WILDER, Ky. — A Kentucky bill that seeks to strengthen state laws against torturing a dog or cat passed through the state legislature last month.
The manager of an animal shelter in northern Kentucky is hopeful the law will cut back on the animal abuse she commonly sees.
Protect 4 Paws Animal Shelter is a small no-kill shelter in Wilder that takes a free rein approach with its cats and dogs. It typically holds 20 to 30 cats and two to five dogs, usually smaller breeds, at a given time.
The shelter focuses on owner surrenders from people who aren’t able to care for their animals. Manager Agnes Burdsall said this brings in animals that, unfortunately, have sometimes been abused or neglected.
“We do have cases where you can tell an animal has definitely had some trauma in the past, quite a few cases where we don’t know for sure, but it does seem like something’s happened,” she said. “It sets an animal back so far, because our whole goal here is to find them the perfect fit, forever home, and already coming to shelter is hard for any animal. It’s not an ideal place. And animals who have been neglected or abused, you’re starting with so much baggage and so much trauma.”
She said that trauma is often hard to overcome. And she said the people responsible get away with it far too often.
“We just don’t often see anyone held accountable for it. We see the result of it, but we don’t see anyone having to answer for that, unfortunately,” Burdsall said.
House Bill 258, which just passed the Kentucky legislature, seeks to strengthen state laws against torturing a dog or cat, including stiffer penalties for first-time offenders, who would face a class d felony rather than a misdemeanor charge.
Ethan’s law, as it’s been called, is named after Ethan, a dog who was found in the Kentucky Humane Society’s parking lot in Jan. 2021, nearly starving to death.
Jeff Callaway, who was the Humane Society’s facilities director at the time, adopted Ethan. The two now travel across the country, sharing Ethan’s story.
Burdsall is a fan of the new law.
“Any step in that direction, I think, is helpful. It’s just hard, because you want to see those cases be prosecuted. Because we have so many animals dumped here, and no action is ever taken. It’s hard to find those people. So that’s a bit discouraging. Kentucky has been so behind, so just to have any piece of legislation that is moving in that direction is encouraging,” she said.
She said she’d also like to see retroactive charges for people who’ve abused animals.