US Senator Mike Braun and others in Washington have worked to create a way for animals to be protected the best way they can.
Braun and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse have introduced the bipartisan Animal Cruelty Enforcement Act to ensure that the federal government has a dedicated office for the enforcement of animal cruelty statutes.
The Animal Cruelty Enforcement Act Creates, by statute, a dedicated Animal Cruelty Crimes Division at the Department of Justice to aid in the investigation, enforcement, and subsequent prosecution of felony animal cruelty crimes. It also requires the Department of Justice to report annually on the progress made enforcing animal cruelty statutes.
Within the last two years, several animal welfare statutes signed into law have expanded the depth of the animal cruelty laws on the federal books. The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, the Parity in Animal Cruelty Enforcement Act, and the Pet and Women Safety Act have added new laws to the federal code. These laws were passed with bipartisan support for the purposes of addressing animal cruelty issues head-on, recognizing the body of research that closely links violence against animals with violence against humans.
To ensure that these laws are adequately enforced across the country, the federal government must have dedicated staff to ensure adequate enforcement across the board. Over the past several years, the Department of Justice has taken steps to invest significant amounts of attorney time into reviewing reports of animal cruelty and investigating cases. However, given the influx of laws on the books, they saw that it was important that a dedicated section be established.
