Animal Cruelty Bill Gets Unanimous Vote, Standing Ovation

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(STATEHOUSE) - Legislators have overwhelmingly approved a deal on a bill to regulate Indiana dog breeders.

The House erupted in a bipartisan standing ovation after a tumultuous session-long battle over how far to go in imposing the regulations ended with unanimous approval of a compromise bill.

The bill gives Attorney General Greg Zoeller and the state board of animal health authority to ensure compliance with animal cruelty laws. It also closes loopholes in those laws, including a provision that until now made injuring someone's pet a crime but was silent on killing the animal.

The bill takes two small steps toward regulating conditions in breeding facilities, requiring dogs have the opportunity to run around each day, rather than being confined to their cages all day.

And it bans wire flooring in those cages, requiring something more solid. Animal welfare activists, led by Rep. Linda Lawson (D-Hammond), had pushed for more extensive regulations, including minimum requirements for lighting, ventilation and sanitation, and caps on how many dogs a breeder could have.

Lawson dropped most of those proposals last week, saying it was critical to pass the animal-cruelty portion of the bill. Lawson says she still would have preferred more dramatic action.

But she says the one significant change since Monday has vastly improved the bill, allowing Fort Wayne and Bloomington to maintain stricter ordinances already on the books.

Other communities would have until the end of the year to pass their own ordinances.

After that, the bill would represent the outer limits of regulation.

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