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The US president signed an important new piece of legislation for animal rights and safety earlier this week. It sanctions acts of animal cruelty at the federal level. Several animal protection associations have welcomed this measure.
Until now, only the creators and distributors of videos showing animal abuse fell under the Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act , a law ratified in 2010. A new text , ratified this Monday (November 25, 2019) by the US President Donald Trump goes much further. This is the PACT (Protect Animal Cruelty and Torture Act), which in fact directly sanctions the perpetrators of acts of animal cruelty and makes two of them federal crimes .
This last point is very important, since it implies that the individuals responsible for such acts can now be arrested and prosecuted by the FBI and other US federal agencies , whether they made the videos or not .
The new animal cruelty law had received approval from Republicans and Democrats alike , both in the Senate and the House of Representatives . The project was supported by Senators Pat Toomey (Republican Party, Pennsylvania) and Richard Blumenthal (Democratic Party, Connecticut), as well as Representatives Ted Deutch (Democratic Party) and Vern Buchanan (Republican), both from Florida.
On the announcement of the signing of the PACT Act by the President of the United States, several animal welfare associations expressed their satisfaction , including Creatures Great and Small , Animal Wellness Action and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).
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