Senate passes bill to place animal abusers on statewide registry list

WPBN/WGTU — A Senate Bill introduced to the Michigan Senate to place animal abusers on a statewide registry list has been passed.

Senate Bills 219 and 220, also known as Logan's Law, passed Thursday. It will now go to the House.

The bill would help to keep animals from getting adopted by convicted animal abusers.

The legislation will mandate that the names of the individuals convicted of animal abuse crimes be logged into the Internet Criminal History Access Tool (ICHAT) database. ICHAT is a Michigan State Police website that allows public access to search for criminal offenders.

Animal shelters and animal control organizations would be required to check ICHAT prior to adopting-out an animal. If a person is found to have been convicted of an animal abuse offense within the past five years, the organization would be prohibited from releasing the animal to that person.

The idea of having an animal abuser registry list started after an attack on a Siberian husky named Logan. The attack happened on March 12, 2012.

Matt Falk, Logan's owner, said the House could vote as early as Thursday.

Here are the full details of Logan's attack as written on the Facebook page dedicated to Logan's Law:

On the night of March 12 of 2012, My Siberian husky Logan was attacked in his own back yard, in his own kennel. The person that did this used acid as their weapon. I immediately rushed Logan to the emergency room of our veterinarian's office. There he was immediately taken care of, but the damage had already been done. The acid burned slowly, First with just a small area on his muzzle. It quickly spread until it had burned most of the right side of his face & around his eye. Logan seemed to be recovering very nicely with constant care & medication. But sadly due to his age & the toxic nature of his injury Logan's liver & kidneys began to fail. On July 9, 2012. Logan curled up at my feet & passed away quietly in his sleep as I worked here on the LOGAN'S LAW page..... He was laid to rest under an apple tree in our yard to cross the rainbow bridge to join his brothers & sisters that had gone before him.

"Now Logan is not just my dog he is every one's dog !" ~ Matt Falk

Logan's Law would require that if a person is charged with committing an animal abuse offence, the prosecuting attorney handling the case would be required to notify the Michigan State Police of the charge. The MSP would then be required to input that information into the department's criminal history database for purposes of providing that information through ICHAT to animal control shelters and animal protection shelters. Currently, our law allows MSP to charge a $10.00 fee for processing a criminal record check, however, the new bills would waive that fee if the requestor is an animal control shelter. Further, these bills would prohibit animal shelters from adopting animals to individuals convicted of an animal abuse related crime for at least 5 years. The changes to these bills allow law enforcement officers and animal control shelters to take advantage of an existing data system, instead of requiring the creation of a new and separate registry.