SPONSOR: Mayhew
This bill establishes "Brown's law" in commemoration of veterinarian Senator Doc Brown. Under the bill, a person commits the offense of making a malicious false report of animal abuse if the person purposely makes a report that is known to be false with the purpose of causing a disruption, harassment, monetary loss, or disturbance of the peace of the owner of the animal. This offense is a class C misdemeanor. It is an absolute defense for a prosecution of the offense if the reporting party reported an incident of animal abuse out of good faith, with reasonable belief that an animal was being abused.
Additionally, this bill modifies the offense of animal abuse to provide that it is a class E felony if the suffering of an animal is the result of starvation or dehydration, in addition to torture or mutilation, and that has been knowingly, instead of consciously, inflicted while the animal was alive.
This bill is the same as SB 541 (2025).
Statutes affected: