Report Title:

Animal Cruelty; Counseling; Judiciary

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

104

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001

  

STATE OF HAWAII

  
   

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

requesting the judiciary to order defendants in animal cruelty cases to pay for, and successfully complete, counseling designed to evaluate and treat behavior or conduct disorders.

 

 

WHEREAS, studies over the last two decades have shown that animal cruelty is often associated with domestic violence; and

WHEREAS, the intentional cruelty or killing of family pets by adults or children is increasingly recognized as a significant indicator of violence in the home; and

WHEREAS, while pets in most American homes are treated as family members, they frequently become targets if they are part of a violent family; moreover, threats against a pet are often used by abusers as a way to silence or punish their victims; and

WHEREAS, children may also become abusers of animals by imitating abusive behaviors that they have experienced, and turning the pet into a victim; and

WHEREAS, many psychologists, sociologists, and criminologists agree that animal abuse involves more than an abuser's personality flaw, but rather can indicate a seriously disturbed family environment; and

WHEREAS, since animal cruelty can be one of the earliest and most significant signs of a person's potential for violence, it is imperative to intervene in the beginning stages, when children are young; and

WHEREAS, at least twenty-seven states have made cruelty to animals a felony under certain circumstances. The other twenty-three states, including Hawaii, provide misdemeanor penalties for secondary forms of abuse; and

WHEREAS, section 711-1109, Hawaii Revised Statutes, provides that a person commits the offense of cruelty to animals if the person intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly:

(1) Overdrives, overloads, tortures, torments, cruelly beats or starves any animal, or causes or procures the overdriving, overloading, torture, torment, cruel beating or starving of any animal, or deprives a pet animal of necessary sustenance or causes such deprivation;

(2) Mutilates, poisons, or kills without need any animal other than insects, vermin, or other pests;

(3) Keeps, uses, or in any way is connected with or interested in the management of, or receives money for the admission of any person to, any place kept or used for the purpose of fighting or baiting any bull, bear, dog, cock, or other animal, and every person who encourages, aids, or assists therein, or who permits or suffers any place to be so kept or used;

(4) Carries or causes to be carried, in or upon any vehicle or other conveyance, any animal in a cruel or inhumane manner; or

(5) Assists another in the commission of any act of cruelty to any animal;

and

WHEREAS, California's animal cruelty law provides that "the court shall order the defendant to pay for, and successfully complete, counseling, as determined by the court, designed to evaluate and treat behavior or conduct disorders"; and

WHEREAS, there is a need for Hawaii's Judiciary to provide similar requirements in cases of animal cruelty; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2001, the Senate concurring, that the Judiciary is requested to order defendants in animal cruelty cases to pay for, and successfully complete, counseling designed to evaluate and treat behavior or conduct disorders; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the legislative committees having jurisdiction over the Judiciary are requested to consider proposals to amend Hawaii law in ways that are similar in substance to California's animal cruelty law relating to counseling for offenders of that law; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Chief Justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court, the Administrative Director of the Courts, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, the Chairperson of the House Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, and the Executive Director of the Hawaiian Humane Society.

 

 
 

OFFERED BY:

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