U.S. Senate unanimously passes bill to prohibit animal cruelty, bestiality

[KenH]

“The U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act, S. 654, earning praise from The Humane Society of the United States and the he Humane Society Legislative Fund. As the first-ever general federal animal cruelty bill, the PACT Act builds on the federal animal crush video law enacted in 2010, which banned the creation, sale and distribution of obscene videos that show animals being crushed, burned, drowned, suffocated, impaled, or subjected to other forms of heinous cruelty. The PACT Act, led by Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., will prohibit those same extreme acts of animal cruelty when they occur in interstate or foreign commerce, regardless of whether a video is produced, and those convicted of such abuse will face federal felony charges, fines and up to seven years in prison. The measure also makes bestiality a federal criminal enterprise.

The House bill introduced by Reps. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, and Ted Deutch, D-Fla,. has earned bipartisan support with 262 cosponsors. This legislation is also endorsed by more than 200 law enforcement agencies across the country. Few bills in the Congress have this level of bipartisan support.”

U.S. Senate unanimously passes bill to prohibit animal cruelty, bestiality : The Humane Society of the United States