animal cruelty is also a federal crime.
- Those found guilty will be punished. Anyone charged with animal cruelty will be subject to a fine and/or up to seven years behind bars, which really is the very least that these scumbags should get.
- While states have had animal cruelty laws for a while, federal law was necessary. That’s because not having federal policy against animal cruelty made it hard for some crimes that happened across state lines to be prosecuted. “PACT makes a statement about American values. Animals are deserving of protection at the highest level,” said Kitty Block, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, in a statement.
- It’s about time, really. “I’m grateful to see the PACT Act finally signed into law. The barbaric torture of animals has no place in a civilized society and should be a crime — and thanks to this new law, now it is,” said Connecticut Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal, who pushed the act through the Senate. “Senator Toomey and I worked together for years to ensure that this kind of despicable torture of animals is forbidden for good.”
- We need to protect our animals. They offer us so much unconditional love and kindness, and they make our lives and our world a better place to be. The least we can do is protect them from monsters who want to harm them. This is a step in the right direction.
