If someone lights a dog on fire, why would anyone oppose stronger sentences for such a crime?
Yet, cattle producers in North Dakota are vigorously fighting a ballot measure that would make intentional acts of violence against dogs, cats and horses a felony in the state.
In the Nov. 6 U.S. general election, North Dakota residents will vote on Measure No. 5, a referendum that would make it a felony for any individual to “maliciously and intentionally burn, poison, crush, suffocate, impale, drown, blind, skin, beat to death, drag to death, exsanguinate, disembowel or dismember any living dog, cat or horse.”
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North Dakota is one of two states in the United States, along with South Dakota, that treats extreme acts of animal cruelty as a misdemeanor offense, said Ellie Hayes, campaign co-ordinator for North Dakotans to Stop Animal Cruelty, which supports the ballot measure.
“All our measure does is make the most malicious and intentional cruel acts of abuse a felony,” Hayes said.
The North Dakota Stockman’s Association (NDSA) strongly opposes the measure. The main page of the association’s website is dedicated to the ballot measure.
It says the law won’t protect animals and that it’s funded by the Humane Society of the United States, “an out of state animal rights group known for its anti-agriculture agenda.”
As well, Julie Ellingson, executive vice-president of the stockmen’s association, said the law is too narrow.
“If you look at the ballot language, it only addresses three species of animals: dogs, cats and horses,” she said.
“We really think a proper care and treatment law should be something that is applicable across all species.”
It also applies only to extreme examples of animal cruelty that rarely happen, Ellingson added.
Instead, the NDSA, the North Dakota Department of Agriculture and the veterinary medical association are proposing comprehensive changes to the state’s animal welfare legislation. If passed, it would protect all animals from the most common forms of abuse and neglect, such as starvation and abandonment, she said.
“Measure 5 only addresses three species and (it) is silent on the more meaningful kinds of problems that we can actually do something (about).”
Aside from its reservations about the effectiveness of the proposed law, the NDSA claims the Humane Society of the United States has spent $500,000 promoting Measure 5.
Jason Zahn, NDSA president and a rancher in Towner, N.D., said the stockmen’s association is aggressively campaigning against the measure because it doesn’t trust the agenda of the humane society.
“They don’t want nothing to do with animal agriculture…. A big red flag for us was when they threw horses in there, with the dogs and cats,” he said.
“We don’t think the HSUS should have the right to come into our state and write laws on animal cruelty.”
The stockmen’s association, veterinarians and other farm groups have spoken out against Measure 5 in conventional and social media, but defeating it may be difficult, Zahn said.
“I think it’s going to be really close,” he said.
Polls indicate that most women in North Dakota support the measure.
“We need to educate the women in Fargo and Grand Forks … a little bit about it. A lot of people aren’t familiar with what the HSUS has done and their agenda.”
Hayes, one of 25,000 North Dakotans who signed a petition to put the measure on the Nov. 6 ballot, feels confident about the outcome.
“I think the people of this state are ready for this change,” she said. “It’s in our values to respect animals in North Dakota. Right now our laws don’t respect our values.”
