![\"Senator](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/SenTimKearney.jpg\")
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DELAWARE COUNTY, PA \u2013 October 13, 2026 \u2013 Senator Tim Kearney released the following statement on SB 1311 and the Establishment of a Felony Animal Abuser Registry:<\/p>\n
\u201cI appreciate the concern of many constituents about animal cruelty in Pennsylvania, as well as their support for SB 1311, which would create a registry for perpetrators of certain animal cruelty crimes. As a member of the legislature\u2019s Animal Protection Caucus, I take animal cruelty very seriously, and when SB 1311 came up for a vote last week, I was disappointed to see that the bill was not supported by animal rights organizations such as the ASPCA and drew opposition from civil rights and criminal justice reform advocates such as the ACLU of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
I ultimately made the difficult decision to vote no on SB 1311. Evidence on registries have shown that they do not reduce recidivism of their offenses, can decrease prosecution of more serious animal cruelty charges, and do not prevent registered offenders from accessing pets or farm animals. As a supporter of criminal justice reform, I believe the commonwealth also needs to balance the rights of offenders who have served their sentence and to allow for their rehabilitation into society, which registries can substantially hinder. I will continue to support the effective use of individualized no-contact orders from Pennsylvania courts, which can provide greater protections for all animal from offenders as warranted.<\/p>\n
I am a proud supporter of animal rights and have voted in favor of many animal protection measures during my time in the legislature. This includes the Beagle Bill, which helps ensure that dogs and cats used in research \u2014 often beagles \u2014 are given the opportunity to be adopted rather than euthanized and increases transparency around animal testing. I also supported Act\u202f18 of 2023, which modernized and strengthened enforcement of Pennsylvania\u2019s Dog Law by improving kennel oversight, licensing compliance, and the state\u2019s ability to investigate and shut down illegal operations. In addition, I voted for Act\u202f13 of 2024, which increased penalties for killing bald and golden eagles. I was also a proud co-sponsor of Victoria\u2019s Law, which curbs the sale of dogs, cats, and rabbits from large-scale commercial breeding operations by steering the pet market toward shelters, rescues, and responsible breeders.<\/p>\n
As the proud owner of a rescue dog, Chorizo, I care deeply about the humane treatment of animals. That commitment guides my work as I continue advocating for policies that provide real, effective improvements to animal welfare in our Commonwealth while ensuring that our legal system remains fair, balanced, and evidence-based.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DELAWARE COUNTY, PA \u2013 October 13, 2026 \u2013 Senator Tim Kearney released the following statement on SB 1311…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[125557,28,30,29,125558,125559],"class_list":["post-306064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-animal-welfare-policy","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-sb-1311","tag-senator-tim-keaney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}