Sponsors (9)
The bill broadens the federal child-abuse clearinghouse to track animal-abuse–related cases, which can improve detection, prevention, and research on co-occurring maltreatment, but it also creates privacy risks, new costs, and potential diversion of limited child-welfare resources for state and local agencies and affected families.
Children and families, plus state/local child-protective services and law enforcement: Expanding the national child-abuse clearinghouse to include animal-abuse–related cases improves identification of households with co-occurring animal and child maltreatment and provides more complete data for risk assessment and prevention efforts.
Researchers and policymakers: Enables researchers and nonprofits to study connections between animal abuse and child maltreatment, supporting development of evidence-based interventions and prevention policies.
Parents and families: Expanding reporting to include acts not illegal under state law could capture conduct not previously reported, raising privacy, accuracy, and fairness concerns with possible adverse consequences for families.
Children, families, and service providers: Adding animal-abuse reporting requirements may divert limited child-protective services staff time and attention away from direct child welfare casework and interventions.
State and local agencies and nonprofits: New data-collection and reporting obligations will create administrative burdens and costs to collect, format, and submit animal-abuse incidence information to the federal clearinghouse.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced January 23, 2025 by Jefferson Van Drew · Last progress January 23, 2025
Adds animal-abuse incidence data to the national child abuse and neglect clearinghouse created under the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act. The bill directs the clearinghouse to include cases related to animal abuse and defines animal abuse broadly to include any act or failure to act that results in undue pain, suffering, or death to an animal, regardless of whether the conduct violates state or local cruelty laws. The change is limited to expanding the types of data the federal clearinghouse must contain and makes small editorial updates to existing subparagraphs; it does not create new agencies, new programs, deadlines, or provide additional funding in the text provided.