Congress really is 'going to the dogs,' all animals

With a divided congress, there aren’t many issues Republicans and Democrats can come together and agree on, but there are some few and rare exceptions.

When it comes to the protection of Fido the Dog, or Morris the Cat, Democrats and Republicans show that they love their pets.

Regardless of their political affiliation, members of the U.S. Congress always seem to come together on legislation that protects animals, regardless of whether these pets are domesticated or not.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris filed a bill in the U.S. Senate with Sen. Susan Collins (R) called the Help Extract Animals from Red Tape (HEART) Act, which helps dogs recover after surviving the brutal and “despicable crime” of dogfighting.

Florida Congressman Ted Deutch (D) has also filed legislation, the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act, which closes state animal cruelty law loopholes at the federal level.

Here is what Deutch’s PACT Act does:

• Define “animal crushing” as “actual conduct in which 1 or more [animals] is intentionally crushed, burned, drowned, suffocated, impaled, or otherwise subjected to serious bodily injury…”
• Prohibit intentionally engaging in “animal crushing in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce,”² whether or not committed for the purpose of creating a crush video. (For example, the PACT Act would allow for charges to be brought against a puppy mill operator who drowns unwanted dogs if he is engaged in interstate activity.)
• Enable federal intervention when the cruelty extends beyond the reach or resources of state prosecutors.
• Ban the creation and distribution of crush videos.
• Provide for felony charges, fines, and up to seven years in prison.