Idaho Wants Animal Cruelty to be a Felony.

Forty-seven states currently allow animal abusers to be charged with a felony but Idaho is not one of them. Activists are pushing for a voter initiative that would allow animal abusers to be prosecuted at the felony level.

Idaho, North Dakota, and South Dakota are the only states left without felony animal cruelty laws. Currently, animal abuse in Idaho carries a misdemeanor charge with a $100 fine. If the initiative passes, the charge would be $400 for the first offense, $600 for the second, and $9,000, a felony, and a year in prison for the third. Reasonable punishments for unreasonable crimes.

The initiative has tons of support, even the Idaho newspaper The Statesman put out a great statement of support. The paper called Idaho’s current animal abuse laws an “embarrassment” and urged voters to support the initiative all the way.

Voters need to provide the petition group with 47,000 signatures this year in order to get the initiative on the ballot. If you are an Idaho voter, make sure you sign the petition when you see petitioners outside of grocery stores and libraries this next year. Then you can vote for the initiative when it comes up in the November 2012 election.

With such broad support for stronger animal cruelty laws, I feel like there is no way this thing won’t pass. Then we’ll have to work on the Dakotas.