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SECOND REGULAR SESSION
HOUSE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR
HOUSE BILL NO. 2904
103RD GENERAL ASSEMBL Y
5546H.02C JOSEPH ENGLER, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
T o repeal section 578.012, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof two new sections relating to
animal abuse offenses, with penalty provisions.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Section 578.012, RSMo, is repealed and two new sections enacted in lieu
2 thereof, to be known as sections 578.006 and 578.012, to read as follows:
578.006. 1. A person commits the offense of making a malicious false repo rt of
2 animal abuse if:
3 (1) The person purposely makes a report to a law enforc ement agency or an
4 applicable government agency alleging the abuse of any animal in a manner punishable
5 under section 578.012;
6 (2) The person knows that such a r eport is false;
7 (3) The person makes the repo rt with the purpose of disrupting, harassing,
8 causing a monetary loss to, or disturbing the peace of the owner of the animal; and
9 (4) Such report causes a disruption, harassment, monetary loss, or disturbance
10 of the owner of the animal.
11 2. The offense of making a malicious false report of animal abuse is a class C
12 misdemeanor .
13 3. It shall be an absolute defense for a pr osecution of the offense of making a
14 malicious false re port of animal abuse if the repor ting party r eported an incident of
15 animal abuse out of a good faith, reas onable belief that an animal was being abused.
16 The defendant shall have the burden of injecting this defense under this subsection. If a
17 defendant asserts that his or her rep ort of animal abuse was made fro m a good faith,
18 r easonable belief that an animal was being abused, the state shall have the burden to
EXPLANA TION — Matter enclosed in bold-faced brackets [thus] in the above bill is not enacted and is
intended to be omitted from the law . Matter in bold-face type in the above bill is proposed language.
19 pr ove beyond a reas onable doubt that the defendant did not have a good faith,
20 r easonable belief that such a re port was true.
578.012. 1. A person commits the of fense of animal abuse if he or she:
2 (1) Intentionally or purposely kills an animal in any manner not allowed by or
3 expressly exempted from the provisions of sections 578.005 to 578.023 and 273.030;
4 (2) Purposely or intentionally causes injury or suf fering to an animal; or
5 (3) Having ownership or custody of an animal knowingly fails to provide adequate
6 care which results in substantial harm to the animal.
7 2. Animal abuse is a class A misdemeanor , unless the defendant has previously been
8 found guilty of animal abuse or the suf fering involved in subdivision (2) of subsection 1 of
9 this section is the result of torture [ or ] , mutilation [ consciously ] , or starvation knowingly
10 inflicted while the animal was alive, in which case it is a class E felony .
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HCS HB 2904 2