The Cross-reporting bill, HB 2292, finally made it across the finish line after several years of the Alliance’s hard-fought efforts in passing this critical legislation. Our cross-reporting bill will be lifesaving for abused animals, children, and elders.

This legislation mandates the reporting of animal abuse or neglect by professionals in human services such as social workers, teachers, and child advocates. And likewise, humane investigators and animal control officers are now mandated to report child and elder abuse or neglect that they encounter in animal investigations.

This legislation is critically needed for vulnerable animals and at-risk humans. It is well-documented that there is a strong link between violence against animals and crimes against humans.

This bill will accelerate the resolution of these cases and greatly assists in resolving such instances when different agencies work together on these matters. It also gives more credibility to cases when both a child and animal are shown to be abused or neglected. This legislation will, no doubt, expedite the removal of our most vulnerable populations, including the animals, from harm’s way.

The legislation passed in spite of malicious attacks and hateful lies by many agricultural groups and, especially by the Missouri Pet Breeders Association, representing the puppy millers in the state. Their opposition was so vehement it begs the questions, are they also abusing their children in addition to their animals?

In addition to this major victory for animals, we were successful in defeating HB 2436 this session that would have eliminated our disposition process for abused and neglected animals. Shockingly, legislation that could have left abused and neglected animals in the possession of their abusers passed in the House of Representatives. Fortunately, we defeated this dangerous proposal after delivering powerful testimony in opposition in the Senate Agriculture Committee. Subsequently, this legislation died when the Committee declined to bring it up for a vote.

We were also able to ensure that HB 1795 did not go forward this year. This legislation was intended to overturn ordinances in the City and County of St. Louis that banned the declawing of cats except for therapeutic purposes. Unfortunately, the bill went further by effectively prohibiting local governments from banning the use of the gas chamber to euthanize dogs and cats. This dangerous bill would also have prevented local ordinances banning cruel practices occurring at factory farms, such as the prolonged suffocation of unwanted farm animals, and the dehorning and castration of cattle without anesthesia. While the proponents often argued that the Alliance’s opposition is based on misinformation, a state Missouri Court recently concurred with the Alliance’s concerns about this legislation.

For the past several years, Petland has attempted to pass legislation that would prohibit local governments from banning the sale of dogs and cats in pet stores. After the Alliance publicly exposed some of the deceptive sales practices at Petland Stores, in Missouri, Petland did not go forward with such a bill this year. No doubt, fearing repercussions from the Missouri Attorney General if the Alliance continued to call attention to Petland’s illegal practices during hearings on its legislation.

While some of our priority bills did not make it across the finish line this session, we did make great progress on moving these bills closer to passage for next session.

The bill to make it a felony to neglect an animal, by failing to provide sufficient food, passed out of the House Committee unanimously and then easily passed on the House Floor. We also passed legislation in the House to improve our neglect statutes and ensure adequate control and care of animals. In the interim, these good animal bills that ran out of time to pass in the Senate did educate many people about the need for such legislation, especially through the Alliance’s dissemination of photos and case reports documenting how often animals are left to starve in Missouri.

Thanks to your generous support, the Alliance was able to once again advocate for the animals with our state legislators to protect our current animal welfare laws and to initiate, advance, and pass new bills to dramatically improve the welfare of the animals in Missouri.