Kansas DawnWath: Terrific Kansas City Star column on animal cruelty 2/1/06

Fri, 03 Feb 2006 00:17:00 GMT

Kansas,
The following column from the front page of Wednesday's B section offers a great opportunity for supportive animal friendly letters to the editor. Please write. The Kansas City Star takes letters at letters@kcstar.com, asks for less than 150 words, and advises, "Please include name, address and daytime phone number."

February 1, 2006 Wednesday
SECTION: B; Pg. 1

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/13760079.htm

COMMENTARY

Get serious on animal cruelty law

MIKE HENDRICKS

Long before he started killing people, Dennis Rader bound dogs and cats with wire and suffocated them in a barn.

With that happy thought in mind, consider this question:

Will this be the year that Kansas lawmakers finally pass the tough animal cruelty law they should have passed long ago?

They never took the issue seriously when the focus was animals alone.

Not even the horrible death of Scruffy registered.

You remember Scruffy. He was that little Yorkshire terrier that was burned to death on camera nine years ago. The sickos involved ended up being charged with arson because the animal cruelty law was so weak.

This year, though, the nature of the debate has changed.

The BTK case reinforced the fact that animal cruelty is common in the background of serial killers.

Thus, no more do barks and meows greet state Sen. David Haley of Kansas City, Kan., when he argues for addressing the issue once more.

Now the question is not whether the law should be tougher, but how much tougher it should be.

Tomorrow in Topeka a hearing is set to discuss two bills. Both make it a felony under certain circumstances to intentionally kill or seriously injure animals.

Kansas is one of just nine states in the nation where animal cruelty is treated strictly as a misdemeanor, according to the American Humane Association.

Likewise, both bills would mandate psychological testing of the perpetrators. Call it the BTK clause.

Without a doubt, either proposal, if approved, would be a vast improvement over current law.

However, you wouldn’t know that, given some of the rhetoric that’s been floating around.

“Why should a person be allowed to BBQ a dog twice before they are charged with a felony offense?” one animal activist asked in an e-mail recently.

That same e-mail referred to one of the bills up for debate as “a hollow statement of concern that would be better served as lining for the bottom of a hamster cage!”

That’s baloney, but it does give you a sense of the argument and the passions involved.

Haley’s latest bill is the tougher of the two, making even first-offense animal cruelty a felony, punishable by a minimum of 30 days in jail and a $1,500 fine.

Whereas the bill filed by Republican Sen. Phil Journey of Haysville would make first-offense animal cruelty a misdemeanor, then a felony on subsequent convictions.

Punishment for the misdemeanor would carry a minimum of 15 days in jail. Conviction of the felony would land someone in jail for at least 60 days, but no more than a year.

It’s Journey’s bill that some activists criticize for not being tough enough, as the “hamster cage” reference implies.

Then again, Kansas wouldn’t be the first state to reserve a felony charge for second and subsequent convictions. Missouri also treats first offenses as misdemeanors, as do several other states.

Plus, considering the legislature’s reluctance to press the issue in the past, it might be as good as we’re going to get this year.

Journey’s been joined by 16 other co-sponsors, Democrats and Republicans alike, which is nearly half the Senate.

And as long as the ag lobby can be assured that ranchers won’t be arrested for, say, branding cattle, it might just have a shot at becoming law.

Sure is about time.

(END OF KANSAS CITY STAR PIECE)
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(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.dawnwatch.com/cgi-bin/dada/dawnwatch_unsubscribe.cgi If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts please leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)

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Date: Thu Feb 2 17:17:33 2006

Kansas DawnWatch: Kansas City Star on animal cruelty laws 10/24/05

Tue, 25 Oct 2005 19:29:00 GMT

The following article, which calls for laws making animal cruelty a felony, presents a great opportunity for supportive letters to the editor. Please write.
The Kansas City Star takes letters at letters@kcstar.com, and advises, "Please include name, address and daytime phone number. Letters will be edited for length and clarity and may be published by The Star electronically."

The piece includes information on a petition you can sign in favor of tougher animal cruelty laws.

Here is the piece:

The Kansas City Star
Monday, October 24
Pg. B1

In Kansas, pets need protection;
COMMENTARY

To make a living, Lee Brand lovingly takes care of other people's pets.

So naturally she was horrified to recently witness someone beating a dog on an apartment balcony.

The man kicked and punched the animal so hard that Brand called police, and only then did she learn something that shocked her even more.

"In the state of Kansas, an individual may beat, mutilate and even kill a dog or cat and receive nothing more than a slap on the wrist," Brand said. "This is pathetic for a state that is supposedly located in the Bible Belt."

I'm not sure what the Bible Belt has to do with it exactly, but she's right about the rest.

Kansas' animal cruelty law is woefully inadequate.

Beat, torture or kill an animal in the Sunflower State and the worst you can be charged with is a misdemeanor under the animal cruelty statute. Whereas in Missouri and 40 other states, a felony charge can be lodged in certain circumstances.

Why is Kansas so lax?

Well, perhaps you've noticed that I sometimes refer to that gang over in Topeka as the do-nothing Kansas Legislature.

Here's another perfect example.

Lawmakers have talked and talked for years about this issue and haven't passed a tough animal cruelty law.

The discussion grew out of a heart-wrenching case from Kansas City, Kan., in 1997.

For entertainment, some sickos entertained themselves torturing a Yorkshire terrier named Scruffy. They beat the little dog to death with a shovel after setting the animal afire, and the whole gruesome scene was captured on videotape.

The Scruffy killing pointed up the shortcomings in Kansas law. Only because they were charged with arson did the men involved get significant time in prison. This is because the maximum sentence under the existing animal cruelty statute is one year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

That hasn't changed. Sen. David Haley, a Democrat from Kansas City, Kan., tried for years to pass a bill that would make some instances of animal cruelty a felony.

But Haley's bills were shot down, in part because of concerns from farming interests that the language in the bill was too broad.

However, publicity over an animal cruelty case out of Wichita has revived interest in Topeka. One of Haley's senate colleagues, Republican Phil Journey of Haysville, is pushing a bill to make intentional animal cruelty a felony.

Considering past legislative performance, it's hard saying whether Journey's bill will get anywhere when the Legislature opens for business in January.

And that's where Brand comes in. She thinks the public needs to get involved.

On her own, without any sponsorship from any group, Brand recently began a petition drive in support of tougher animal cruelty laws. She's taking it around to friends, neighbors and veterinary clinics in Johnson County.

I suggested she might get more signatures if she could make it available on the Internet, but she doesn't know much about Web site design.

However, she does know that animals don't deserve to be mistreated the way they are sometimes.

"I still can see that night," Brand said, "when that jerk was beating his dog in my dreams."

To sign Lee Brand's petition, write her at P.O. Box 2624, Olathe, KS 66063or send e-mail to paws 4brand@yahoo.com

To reach Mike Hendricks, call (816) 234-7708 or send e-mail to mhendricks@kcstar.com
(END OF KANSAS CITY STAR PIECE.)
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(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. To unsubscribe, go to www.DawnWatch.com/unsubscribe.php. If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts please leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)

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Date: Tue Oct 25 13:29:14 2005