Reminder: Cruelty is also a Federal Crime.
People don’t talk about the PACT Act enough.
Until 2019, the U.S. lacked any general federal law against animal cruelty. Cruelty was mostly (and still is) a state crime. But in 2019, President Trump signed into law the The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act, 18 U.S.C. § 48. The PACT Act, finally, makes general animal cruelty a federal crime, too.
The Act says: “It shall be unlawful for any person to purposely engage in animal crushing in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce or within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States.” 18 U.S.C. § 48(a)(1).
“[A]nimal crushing” essentially means cruelty: “[T]he term ‘animal crushing’ means actual conduct in which one or more living non-human mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians is purposely crushed, burned, drowned, suffocated, impaled, or otherwise subjected to serious bodily injury.” 18 U.S.C. § 48(f)(1). “Birds” would of course include chickens. “[T]he term ‘serious bodily injury’ means bodily injury which involves--(A) a substantial risk of death; (B) extreme physical pain; (C) protracted and obvious disfigurement; or (D) protracted loss or impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty.” 18 U.S.C. § 1365(h)(3).
The PACT Act has exceptions for, among other things, “a customary and normal [ ] agricultural husbandry, or other animal management practice,” “the slaughter of animals for food,” and “unintentional conduct that injures or kills an animal.” See 18 U.S.C. § 48(d).
But let’s say a person intentionally causes “extreme physical pain” to a chicken in a way that isn’t a “customary and normal [ ] agricultural husbandry practice.” Then that person commits a federal crime by violating the PACT Act.
Former Animal Outlook executive director Cheryl Leahy thus has argued that the PACT Act may one day help farmed animals:
A new federal statute that shows some promise but has not yet been tested for cruelty to farmed animals is The PACT Act. . . . It does have language in it that exempts common or normal practices for animals in agriculture, which mirrors many of the state cruelty statutes. This should not be read as a categorical exemption of all farmed animal cruelty, or even for widespread cruel practices in animal agriculture, as discussed infra. This law is too new to have been tested in this way, but it could present an opportunity.
The PACT Act was originally designed in response to people making animal-abuse fetish videos. And the Department of Justice has already enforced the PACT Act in that context. But the statute’s plain text is broad enough to cover cruelty done for any other purpose as well. See 18 U.S.C. § 48(a)(1). So if a diligent Assistant United States Attorney catches wind of a company intentionally hurting chickens in a way which deviates from “customary and normal” practices, the federal prosecutor can now take action to help those birds.
About Legal Impact for Chickens
This post is brought to you by Legal Impact for Chickens (LIC). LIC is a litigation nonprofit that advocates for chickens and other farmed animals. We work to enforce existing cruelty laws and to improve animal welfare. LIC is a 501(c)(3) public charity and a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals.
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