Nitro's Law: Ohio Legislation to Increase Penalties for Animal Abuse

“The greatness of a society and its moral progress can be judged
by the way it treats its animals.”

-Mahatma Ghandi 

It’s National Pet Week and Be Kind to Animals Week® so we thought it would be fitting to highlight Nitro’s Law, which was created to increase the misdemeanor-only penalties currently in place for violent crimes against animals in Ohio. (www.nitrofoundation.com).

 Nitro’s Story:

Nitro was a Rottweiler from New York who had been working with a trainer in Youngstown, Ohio, for more than two-and-a-half years. His family decided to send him to summer camp at the same trainer’s facility.

Unfortunately, Nitro never returned home from that summer camp. Instead, he was among 8 dogs that died there. The trainer was originally charged with 19 counts of animal cruelty, all misdemeanors, and due to legal technicalities, 15 of those charges were eventually dropped. Through a plea bargain, the trainer was sentenced to only 4 months in jail with credit for 13 days served.

The proponents of Nitro’s Law, outraged by the short sentence for this trainer, note that Ohio is one of the few states that does not have a first offense felony provision for animal cruelty, leaving only misdemeanor provisions regardless of the severity of the crime. Nitro’s Law seeks to change that and increase the penalties in place for animal crimes in the state of Ohio.

Read the full story.

Legislative Progress:

Nitro’s Law, or House Bill 108 as it’s formally known, passed the Ohio House of Representatives on Feb. 15, 2012.

On Tuesday, May 8, the proponents will appear at the Ohio Statehouse in front of the Senate Agriculture, Environment & Natural Resources Committee to tell our state senators to pass this law.

You can help give your support to Nitro’s Law by contacting Montgomery County’s State Senator Peggy Lehner and asking her to support the bill. (Other Ohio Counties.)

Stay Up-to-date:

The proponents of Nitro’s Law have a very active social media presence.
Follow them on Facebook.com/nitroslaw and Twitter.com/nitroslaw.