Under a new law, signed by President Trump, animal cruelty is now a federal crime.
The president signed the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act (PACT) into law Monday, which bans abusive behaviors towards “living non-human mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians.”
It also expands on the 2010 law, Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act, by making it illegal to distribute animal-crush videos.
The bill was first introduced to the House in January 2019, but it wasn’t until October that the House voted on it. It moved on to the Senate in the beginning of November, where it passed unanimously.
The act, which was led by by U.S. Senators Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and U.S. Representatives Ted Deutch (D-FL) and Vern Buchanan (R-FL), had support from both sides of the aisle. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also supported the PACT act.
“PACT makes a statement about American values. Animals are deserving of protection at the highest level,” Kitty Block, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, said in a statement.
“The approval of this measure by the Congress and the president marks a new era in the codification of kindness to animals within federal law. For decades, a national anti-cruelty law was a dream for animal protectionists. Today, it is a reality.”
This is amazing news! It’s unfortunate it took so long to happen, but Im glad we’ll be able to protect all the future furbabies.
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