Oho budget amendment toughens penalties for animal abuse
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
Lawmakers have amended language in the biennial budget to ensure kennel owners and employees who abuse or starve animals in their care face tougher criminal penalties.
The updated amendment, added by the Republican-controlled conference committee late Tuesday evening and slated for a final vote today, should have the same impact as Nitro’s Law, separate legislation offered in response to an incident at a Youngstown business.
State Rep. Ronald Gerberry of Austintown, D-59th, who has sponsored the legislation during three-consecutive General Assemblies, said he would have preferred that his language be adopted but was satisfied with the end result.
“We were assured by legal-counsel people that have practices in abuse cases that this accomplishes the goal of what we wanted,” he said. “And that’s why we accepted it. It’s not written the same way, but it does the same thing.”
Nitro was among more than a dozen dogs found dead or dying from extreme neglect in 2008 at the High Caliber K-9 kennel on Coitsville-Hubbard Road in Youngstown. The owner of the business faced a few misdemeanor convictions and subsequently filed for bankruptcy, avoiding additional civil penalties.
Since then, Gerberry and others have been pushing to increase criminal penalties for such kennel abuse. During the past two legislative sessions and earlier this year, the Ohio House has passed Nitro’s Law, but the Ohio Senate blocked the bills from a final floor vote.
The Senate did include language in its version of the biennial budget, however, to allow felony charges against kennels that abuse pets in their care. But Gerberry voiced concern because the amendment did not specify cases of purposeful starvation or dehydration, which is what killed Nitro.
Sen. Larry Obhof of Medina, R-22nd, said it was the chamber’s intent to allow felony charges for all types of intentional cruelty to dogs, and he voiced a willingness to work with Gerberry and others to solidify the language.
The amendment OK’d this week would allow heightened charges in cases where kennel owners or employees were guilty of torturing, tormenting, needlessly mutilating, beating, poisoning, starving or dehydrating companion animals. The provisions do not cover horses, cows, hogs and captive white-tailed deer or other livestock.
“I am very glad the Senate put it in,” Gerberry said of the amendment, though he added that he wouldn’t be supporting the budget legislation as a whole, given the tax reform and other provisions that he opposes.