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Tougher Penalties Sought for Ohio Animal Cruelty
Finally, someone is making a big deal out of Ohio’s inadequate penalties for animal cruelty. Thanks to vindy.com for this article…
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YOUNGSTOWN — The mayor and city prosecutor have asked two state representatives to introduce legislation that would elevate certain acts of animal cruelty to a felony charge.
In a letter to Robert F. Hagan of Youngstown, D-60th, and Ronald V. Gerberry of Austintown, D-59th, Mayor Jay Williams and City Prosecutor Jay Macejko cite the need for legislation to bring Ohio in line with 45 other states that define certain acts of animal cruelty as a felony or provide felony-level penalties even though an offense is not specifically defined as a felony.
“Sadly, Ohio is in the minority that only provides misdemeanor penalties regardless of the extent of the cruelty,” Macejko said in the letter. He said the goal of bringing Ohio in line with the vast majority of the country could be accomplished by amending the penalty section of the current law.
The letter gives a synopsis of what happened at High Caliber K-9, a kennel that operated on Coitsville-Hubbard Road until October when seven dead and 12 starving dogs were found on the property. Steve Croley, the operator, reached a plea agreement and pleaded guilty to four misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty and began serving a four-month jail sentence Jan. 23.
Macejko noted in the letter that Croley did not face 19 counts due to legal missteps on the part of Animal Charity humane agents. He said the agents who entered the property took the necessary moral, but not the necessary legal, action.
“To be blunt, misdemeanor penalties are not enough for what happened here, regardless of the number of offenses,” Macejko wrote. “The macabre suffering that happened at High Caliber in late October is almost beyond comprehension.”
He said limiting the felony charge to situations where animals die and to businesses that provide kenneling of animals would provide prosecutors “the tools necessary to punish these nefarious deeds.”
The penalty now for first-degree misdemeanor animal cruelty is up to six months in jail. If a fifth-degree felony is added to the law, the penalty would be six months to one year in prison.
Gerberry said he met with the Ohio Legislative Service Commission, the drafting arm for legislation, this past week to discuss amending the existing animal cruelty law to include a fifth-degree felony. He said he should have a draft of the legislation in the next week or two and will ask Macejko to review it and see if it meets his and the mayor’s criteria.
Service commission staff reviews all bills before their introduction in the General Assembly to make certain that each bill is drafted in conformity with required technical standards. The staff also monitors all legislation moving through the General Assembly and attempts to minimize the possibility of technical conflict that could occur if two bills amending the same section of law are enacted during the same session.
Gerberry said the judge should have a little more latitude when it comes to sentencing.
“I don’t want to tie him up where he can’t dispense the penalty that meets the crime,” the state representative said. “I want to give the judge an opportunity to look at a specific case and say maybe it doesn’t meet the level of a felony or it does.”
Gerberry said it was “terrible, unbelievable” what happened to the dogs at High Caliber K-9. “You wonder what he was thinking, I just don’t understand.”
Hopefully, the legislation has a good chance of passing, he said.
The possibility of having Youngstown police cross-trained to deal with humane agent calls is being discussed. Macejko said this past week he remains hopeful that a small number of officers could be cross-trained.
“It appears that the number of such calls is on the increase and, unfortunately, the severity of the offenses appears to be increasing,” the prosecutor said. “At this point, the city is almost entirely dependent upon outside agencies to provide humane services, and the last thing we want to do is overwhelm the existing network.”
Hagan could not be reached.
“It’s about time Ohio says ‘Yeah, let’s do this.’ When someone kills an animal they need to be in the [prison] system,” said Dave Nelson, assistant Mahoning County dog warden. “I think it should get support — who would oppose? I know it’s been tried before, but the crimes are more violent now.”
He said if the law passes it will be a win-win situation, another tool to use to punish deliberately cruel acts. There have been countless times, he said, when animals died and the felony punishment would have applied.
I’m originally from Ohio and I’ve long been ashamed of our weak penalties and strong breed restrictions. I’m glad Youngstown is stepping up and pointing out that we need to punish people more than animals.
You do soo much for all of us with your blog, I gaved you an award. Thank you for all you do.
I really hope this passes.
I really hope that Ohio passes the amendment that would provide for felony classification for cruelly killing animals. I also cannot understand how anyone could starve animals to death.
Glad they’re starting to toughen up the laws regarding animal cruelty.
Thanks for the card!
DogsDeserveFreedom
I really hope this gets the attention it deserves. Ohio is so far behind when it comes to animal cruelty laws and punishments. Id be embarrassed to live there.
Hope to see this legislation pass, it’s about time Ohio caught up with the rest of the nation…
When someone publish something like this i must admit that i need to say: thank you. I also read some other posts and i must say this is a very cool blog. I added this blog to my favourites list.
Thank you for all you do! The Harrison County Humane Society is currently working on a case concerning a case of horse(s) abuse. The man in question is no stranger to the law. He has been charged previously not only in our county but Tusc. county as well. When does it stop? How many horses have to be injured or die before this man is stopped?? Due to the current laws he gets away with merely a slap on the hand and continues to purchase more horses. Help!! It’s time for a change.
I’m so glad I found this site. I was searching to find out how to get stiffer penalties in Ohio, and this is exactly what I was looking for. I see that all the responses are from early 2009, though. Do you have an update on what’s happened, or is there anything I can do to help?
Pray that this passes to make it a felony to abuse animals. A so called cat shelter in Youngstown had been raided with over 70 sick and dying cats taken out by the local humane agency. The conditons were horrendous. Somehow, this awful woman was allowed to open up the shelter again. She even had the nerve to ask for donations for her defense fund on her website (it is a non-profit organization. The poor cats in there were at her mercy. She is a heartless piece of garbage that needs to be stopped. Please make animal cruelty a felony to stop this abuse.
Whats most horrendous is that people will believe every word that certain organizations spread. There are people and situations that are self evident look at high caliber K-9 the pictures from this raid are at the location ill skinny dogs, dead dogs, no food water etc but are there the same for cat ladies society? No theres a pic of them removing a cage full of cats we can only presume.
Sadly this country has given more power to organizations who make their money in selling the animals they rescue how is this even ethical? Or get donations from highly publicity raids.
They take the animals as “evidence” and house them in shelters where they are exposed to many different diseases and pathogens they have no immunity to get them ill and bammm instant sick pet.
Anyone passing judgement on anyone in these matters
should be able to say they do so with no reasonable doubt but how can you honestly say theres no doubt those cats were taken in that condition when there are no pictures of them in the location at the time of the raid in these conditions we are lead to believe exsist.
we all know there are 2 sides to a story and in this case volunteers have stepped up to say we worked there and this is untrue of the cat ladies. And how does the agencies involved justify killing so many cats just because they were ill? Oh wait it would take more money from their coffers to actually help them…..