Two dogs killed; the push for tougher animal cruelty laws

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

Gene Kennedy reportingTwo dogs were shot to death in their own backyards. The shootings happened at the same time that a controversial animal cruelty bill is being debated at the State Senate.

Police say the two dog shootings appear to be random and are not connected in any way.

Still, the families and animal lovers we've talked to say this is an emotionally-charged issue, and not everyone supports what the Legislature is trying to do about it.

On Thursday, the Stoddard family found their yellow lab "Bert" dead in the backyard. Someone shot him at point-blank range.

Then on Friday night, the Ballantyne family found their two-month-old puppy shot to death inside its kennel. Becca Ballantyne says, "I don't know who is sick enough to do something like this. It's devastating."

Two dogs killed; the push for tougher animal cruelty laws

Luckily, the other dogs in the kennel were not hurt. Like the incident in West Jordan, police have no idea who shot the dog. There were no footsteps leading to the kennel, only snowmobile tracks.

If police catch the shooter, that person would face a class A misdemeanor. The Humane Society believes that is a sufficient punishment. Gene Baierschmidt of the Humane Society of Utah says, "A person could go to jail for up to six months, and for shooting someone's dog, we don't see anything wrong with that."

The Humane Society actually draws the line at animal torture and has launched a new billboard campaign saying animal torture should be a felony on the first offense. Dog lovers agree. Rita Totten says, "The first time, ya know, once is enough kind of deal."

Sen. Allen Christensen is sponsoring a bill making animal cruelty a felony, but only on the second offense. Christensen says, "They want to color in Utah to say that Utah has a felony provision. This bill provides one, but it protects a little bit those who do a one-time stupid thing."

Baierschmidt says the bill doesn't go far enough. "The problem we have with Senator Christensen's bill is it has to be committed torture twice within a five year period. We think that's just too long. We think that people can get away with animal torture in that time," he said.

According to the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Utah has some of the weakest animal protection laws in the country.

There is a tougher law being proposed right now. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hear it, but the Humane Society fears it doesn't have a chance.