EDITORIAL Follow-through needed in animal cruelty cases
Associated Press
Gov. Tom Wolf, left, and state Rep. Richard Alloway play with poster puppy Libre after signing the Animal Abuse Statue Overhaul into law. With Libre is her rescuer/owner Janine Guido. Alloway announced he will be leaving his post in February.
Libre Law
Observer-Reporter
The Observer-Reporter
Last year, the Legislature passed and Gov. Tom Wolf signed Libre’s Law, a measure named for an abused puppy that significantly toughened the commonwealth’s laws against mistreatment of animals.
Among other things, the law allows for more serious charges to be filed, including an aggravated cruelty option in cases in which animals suffer extreme injuries or die. The law also increases penalties for animal abuse, meaning those found guilty of the most serious crimes could face as many as seven years behind bars and fines of as much as $15,000.
When the law took effect last August, Bryan Langlois, medical director of an animal-welfare organization in Lancaster County, told Lancaster Online that Pennsylvania was “woefully behind the times in the penalties that could be assessed for severe cases of animal cruelty.”
Added Langlois, “There were a lot of times we wanted to pursue serious charges against an individual, but the law did not allow us to do this. The new law now finally sends a message that animal abusers will not just get away with a slap on the wrist and minimal fine.”
Maybe. Maybe not. A law is only as good as its application, and it seems as if those who abuse animals are still getting off fairly easy, at least by our reckoning.
Case in point: On Tuesday in Greene County, a former Nemacolin woman pleaded guilty to 22 summary offenses for abandoning her dog and its puppies at her home. The mother dog died, as did one of the pups. Two misdemeanor counts against Jessica Dawn Johnston were downgraded to summary offenses. For all of her offenses, Johnston was fined $2,500, not including court costs and restitution. She got not a single day behind bars for willfully abandoning these animals and causing the deaths of two of them.
How gruesome was the situation? Police who responded to Johnston’s home found the chained mother dog dead with its head resting on a cinder block. The puppies were running loose. Three of the puppies were adopted by neighbors. The Humane Society of Greene County took the other six, and one of those died from the neglect it had suffered.
Under the state’s new abuse law, the penalty for a summary offense can be as long as 90 days in jail and/or a fine of $300. For a misdemeanor conviction, an animal abuser can face as long as a year behind bars and a fine of $2,000 for each offense.
District Judge Lee Watson warned Johnston, now living in Carmichaels, that if she fails to make required payments on her fine, she could face a jail sentence. Said Johnston, “I’m not going to jail. I’m a single parent. That’s not happening.”
We’re glad Johnston intends to pay her fines, but we have to wonder why she received no time behind bars in the first place. Why were the misdemeanor charges reduced? Is is because Johnston has a child, or children? There are plenty of other offenders who have children and must make arrangements for their care when they serve jail or prison sentences. Couldn’t Johnston have been given at least a nominal jail term, and the opportunity to serve the time on weekends?
The problem is, the message the state was trying to send with Libre’s Law is only received if it is properly delivered at the local level. In the future, we hope police file the most serious charges that can be supported by the law, that prosecutors will pursue those charges with vigor, rather than plea-bargaining them down, and that judges will give more consideration to the suffering of abused and dead animals when imposing sentences on those who abuse and kill defenseless pets.