LITTLE VALLEY — The Cattaraugus County Legislature unanimously voted to establish the Cattaraugus County Animal Abuser Registry through a new local law at its regular meeting Wednesday, Oct. 9.
County lawmakers hope this will prevent county residents previously convicted of animal abuse crimes from adopting, purchasing, being in charge of or otherwise obtaining animals in the future, whether through pet stores, shelters, adoption agencies or any other means.
“Animals need to be protected from potential abusers, and there should be a mechanism to prevent such abusers from obtaining animals after they have been found guilty of animal abuse and/or neglect,” the local law states.
Chairman Andrew Burr of Gowanda called the new local law “a strong, robust advancement of our animal cruelty law,” adding that the county has worked hard to address “some bad situations that relate to that very topic, and we’re doing whatever we can to give some teeth to law enforcement to try to minimize and properly penalize animal abuse.”
Legislator Ginger Schroder of Farmersville, who spearheaded the creation of the new law, said this act continues the efforts made by the county to address animal abuse in recent years, thanking all those who have supported this effort.
“This is a tremendously difficult issue that costs taxpayers a lot of money,” she said. “Every time we get into an animal cruelty situation and our sheriffs our forced to go to the scene and seize animals, it costs taxpayers money.”
Any county resident convicted of an animal abuse crime is required to have their name, address, date of birth and photo included in the county registry. Every required registrant must also pay $125 to the county sheriff’s office to help pay administrative and maintenance costs.
“As we know, this is a recidivism problem — people who hoard animals, people who abuse animals, do it over and over again,” Schroder said. “The idea of putting together the registry is that if you’re being convicted of animal abuse and you’re on the registry, you can’t even own a goldfish.”
Furthermore, the county is to notify the 50 closest landowners to the abuser’s residence to make the neighbors aware of their status through a mailed postcard.
“Some of the things we’ve seen over the course of the years dealing with this is people don’t know about it,” Schroder said. “If (neighbors) see that they have more animals and starting the abuse cycle again, we can be notified about it and do something about it.”
Additionally, any animal shelter, pet seller or other individual or entity that sells, exchanges or otherwise transfers ownership of an animal to any county resident must check the registry to make sure the person’s name is not listed.
“We’ve also increased penalties,” Schroder said. “It costs us a lot of money as a county, so we’d like to see people who are convicted of this contribute back some of the cost they’ve heaped upon the taxpayers.”
Any convicted animal abuse offender who does not register as required shall be guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by incarceration for up to one year and/or a fine not to exceed $5,000.
Any offender who violates the prohibition against possession, owning, adopting or purchasing an animal, except for service animals for people with disabilities, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by incarceration for up to one year and/or a fine not to exceed $10,000.
Any animal shelter, pet seller or other individual or entity that knowingly or with reckless indifference allows an abuser to possess an animal shall be guilty of a violation and subject to a fine to exceed $5,000 unless the registry was checked and the abuser’s name did not appear on it.
“This is an animal lover legislature,” Burr added. “We are all hoping to see the best outcomes for the animals in our community.”