SB 273-CRUELTY TO ANIMALS  CHAIR FRENCH announced the consideration of SB 273. 1:54:55 PM KATHERINE PUSTAY, staff to Senator Wielechowski, sponsor of SB 273 said the bill seeks to increase penalties for the most heinous acts of animal cruelty and criminalize participation in animal fights. Currently in Alaska a person can torture or poison an animal and only be charged with a misdemeanor. The bill won't change the penalty for causing injury to an animal due to criminal negligence. Currently, 44 states and the District of Columbia have enacted felony-level penalties for heinous acts of animal cruelty. Alaska ranks among the weakest with respect to animal protection. MS. PUSTAY said that research indicates that without intervention, people who abuse and kill animals are more likely to also abuse humans. Over 70 percent of pet owners that enter domestic violence shelters indicate that their batterer threatened, injured, or killed family pets. Many abusers have a history of abusing animals that precedes domestic violence toward their partner. Hopefully, she said, the committee will also discuss ways to strengthen the application toward domestic violence cases. Animal cruelty has been found to be an indicator for predicting which children subsequently will exhibit antisocial and/or aggressive behavior. Serial and school killers frequently have histories of animal abuse. She highlighted the wide ranging support for the bill. "We believe that passage of felony-level animal cruelty is critical in halting the progression of violent crime," she said. MS. PUSTAY referred to the issue of proportionality that the Department of Law raised during the previous hearing, and said the sponsor believes that there is an issue with the way domestic violence cases are prosecuted. The way the statute is written, a person who "knowingly inflicts severe and prolonged physical pain or suffering on an animal" is committing an offense that is similar to assault in the first degree. The penalty for first degree assault on a person is a class A felony. SB 273 says that same level of assault on an animal is a class C felony. We don't intend to suggest that crimes against animals should be punished the same as crimes against humans, but we do want to say that torturing an animal is not acceptable in this state, she said. 1:57:28 PM CHAIR FRENCH asked her to elaborate on the link between animal cruelty and domestic violence. MS. PUSTAY referred to a fact sheet in the packet from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) citing numerous studies that indicate there's an overlap. CHAIR FRENCH asked if abusers sometimes use pets as a proxy for abusing a spouse. MS. PUSTAY said she understands that threatening violence toward a pet is oftentimes used to exert control over another person. 1:59:20 PM SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI provided statistics that he finds startling. NCADV reports that 71 percent of pet owners who enter domestic violence shelters report that their batterer threatened, hurt, or killed family pets; one study found that 87 percent of batterers perpetrated pet abuse in the presence of their partner for the purpose of exerting control; and up to 76 percent of batterers perpetrated pet abuse in the presence of children. "There's a staggering correlation … between pets and domestic violence - unfortunately so," he said. SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI, responding to a question from Senator French, explained that currently there are 4 provisions that apply to animal cruelty: torturing an animal, criminal negligence of an animal, killing or injuring an animal by use of a decompression chamber, and injuring or killing an animal with poison. Torturing or intentionally inflicting prolonged pain and suffering on an animal should be punished by more than a $100 fine; it should send a clear message that it won't be tolerated. The policy choice was to make torture, use of a decompression chamber, and poisoning of an animal a felony offense. 2:02:11 PM CHAIR FRENCH mentioned the difference between the penalties for AS 11.61.140(a)(2) and the statute on promoting an exhibition of fighting animals. SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI highlighted that promoting or exhibiting a fighting animal is currently a class C felony and in many states it's either a misdemeanor or felony to be a spectator. This bill says promoting an exhibition of fighting animals is a class A misdemeanor for a first offense and a class C felony for each subsequent offense. 2:03:26 PM ANNE CARPENETI, Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division, Department of Law, said the department has serious concern with raising animal cruelty from a class A misdemeanor to a class C felony. Animal cruelty is shocking and despicable and it's obviously related to domestic violence, but DOL believes that one year in jail is enough for that conduct. She noted that for practical reasons, most domestic violence charges against humans are resolved as class A misdemeanors. Alaska prosecutors try 5 percent of the cases that are brought, which is the highest in the nation, and 95 percent of the cases are resolved. Considering the proportionality of penalties for injury to people, this bill would send the wrong message, she said. The increased penalty would also put prosecutors in a more difficult position with respect to allocating resources. CHAIR FRENCH asked how many prosecutions the DOL does each year for animal cruelty. At a future hearing he'd like to hear anecdotes about the range of severity in cases. MS. CARPENETI agreed to get the information. She reminded members that the statute allows a separate charge for every animal that is mistreated, and the sentences could be served consecutively. 2:06:42 PM CHAIR FRENCH said he'd also like to know the longest sentence ever imposed when animal cruelty is the only charge. The sponsor's point is that in the most heinous cases, having a bigger hammer has advantages. MS. CARPENETI pointed out that the mandatory minimum for a second domestic violence related fourth degree assault is 30 days. The mandatory minimum for a third domestic violence related fourth degree assault is 45 days. The penalty range for a first class C felony conviction is zero to two years. Conceivably the sentence for a felony level cruelty to animals could be less than that, but it's unlikely, and the message it sends is a concern, she said. CHAIR FRENCH said this bill would make it a class C felony to knowingly inflict severe and prolonged physical pain or suffering on an animal, and he believes that doing that to a human being would be assault in the first degree. That's a class A felony, and the penalty is up to 20 years in prison. MS. CARPENETI clarified that she's talking about the practical reality rather than the penalty that's on the books. CHAIR FRENCH agreed that someone would make that point, but the reciprocal point is that the parallel harm to a human is 20 years in prison. MS. CARPENETI said the statutes don't match exactly because the assault statutes talk about injury and the cruelty to animals statutes talk about pain and suffering. That's interesting in itself, she said, because you don't know. CHAIR FRENCH responded we'd know it when we looked at the injuries to the animal, the photographs, and the weight of the animal. MS. CARPENETI added that proving prolonged pain and suffering. is more difficult. The statutes don't really match because for assault you must prove injury, serious physical injury, or physical injury. 2:09:40 PM SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI remarked that after many discussions he still doesn't understand why the administration doesn't support the bill. He agreed with the Chair that the similar sort of assault to a human being would be a class A felony, and a potential prison sentence of 20 years. He surmised that poisoning or putting a human being in a decompression chamber would be an unclassified felony so he disagrees with the proportionality argument. Also, if someone were to slash and destroy another person's picture or painting of a beloved pet, that is a class C felony, but if the same person inflicted the same damage on the pet, that would only be a misdemeanor under current law. "There's no proportionality there so I respectfully disagree with the … administration on this matter," he said. MS. CARPENETI responded that the criminal laws aren't perfect; the $500 felony threshold for a class C felony is nearly 30 years old and it's worth discussion. CHAIR FRENCH announced he would hold public testimony open so that the full committee could hear from the public. He set SB 273 aside.