STAND. COM. REP. NO.983

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 1581

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 1581 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CRUELTY TO ANIMALS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to enact new criminal offenses for cruelty to animals and cockfighting.

Testimony in support of this measure was received from the Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney, Honolulu Police Department, The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Hawaii State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Hawaiian Humane Society, Kauai Humane Society, and 905 individuals. Testimony in opposition was received from the Public Defender, Hawaii Game Breeders Association, Animal Care Foundation, and three individuals.

This measure creates the offenses of:

(1) Aggravated cruelty to animals as a class C felony, for (among other things) committing an act against an animal that is especially heinous, atrocious, cruel, or unnecessarily tortuous and that manifests exceptional depravity so as to manifest a lack of conscience or pity;

(2) Cockfighting as cruelty to animals and making actions relating to cockfighting a class C felony; and

(3) Possession, manufacture, sale, purchase, barter, or exchange of cockfighting equipment as a petty misdemeanor.

In addition, this measure also establishes that every building, premise, or place used for cockfighting and fighting dogs is a nuisance and subject to injunction; adds to the acts that qualify as a cruelty to animals offense, the transporting in the back of a pickup truck any animal not properly restrained and the deprivation of necessary sustenance to an animal; and adds to the sentencing requirements for conviction of cruelty to animal offenses that the defendant undergo and pay for counseling to evaluate and treat behavioral or conduct disorders.

Your Committee was influenced by the incidences of horrific torture to animals as revealed in the testimony. But, your Committee passes this measure with some reluctance because of the possible effects upon cultural practices such as subsistence living, wherein people fish and hunt for food. This could be prevalent in the rural areas of Oahu and the Neighbor Islands. Your Committee intends that this measure be refined, if possible, in the legislative process to address the objections based on cultural practices.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1581 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

COLLEEN HANABUSA, Chair