Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Inspiring Story on Lady Wolf's Notes ... link below

Please read the  wonderful post about dog rescuer Greg Mahle on http://www.ladywolfsnotes.blogspot.  It's a happy and inspiring story about a wonderful man!

A New Tennessee Law About Animal Abusers ...

An article by Associated Press has announced that starting on January 1st of this new year. the state will maintain a statewide animal abuse registry which can be accessed by anybody. There you will see a picture of the offender and other information about him/her such as age and address. The Tennessee House of Representatives and the Senate passed the legislation in May that would allow the Bureau of Investigation to create this website.

For this we  have to thank State Sen. Richard Briggs, R-Knoxville, who co-sponsored the bill, which was modeled after registries that are kept of sex offenders.  The registry will list those persons convicted of aggravated animal cruelty or felony animal fighting. The article I viewed was on WBIR a few days ago. I do not know what other legislators initiated or sponsored the bill. Also mentioned in the item is Bright Hope Animal Rescue in Greenville, the owners of which are pleased to have the new legislation -- and who hope offenders will always be kept on the registry, rather than drop off the list after a certain amount of time. I agree. There are some other states that have initiated a similar animal abusers' state registry. The sting of minimally-punished animal abuse was very much on my mind as I thought of Beauty, the sweet dog whose owner intentionally starved her to death  recently.  It is essential that prosecutors regard animal abuse as the heavy duty crime that it is and to punish abusers accordingly  with prison time as well as fines (and being listed on the Registry).