Right now, in Pennsylvania, animal shelters and rescues have no way of knowing whether they are adopting a pet out to a convicted animal abuser. That should not be. Even if they maintain their own “do not adopt” list based on their knowledge about their own history, they have no way of knowing if a potential adopter abused or neglected animals from other shelters. Some fears can be laid to rest by having extensive conversations with the potential adopter or by doing home visits before approving adoptions, but even the most experienced adoption counselor has been fooled and, in the real world, large shelters do not have the staff to conduct their own investigations or even do home visits. That is where the idea for animal abuse registries started. Modeled after the Megan’s Law registries for child sex offenders, animal abuse registries would provide some sort of central database to which shelters or rescues could refer before completing an adoption. But, as with most legal issues involving animals, the solution is not simple and, while we can look to other types of offenses for guidance, they do not provide a perfect analogy.
The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) has been at the forefront of pushing state and local legislation authorizing the creation of animal abuse registries. In 2001, ALDF added an “offender registration and community notification” section to its collection of model laws available for state and local animal advocates. Most registries are at the local level, giving them limited utility, but interest in statewide animal abuser registries increased with legislation passed in Tennessee in 2008 and California in 2010. In October 2010, legislators in Suffolk County, New York, unanimously passed a bill creating the nation’s first countywide animal abuser registry. Others have advocated for a national animal abuser registry, arguing that would be the only way to prevent abusers from simply crossing a city, county or state line to get more animals.
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