SPONSOR: Mayhew
COMMITTEE ACTION: Voted "Do Pass with HCS" by the Standing Committee on General Laws by a vote of 13 to 0.
The following is a summary of the House Committee Substitute for HB 2904.
The bill creates the offense of filing a malicious false report of animal abuse, which is a class C misdemeanor. This bill specifies that the offense of animal abuse is a class E felony if the person who has ownership or custody of an animal knowingly starves the animal. The bill also removes the requirement that any torture or mutilation inflicted on a live animal be done consciously.
This bill is similar to SB 1352 (2026).
The following is a summary of the public testimony from the committee hearing. The testimony was based on the introduced version of the bill.
PROPONENTS: Supporters say that the law currently does not list starvation as part of animal abuse. It is impossible to starve an animal accidentally. People will be protected from false reports.
Testifying in person for the bill were Representative Mayhew; Arnie Dienoff; Animal Legal Defense Legislative Fund; Humane World for Animals; and Missouri Alliance For Animal Legislation.
OPPONENTS: There was no opposition voiced to the committee.
Written testimony has been submitted for this bill. The full written testimony and witnesses testifying online can be found under Testimony on the bill page on the House website.
Statutes affected: