ANIMAL RIGHTS: Have you ever considered just how prevalent animal abuse is in Pennsylvania? A law inspired by a badly neglected Boston terrier found in Lancaster County called Libre’s Law went into effect in late August of 2017. This anti-cruelty law (Act 10) strengthened the protection of animals and increased penalties for animal abuse, including the ability to charge aggravated animal cruelty as a felony.

Since Libre’s Law went into effect, just five short years ago, there have been 35,000 animal abuse offenses filed statewide. More than half of the claims filed for abuse, 57%, were for the neglect of animals. The other half is broken into 33% (11,726) offenses filed for cruelty to animals and the remaining 11% (3,451) for aggravated cruelty to animals.

According to an infographic released recently by PA Courts, more than half of the defendants who faced animal abuse charges were male, with 25% of all defendants being between the ages of 46-65 and the next highest age range of defendants was 24% being ages 26-35. Almost all 4,140 defendants were between the ages of 19 and 65.

If these are the figures reported after the law had been made more strict, just imagine the number of unreported cases before this law took hold across the country. Some of the changes to Pennsylvania’s previous animal cruelty laws, under the new Libre Law, include stricter tethering regulations, harsher penalties for certain animal abuse offenses and the requirement that anyone convicted of an animal abuse offense forfeit their animal(s).

For more information, visit www.pacourts.us.