Creates the offense of making a malicious false report of animal abuse and modifies the offense of animal abuse

Plain English Breakdown

Using official source text because the generated explanation was unavailable or could not be confirmed against the official bill text.

Creates the offense of making a malicious false report of animal abuse and modifies the offense of animal abuse

The following summaries of this bill are available: Print All Summaries Introduced Print SB 1304 - This act provides that a person commits the offense of making a malicious false report of animal abuse if the person purposely makes a report that is known to be false with the purpose of and causing a disruption, harassment, monetary loss, or disturbance of the peace of the owner of the animal.

What This Bill Does

• The following summaries of this bill are available: Print All Summaries Introduced Print SB 1304 - This act provides that a person commits the offense of making a malicious false report of animal abuse if the person purposely makes a report that is known to be false with the purpose of and causing a disruption, harassment, monetary loss, or disturbance of the peace of the owner of the animal.
• This offense is a class C misdemeanor.
• There shall be an absolute defense for a prosecution of the offense if the reporting party reported an incident of animal abuse out of a good faith, reasonable belief that an animal was being abused.
• Additionally, this act modifies the offense of animal abuse to provide that it shall be a class E felony if the suffering of an animal is the result of starvation or dehydration, in addition to torture or mutilation, and which has been knowingly, instead of consciously, inflicted while the animal was alive.

Limits and Unknowns

• This entry is temporarily using official source text because the generated explanation could not be confirmed against the official bill text during the last sync.

Official Summary Text

The following summaries of this bill are available:

Print All Summaries

Introduced

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SB 1304 - This act provides that a person commits the offense of making a malicious false report of animal abuse if the person purposely makes a report that is known to be false with the purpose of and causing a disruption, harassment, monetary loss, or disturbance of the peace of the owner of the animal. This offense is a class C misdemeanor. There shall be an absolute defense for a prosecution of the offense if the reporting party reported an incident of animal abuse out of a good faith, reasonable belief that an animal was being abused.

Additionally, this act modifies the offense of animal abuse to provide that it shall be a class E felony if the suffering of an animal is the result of starvation or dehydration, in addition to torture or mutilation, and which has been knowingly, instead of consciously, inflicted while the animal was alive.

This act is substantially similar to HB 2904 (2026), SB 541 (2025) and HCS/HB 910 (2025), to a provision in HB 2436 (2026), and contains a provision similar to SB 1352 (2026).
TRISTAN BENSON, JR.

Current Bill Text

EXPLANATION-Matter enclosed in bold-faced brackets [thus] in this bill is not enacted
and is intended to be omitted in the law.
SECOND REGULAR SESSION
SENATE BILL NO. 1304
103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY SENATOR MOON.
5723S.01I KRISTINA MARTIN, Secretary
AN ACT
To repeal section 578.012, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof two new sections relating to animal
abuse, 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 1
sections enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as sections 2
578.006 and 578.012, to read as follows:3
578.006. 1. A person commits the offense of making a 1
malicious false report of animal abuse if: 2
(1) The person purposely makes a report to a law 3
enforcement agency or an applicable government agency 4
alleging the abuse of any animal in a manner punishable 5
under section 578.012; 6
(2) The person knows that such a report is false; 7
(3) The person makes the report with the purpose of 8
disrupting, harassing, causing a monetary loss to, or 9
disturbing the peace of the owner of the animal; and 10
(4) Such report causes a disruption, harassment, 11
monetary loss, or disturbance of the owner of the animal. 12
2. The offense of making a malicious false report of 13
animal abuse is a class C misdemeanor. 14
3. It shall be an absolute defense for a prosecution 15
of the offense of making a malicious false report of animal 16
abuse if the reporting party reported an incident of animal 17
SB 1304 2
abuse out of a good faith, reasonable belief that an animal 18
was being abused. The defendant shall have the burden of 19
injecting this defense under this subsection. If a 20
defendant asserts that his or her report of animal abuse was 21
made from a good faith, reasonable belief that an animal was 22
being abused, the state shall have the burden to prove 23
beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did not have a 24
good faith, reasonable belief that such a report was true. 25
578.012. 1. A person commits the offense of animal 1
abuse if he or she: 2
(1) Intentionally or purposely kills an animal in any 3
manner not allowed by or expressly exempted from the 4
provisions of sections 578.005 to 578.023 and 273.030; 5
(2) Purposely or intentionally causes injury or 6
suffering to an animal; or 7
(3) Having ownership or custody of an animal knowingly 8
fails to provide adequate care which results in substantial 9
harm to the animal. 10
2. Animal abuse is a class A misdemeanor, unless the 11
defendant has previously been found guilty of animal abuse 12
or the suffering involved in subdivision (2) of subsection 1 13
of this section is the result of torture [or], mutilation 14
[consciously], starvation, or dehydration knowingly 15
inflicted while the animal was alive, in which case it is a 16
class E felony. 17
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