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Introduced Legislation Sets Guidelines for Tracking Animal Cruelty Crimes
by: Edited Press Release
December 15 2007, Article # 10994
New legislation in the U.S. Senate, introduced by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), directs the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to include animal cruelty crimes as a separate category in the agency's crime data reporting system.
"Having the ability to track animal cruelty cases anywhere in the country is a long overdue step that would not only help animals, but would also give law enforcement agencies the tools they need to prevent violent offenders from escalating their terrible behavior," said Michael Markarian, executive vice president of The Humane Society of the United States, and president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund.
The Tracking Animal Cruelty Crimes Act of 2007 directs the U.S. Attorney General to modify the FBI's crime data reporting systems, which include the Uniform Crime Reporting Program, the National Incident-Based Reporting System, and the yet-to-be released Law Enforcement National Data Exchange (N-DEx), to list cruelty to animals as a separate offense category.
Although all states have anti-cruelty laws and 43 states provide felony-level penalties, local police agencies do not have a place in their reporting forms to enter these crimes. The result is that animal cruelty crimes are assigned to miscellaneous categories that provide no further guidance to law enforcement agents or policymakers. Without accurate tracking, there is no way to access important information such as trends or the relationship to demographic and geographic data, on which to base policy development and resource allocation.
Sen. Menendez was joined in introducing the bill Dec. 12 by co-sponsors Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), and Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.). In the House of Representatives, Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) have been leading the effort to add animal cruelty to the FBI’s crime data reporting system.
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