Rep. Steve Cohen
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn, helped introduce a bipartisan bill that would create an Animal Cruelty Crimes section within the U.S. Department of Justice.
The introduction of the bill, which has been sent to the House Judiciary Committee, comes after a successful bipartisan effort to use $1 million from the Legal Activities account to enforce animal welfare laws throughout the country.
Support for the bill was also raised after a series of cockfighting investigations in Oklahoma, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky exposed massive illegal enterprises involved in the global shipping of animals for fighting purposes.
“I’m proud to support the Animal Cruelty Enforcement Act. Intentionally inflicting harm to defenseless animals, including through competitive dogfighting and other inhumane practices, has no place in civilized society,” said Rep. Cohen. “Enforcement of measures already on the books is critical to ending these barbaric practices, which is what this measure aims to do.”
The proposed section of the DOJ would focus on the enforcement of animal welfare acts that were introduced and strengthened under the Trump administration as well as enforcing previously enacted animal welfare criminal statutes.
The bill comes after two years of work between Congress and the president in which the legal framework relating to animal abuse was strengthened. Specifically, the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, Parity in Animal Cruelty Enforcement, and Pet and Women Safety Act were modernized and given more defined guidelines which allowed law enforcement agencies to act in more situations.
The dedicated Animal Cruelty Crimes section at the DOJ would allow for a more focused lens to be shined on animal abuse and give more resources to organizations working to fight animal abuse. The DOJ already has similar dedicated sections on other important national concerns, such as environmental protection, wildlife, and organized crime.