Animal Cruelty Bill in ND House | Video

Jessica Roose | 3/7/2013

Stricter state animal cruelty laws, a hot button issue, took center stage at the Capital this morning. Many of the same people who testified on this bill when it was in the Senate were back today to debate the subject again. Many urged the House to pass the legislation, which would make the most severe animal abuse cases a Class C Felony..

Amy Brossart played a profanity-filled voice mail and gave tearful testimony to urge lawmakers to support Senate Bill 2211.

"The female he refers to was my two year old vizsla, Chloe. He followed through with those threats. After an hour`s worth of calls Chloe was stabbed twice in the chest," she said.

Brossart says her ex-husband was found guilty and received a $500 fine and 20 days in jail, which was suspended. It`s cases like this that have groups like the ag community, veterinarians and pet shelters, pushing for stricter animal cruelty penalties.

"In the end, the idea was to have something that we could agree on from different walks of life. That was written by North Dakotans that we could live with and not have something pushed down our throat from outside the state," said Jason Schmidt with the ND Stockmen`s Association.

The North Dakota Farm Bureau had previously supported this bill but after they were unable to get the Senate to adopt several amendments, they now stand in opposition.

"We care for animals that`s not the issue here at all. It`s more about the level of penalties where we don`t agree with in this proposed bill," said Tom Bodine with the ND Farm Bureau.

Bodline says the the Farm Bureau believes the penalties for neglect and abuse should stay as a Class A misdemeanor. As the bill is currently written the penalty goes up to a felony on the third offense.

The bill includes provisions to exempt normal hunting, farm and ranching practices.

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