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South Dakota animal cruelty bill passes full Senate

A proposal to make animal cruelty a felony in South Dakota passed the full Senate last week and is on its way to the state’s House of Representatives.

Currently, South Dakota is the only state in which severe animal abuse is not considered a felony. Past legislative attempts to make it a felony have failed. Shantel Krebs, who chairs the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, told Brownfield Ag News the law that passed the Senate unanimously is more specific about what a judge should consider to be serious animal abuse.

“We’ve just really further updated our statute and defined further animal neglect and animal cruelty just to be malicious, willful and intentional,” said Krebs, in an earlier interview with Brownfield Ag News.

The measure stipulates that accepted livestock farming practices are not to be considered mistreatment or cruelty. Several stakeholders were heard when the proposed statute was being assembled, according to Krebs.

“We had everybody at the table,” she said. “We had all industry groups, pork producers, cattlemen, stock growers; they were all at the table and came to agreement that we wanted to be in control and how our wording and the updates and statutes were to be made. And that way we can say we did it, versus an outside interest group coming into South Dakota and taking control.”

Animal rights groups have pushed for years to make severe animal cruelty a felony. In addition to making animal cruelty a felony, SB46, considered a compromise between animal agriculture groups and animal rights interests, provides for punishment of up to two years in prison and a $4,000 fine. Animal neglect, abandonment and mistreatment remain a misdemeanor under the Senate-passed bill.

AUDIO: Shantel Krebs (2 min. MP3)

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