BY SAMANTHA BARTLETT

In November, President Trump signed the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act into law. This bill allows fines of up to seven years imprisonment for violators who are caught crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating, impaling or causing serious bodily injury to animals. This bill allows prosecution of acts that occur across state lines, on federal land or other places outside of the jurisdiction of state law. 

The PACT act was introduced by Representatives Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) and Vern Buchanan (R.-Fla.). The lawmakers set out to expand a law passed by then President Barack Obama in 2010, which banned the distribution of videos depicting animals being crushed or tortured, but did not necessarily outlaw the acts portrayed in those videos. 

The bill has received wide-ranging support from animal-loving to citizens to law enforcement professionals, who worry about the jump from torturing animals to committing violence against people. Animal cruelty has been indicated as a pattern leading to crimes involving people.  The House vote in approval of the bill was called a watershed moment by the Humane Society Legislative Fund. Other notable supporters of the bill include the National Children’s Advocacy Center and Domestic Violence Intervention Services as well as the National Sheriff’s Association and other law enforcement groups.  

While it is a progressive step forward, the Animal Legal Defense Fund points out that there are potential loopholes in the act. The PACT act only covers acts that cause serious bodily harm and does not necessarily cover less violent acts such as hitting or punching and animal. 

The new law does make exemptions for humane euthanasia, slaughter of food animals, hunting, trapping and fishing and scientific research. There is a clause exempting actions taken “to protect the life or property of a person.”