Senate takes up legislation that House rejected

By SEAN ELLIS

Capital Press

BOISE -- The Idaho Senate ag committee has sent a bill that would add a felony provision to state law to the Senate with a do-pass recommendation.

A House committee recently rejected similar legislation.

The Senate bill, which is being pushed by the Idaho Cattle Association, would make a third conviction for animal cruelty a felony in Idaho.

Other major farm groups have remained noncommittal on the issue until now and are coming out in support of the bill.

The Idaho Dairymen's Association supports the Senate bill, which was introduced by Stan Boyd, executive director of the Idaho Wool Growers Association.

Boyd said the legislation is carefully crafted to specifically define what animal cruelty is and protect normal industry practices.

"The definition of animal cruelty is very narrow and it is very clearly defined," he told members of the Senate Agricultural Affairs Committee, which passed the measure to the Senate floor Feb. 14.

The bill would make a third conviction for animal cruelty within a 15-year period a felony. Animal cruelty is defined as the malicious and intentional infliction of pain, physical suffering or death on an animal.

The bill exempts all regular production agriculture practices.

"We don't condone the poor treatment of animals of any kind, but we also want to make certain that felony provision couldn't be applied to common industry practices that production agriculture utilizes every day," said Wyatt Prescott, ICA's executive vice president.

The bill also makes it clear each conviction amounts to one count of animal cruelty, regardless of the number of animals involved.

Idaho is one of three states that lack a felony animal cruelty provision and The Humane Society of the United States ranks Idaho 50th out of 51 states and Washington, D.C., on its list of states most friendly toward animals.

ICA members believe the provision would make it less likely animal welfare groups, with the backing of HSUS, would move ahead with a planned ballot initiative this fall that addresses the issue. They worry the citizen's initiative could seek to redefine animal welfare.

Prescott said the cattle group wants "to take charge of the issue and control the way the rules are set for the state of Idaho, instead of allowing them to be set by a ballot initiative, which in general tends to utilize smoke and mirrors and play off people's emotions."

The House Agricultural Affairs Committee overwhelmingly rejected a similar bill Feb. 8, but Prescott said that bill was much broader than the Senate bill and wasn't necessarily an indicator of how the House feels about the issue.

Rep. Tom Trail, R-Moscow, the author of the House bill, said the issue needs to be resolved and "we can either do this legislatively or do it through the initiative process."

He said polls indicating 70 percent of Idahoans support adding a felony animal cruelty provision to Idaho law "almost guarantees passage (of an initiative) if enough signatures are collected to put it on the ballot."