2 Florida congressmen reintroduced Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT), a bill that would make animal cruelty a felony nationwideRep. Ted Deutch, D-West Boca, and Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, would like “crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating and impaling animals” to become a felony that could convict a person up to seven years in prison.
In 2010, the Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act was passed to stop people from producing videos of animal abuse. Unfortunately, that law only pertains to any person making videos. The bill got 284 bipartisan cosponsors and more than 200 law enforcement endorsements in the previous session of Congress. However, it never made to the floor for a vote.
Currently, only some states consider certain acts of animal cruelty a felony... while others only count them as misdemeanors.
Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images