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Instead, it opens the door to further negotiations, said state Rep. Greg Ward, D-Ripley, who chairs the House Agriculture Committee, where the bill died Tuesday.
“This is a good issue,” Ward told the Daily Journal on Wednesday. “This is an issue that will be addressed. We will have hearings this summer on it, but it does not need to be chased with bad legislation. It needs to be good legislation that everyone would understand.”
Ward cited numerous questions and issues plaguing the passage of Senate Bill 2623, including its definition of cruelty and its inability to deal with puppy mills or vicious dogs. Those issues couldn’t be resolved by the committee deadline, he said.
Tuesday was the last day for House and Senate committees to act on bills passed by the other chamber.
The bill would have made it a felony to maliciously “torture, mutilate, maim, burn, starve, disfigure or kill any domesticated dog or cat.”
Mississippi is one of only four states without a felony animal-cruelty law, according to the Humane Society of the United States. Idaho, North Dakota and South Dakota are the others.
Supporters of the bill were disappointed.
“It’s very discouraging for shelters and animal control officers,” said Tupelo-Lee Humane Society Director Debbie Hood. “We respond to animal cruelty complaints. Without the law providing retribution for somebody that mistreats an animal, it’s hard to do what we do.”
Opponents included hunters and farmers who worried its language was too vague and, in some cases, too strong.
“It got to be a rural-interest-versus-an-urban-interest issue,” said state Rep. Steve Holland, D-Plantersville. “There were ... way more proponents of the bill than opponents. But the opponents had been calling religiously. They prevailed on the Agriculture Committee.”
Contact Emily Le Coz at (662) 678-1588 or emily.lecoz@djournal.com.
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