A legislative effort to establish a statewide animal cruelty convictions list was nixed again this session, though it has been introduced in some form at least 13 times since 2011.
Del. Ellen McLaughlin, R-Staunton, patroned House Bill 673, the most recent attempt to institute the list. McLaughlin’s bill did not advance from the House Courts of Justice committee.
HB 673 proposed a publicly accessible, statewide registry that included the names of people with felony convictions for cruelty to animals, including animal fighting, maiming, poisoning or killing. The name of the offender, offense, date and where they were convicted would be listed in the database, which would be available through the Department of State Police’s website.
Individuals on the registry would pay a $50 fine used for the maintenance of the site. Maintenance would include the removal of deceased persons, people whose convictions have been reversed or pardoned and people who have been free of additional convictions for 15 years.
Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin County, is known by many as an animal rights advocate in the legislature. He has introduced this bill four times since 2014 and at least one animal rights bill each term since he was first elected, he said.
The need for this bill is twofold, according to Stanley. Law enforcement agencies need access to the tool, and adoption agencies need it to ensure their pets are going to safe homes, according to Stanley.
“These people that have this fixation about hurting animals, go to our pounds and collect these [dogs and cats] to torture them, to hurt, maim or kill them,” Stanley said.
Both McLaughlin and Stanley plan to introduce the bill again in the future.
“We get closer every year, we’re not going to give up on it,” McLaughlin said.
Virginia was previously one of the worst states for campaigning for animal protection, and today it is one of the best, Stanley said.
“I’ll never stop fighting for companion laws, because it’s the right thing to do,” Stanley said.
Legislation to allow localities to choose to create and publicize their own animal cruelty registries was passed in 2024.
Opponents of criminal registries do not believe they reduce crime, and some offered testimony that an animal cruelty convictions list is just a method of shaming people.
Many of Stanley’s bills to establish an animal cruelty convictions list faced some backlash from the public, who said public registries are not always effective.
The advocacy group Women Against Registry say such lists make it harder for an offender to find employment and housing, and often result in isolation and alienation. That contradicts efforts to reintegrate people into society, the organization believes. People are less likely to re-offend with resources such as treatment, employment and housing.
Many school shooters and serial killers started by “practicing on animals,” said Daphna Nachminovitch, senior vice president of Cruelty Investigations for PETA. Such offenders should lose their privilege to privacy, Nachminovitch said.
“People want to know who they live next to,” Nachminovitch said. “We are sorry to see that [the bill] was laid on the table and we hope that the legislators who introduced it will come back next year and try again.”
The FBI advocates for the diligent tracking and reporting of animal cruelty. Research shows a correlation between animal cruelty and violence against humans, and background information can be crucial to police investigations, according to the FBI.
Capital News Service is a program of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Richard T. Robertson School of Communication. Students in the program provide state government coverage for a variety of media outlets in Virginia.