OHIO LEGISLATIVE SERVICE COMMISSION
Office of Research Legislative Budget
www.lsc.ohio.gov and Drafting Office
S.B. 164 Bill Analysis
134th General Assembly
Click here for S.B. 164’s Fiscal Note
Version: As Reported by House Agriculture and Conservation
Primary Sponsors: Sens. Hottinger and Yuko
Amanda Goodman, Attorney
SUMMARY
Companion animal cruelty prohibitions and penalties
 Revises the law and penalties associated with companion animal cruelty.
 Specifies that knowingly causing serious physical harm to a companion animal is
classified as a violent offense.
Use of gas chamber to destroy animals
 Prohibits an animal shelter from recklessly destroying a domestic animal by the use of a
carbon monoxide gas chamber, carbon dioxide gas chamber, or any other nonanesthetic
inhalant.
DETAILED ANALYSIS
Companion animal cruelty prohibitions and penalties
The bill revises Ohio’s companion animal abuse laws. A companion animal is a cat or
dog, regardless of where the cat or dog is kept, and any other animal kept inside a residential
dwelling. The specific revisions are as follows:
 Lowers the mental state, from knowingly to recklessly, for the offense of depriving a
companion animal of necessary sustenance or confining the companion animal without
supplying it during the confinement with sufficient quantities of good, wholesome food
This analysis was prepared before the report of the House Agriculture and Conservation Committee
appeared in the House Journal. Note that the legislative history may be incomplete.
December 13, 2022
Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
and water (deprivation or confining prohibition), which applies to companion animal
custodians and caretakers1;
 Accordingly, lowers the penalty for violating the reckless deprivation or confining
prohibition from a 5th degree felony to a 1st degree misdemeanor for a first offense
(retains the 5th degree felony on each subsequent offense).2
 Categorizes the existing prohibition against knowingly causing serious physical harm to a
companion animal, which is a 5th degree felony, as a violent crime.3 Serious physical
harm is physical harm that does one of the following:
 Carries an unnecessary or unjustifiable substantial risk of death;
 Involves either partial or total permanent incapacity; or
 Involves acute pain of a duration that results in substantial suffering or that involves
any degree of prolonged or intractable pain.4
By specifying that knowingly causing serious physical harm to a companion animal is a
violent offense, a judge is not required to sentence an offender to a community control
sanction, but instead must impose a prison term on a first offense. In addition, this violation
would not be expungable in the same manner as nonviolent 4th and 5th degree felonies and
misdemeanors.5
Animal rescues
The bill also subjects both nonregistered and registered animal rescues to the same
penalties for certain animal abuse acts. Generally, under current law, the penalties for animal
abuse acts that apply to a nonregistered animal rescue are less stringent. The reason for this is
that an owner, manager, or employee (employee) of a nonregistered animal rescue who
commits an animal abuse act must be charged under the general animal abuse statutes.
However, an employee of a registered animal rescue who commits the same act must be
charged under the statutes that specifically apply to registered animal rescues. These statutes
have a heightened penalty.
For example, an employee of a registered animal rescue who knowingly deprives the
companion animal of necessary sustenance is subject to a 5th degree felony for the first offense.
If an employee of a nonregistered animal rescue commits the same act, the employee is subject
1R.C. 959.131(A)(12)(d) and 959.131(E). These actions are currently defined as “serious physical harm”
under current law. The bill removes these types of actions from the offense of causing serious physical
harm to a companion animal, which is a 5th degree felony.
2 R.C. 959.99(E)(1).
3 R.C. 2901.01; see R.C. 959.131(C).
4 R.C. 959.131(A)(12).
5 R.C. 959.131(A)(12) and 959.131(E); R.C. 2929.13(B), not in the bill.
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to a 1st degree misdemeanor on the first offense. The bill closes this loophole by applying the
heightened penalties to nonregistered animal rescues.6
Animal shelter use of gas chamber to destroy animals
The bill prohibits an animal shelter (i.e., county humane society, dog pound, or local
animal shelter operated by a local governmental entity) from recklessly destroying a domestic
animal by the use of a carbon monoxide gas chamber, carbon dioxide gas chamber, or any
other nonanesthetic inhalant. A violation of this prohibition is a 4th degree misdemeanor (up to
30 days in jail and a fine of up $250). However, an animal shelter may destroy a domestic
animal by the use of these methods if the State Veterinary Medical Licensing Board, in
consultation with the State Board of Pharmacy, declares that there is a shortage of approved
lethal injection substances.
Current law prohibits and imposes a 4th degree misdemeanor for destroying a domestic
animal by any person by the use of:
 A high altitude decompression chamber; or
 Any method other than a method that immediately and painlessly renders the domestic
animal initially unconscious and subsequently dead.
The existing prohibition and the prohibition established by the bill do not apply to or
prohibit the slaughtering of livestock under the law governing livestock slaughter or the taking
of any wild animal when taken in accordance with the law governing hunting and fishing. As
added by the bill, these prohibitions also do not apply to both of the following:
1. The lawful practice of veterinary medicine by a person who has been issued a license,
temporary permit, or registration certificate under Ohio law; and
2. An animal used in scientific research conducted by a research facility in accordance with
the federal Animal Welfare Act and related regulations.7
HISTORY
Action Date
Introduced 04-15-21
Reported, S. Agriculture and Natural Resources 06-01-22
Passed Senate (32-0) 06-01-22
Reported, H. Agriculture and Conservation --
ANSB0164RH-134/ts
6 R.C. 959.131(A)(7) and (8); also see R.C. 959.131(F) and (G).
7 R.C. 959.06 and 959.99(C); R.C. 2929.24, and 2929.29, not in the bill.
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Statutes affected:
As Introduced: 959.06, 959.131, 959.99, 2901.01
As Reported By Senate Committee: 959.06, 959.131, 959.99, 2901.01
As Passed By Senate: 959.06, 959.131, 959.99, 2901.01