MAUMEE, Ohio — Animal rights groups are pleased after President Donald Trump signed a bill Monday making certain types of animal cruelty a federal felony.
The Preventing Animal Cruelty and and Torture or "PACT Act" cracks down on "animal crushing" which is a fetish whereby people get satisfaction out of crushing animals.
But animal rights activists say the law doesn’t stop there. It is written to define "crushing" as any act purposefully crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating, or impaling animals.
Workers at the Toledo Area Humane Society said they can now report these types of cruelty cases to federal authorities if the crime passes state lines.
"It's nice to see animal cruelty being addressed at a federal level," said Stephen Heaven, CEO of the Toledo Area Humane Society. "If we come across this type of cruelty, we can trace it back to somebody that's out of state or there's a connection with other states, then it's something we can pass on to perhaps the FBI or USDA to to investigate."
Anyone convicted under this new law faces up to seven years in prison. Experts say there is plenty of room to expand on this law to include animals hurt for sport and other forms of cruelty.
