PACT Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 479 To revise section 48 of title 18, United States Code, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES FEBRUARY 13, 2019 Mr. TOOMEY (for himself, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, and Mr. DUR- BIN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To revise section 48 of title 18, United States Code, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Preventing Animal 4 Cruelty and Torture Act’’ or the ‘‘PACT Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. REVISION OF SECTION 48. 6 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 48 of title 18, United 7 States Code, is amended to read as follows: 8 ‘‘§ 48. Animal crushing 9 ‘‘(a) OFFENSES.— 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:06 Feb 23, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S479.IS S479 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 479 IS ‘‘(1) CRUSHING.—It shall be unlawful for any 1 person to purposely engage in animal crushing in or 2 affecting interstate or foreign commerce or within 3 the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of 4 the United States. 5 ‘‘(2) CREATION OF ANIMAL CRUSH VIDEOS.—It 6 shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly create 7 an animal crush video, if— 8 ‘‘(A) the person intends or has reason to 9 know that the animal crush video will be dis- 10 tributed in, or using a means or facility of, 11 interstate or foreign commerce; or 12 ‘‘(B) the animal crush video is distributed 13 in, or using a means or facility of, interstate or 14 foreign commerce. 15 ‘‘(3) DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMAL CRUSH VID- 16 EOS.—It shall be unlawful for any person to know- 17 ingly sell, market, advertise, exchange, or distribute 18 an animal crush video in, or using a means or facil- 19 ity of, interstate or foreign commerce. 20 ‘‘(b) EXTRATERRITORIAL APPLICATION.—This sec- 21 tion applies to the knowing sale, marketing, advertising, 22 exchange, distribution, or creation of an animal crush 23 video outside of the United States, if— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:06 Feb 23, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S479.IS S479 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 479 IS ‘‘(1) the person engaging in such conduct in- 1 tends or has reason to know that the animal crush 2 video will be transported into the United States or 3 its territories or possessions; or 4 ‘‘(2) the animal crush video is transported into 5 the United States or its territories or possessions. 6 ‘‘(c) PENALTIES.—Whoever violates this section shall 7 be fined under this title, imprisoned for not more than 8 7 years, or both. 9 ‘‘(d) EXCEPTIONS.— 10 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—This section does not apply 11 with regard to any conduct, or a visual depiction of 12 that conduct, that is— 13 ‘‘(A) a customary and normal veterinary, 14 agricultural husbandry, or other animal man- 15 agement practice; 16 ‘‘(B) the slaughter of animals for food; 17 ‘‘(C) hunting, trapping, fishing, a sporting 18 activity not otherwise prohibited by Federal 19 law, predator control, or pest control; 20 ‘‘(D) medical or scientific research; 21 ‘‘(E) necessary to protect the life or prop- 22 erty of a person; or 23 ‘‘(F) performed as part of euthanizing an 24 animal. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:06 Feb 23, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S479.IS S479 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 479 IS ‘‘(2) GOOD-FAITH DISTRIBUTION.—This section 1 does not apply to the good-faith distribution of an 2 animal crush video to— 3 ‘‘(A) a law enforcement agency; or 4 ‘‘(B) a third party for the sole purpose of 5 analysis to determine if referral to a law en- 6 forcement agency is appropriate. 7 ‘‘(3) UNINTENTIONAL CONDUCT.—This section 8 does not apply to unintentional conduct that injures 9 or kills an animal. 10 ‘‘(4) CONSISTENCY WITH RFRA.—This section 11 shall be enforced in a manner that is consistent with 12 section 3 of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act 13 of 1993 (42 U.S.C. 2000bb–1). 14 ‘‘(e) NO PREEMPTION.—Nothing in this section shall 15 be construed to preempt the law of any State or local sub- 16 division thereof to protect animals. 17 ‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 18 ‘‘(1) the term ‘animal crushing’ means actual 19 conduct in which one or more living non-human 20 mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians is purposely 21 crushed, burned, drowned, suffocated, impaled, or 22 otherwise subjected to serious bodily injury (as de- 23 fined in section 1365 and including conduct that, if 24 committed against a person and in the special mari- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:06 Feb 23, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S479.IS S479 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •S 479 IS time and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, 1 would violate section 2241 or 2242); 2 ‘‘(2) the term ‘animal crush video’ means any 3 photograph, motion-picture film, video or digital re- 4 cording, or electronic image that— 5 ‘‘(A) depicts animal crushing; and 6 ‘‘(B) is obscene; and 7 ‘‘(3) the term ‘euthanizing an animal’ means 8 the humane destruction of an animal accomplished 9 by a method that— 10 ‘‘(A) produces rapid unconsciousness and 11 subsequent death without evidence of pain or 12 distress; or 13 ‘‘(B) uses anesthesia produced by an agent 14 that causes painless loss of consciousness and 15 subsequent death.’’. 16 (b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENT.— 17 The table of sections for chapter 3 of title 18, United 18 States Code, is amended by striking the item relating to 19 section 48 and inserting the following: 20 ‘‘48. Animal crushing.’’. Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:06 Feb 23, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S479.IS S479 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS