A new Illinois law that prevents anyone who has committed two or more animal cruelty felonies from living in the same household or having custody of an animal is a good start but doesn’t go far enough.
That’s the opinion of several Champaign County officials who deal with such cases.
County veterinarian Dr. Susan Norris, the new director of county animal control, Heather Soder, and Assistant State’s Attorney Troy Lozar said the law, which goes into effect in 2022, is too weak.
The new law, Protecting Animals from Dangerous Owners, states, “In addition to any other penalty, the court may order that a person and persons dwelling in the same household may not own, harbor or have custody or control of any other animal if the person has been convicted of two or more of the following offenses: 1) a violation of aggravated cruelty; (2) a violation of animals for entertainment; or (3) a violation of dog fighting.”
All three of the offenses are felonies.
Soder said the new law “is sort of a rehash of what’s in place.”
“If you have certain convictions on your record, you can’t own” or be involved with animals Soder said.
Norris said many such laws have good intentions, but she wonders why it should take two felony convictions, which are extremely difficult to get, before people can’t house or have custody of animals.
“I don’t feel it’s strict enough,” Norris said. “A lot of the felony cases that we bring are pleaded down to misdemeanors.”
Soder said it will be difficult to convict anyone of two such felonies in Illinois.
If only animals could talk
Lozar said animal cruelty cases, just like abuse cases involving young children, are difficult to prosecute because the victim isn’t able to tell prosecutors what happened.
“If you have witnesses who can’t speak for themselves, you have to resurrect the evidence through forensics, which provides tremendous hurdles,” Lozar said. “The animal is not capable of sharing (what happened), and consequently it can be very difficult to get a successful prosecution.”
Lozar said people have “a very visceral reaction” to animal abuse.
“It’s hard to understand how someone can hurt an animal that’s not being aggressive. They have a very limited ability to provide an offense to a human being,” he said.
Norris said she sees an animal cruelty charge being quite difficult to prosecute. The same with dog fighting.
“You’re talking about this underground dog fighting that’s based on secrecy,” she said. “We’re seeing some pretty egregious cases that are often plead out.”
Norris said while it’s still a win if someone is convicted of a misdemeanor in an animal cruelty case, it doesn’t prevent an abuser from owning or being in the same household as animals.
Norris said violence against animals seems to have increased. In September alone, there were reports of two dogs being killed
“We regularly see animals that are starved intentionally and unintentionally,” Norris said. “Some people have mental health issues” and don’t feed their animals enough.
“There are a lot of different cases. There was one case where the woman was beating the dog in the front yard with a Razor scooter. She pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.
“If we have to wait until an owner has two felony convictions, we’re in big trouble. We’re definitely failing as a society.”
Lozar doesn’t know if there are more animal cruelty cases or people are reporting cases more regularly.
“Are there more occurring or is there more reporting?” he said. “It could be just now we’re getting more reports on them.”