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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2019 - 2020
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | December 13, 2018 02:51 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Lawrence M. Farnese, Jr. |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Animal Abuse Registry |
| In the near future, I plan to reintroduce legislation that would create an animal abuse registry in Pennsylvania. The American Psychiatric Association considers there to be a high correlation between animal abusers and those who are violent toward humans. The U.S. Department of Justice also uses animal abuse as a marker for youth at risk of violent behavior. By creating an animal abuse registry, the community will be served by helping reduce the risk of new animal and human victims at the hands of repeat offenders. Several states have introduced similar legislation and in 2015, the first statewide registry was signed into law in Tennessee. This legislation is the same as last session’s Senate Bill 1190, co-sponsored by Senators Alloway, Bartolotta, Boscola, Brewster, Costa, Hughes, Killion, Rafferty, Sabatina, Stefano, Tartaglione and Ward, and is modeled on Tennessee’s Animal Abuse Registry Act. This legislation will be known as the Pennsylvania Animal Abuser Registration Act and will create a statewide animal abuse registry to be administered by the Pennsylvania State Police. Under this bill, when a person is convicted of an enumerated animal abuse offense, the clerk of court will forward a copy of the judgment to PSP within 60 days. PSP will post a publicly accessible list on its website of any person convicted of an animal abuse offense after January 1, 2019. The list will include a photograph taken of the convicted animal abuser as part of the booking process, the animal abuser's full legal name, and any other identifying data as PSP determines is necessary to properly identify the animal abuser and to exclude innocent persons. A convicted animal abuser will remain on the list for two years for a first offense and five years for each subsequent offense. Please join me in co-sponsoring this legislation. |
Introduced as SB213