Individuals who torture animals will face felony charges, fines and prison time if found guilty under a new act approved by the U.S. Senate.

We are cheering the bill, known as the PACT Act, and Senators Richard Blumenthal and Pat Toomey who introduced the measure. The bill would outlaw the vicious act of “crushing” in which animals are maimed or tortured. Sometimes the acts are videotaped. 

“In Connecticut, where Friends of Animals is headquartered, we’re familiar with Senator Blumenthal’s sensibility and sensitivity toward animals and what constitutes depraved behavior. We applaud this measure sponsored by both Senator Blumenthal and Toomey, knowing it reflects basic decency that is becoming all too uncommon during the Trump administration.”

While Congress had taken steps to ban the sales of such videos, it didn’t make the act of crushing a federal crime. The PACT Act, which is SB 654, if signed into law would be the first ever federal anti-animal cruelty statute of a general nature.

A companion bill in the house, H.R.1494, has 267 cosponsors.

“This bipartisan measure finally prohibits a heinous, inhumane practice – stating emphatically once and for all that there is no place in a civilized society for the maiming and torturing of animals,’’ said Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut.

Toomey, a Republican from Pennsylvania, said the act would help put an end to the abhorrent practice.

“Animal crushing is absolutely disgusting and there is no place for this behavior in our society,’’ said Toomey.
Find out if your Congressional representatives have signed on as co-sponsors and if they haven’t, urge them to crush animal cruelty by making it a federal offense.