DVM lawmaker wants abusive owners to forfeit pets

Columbus, Ohio - 8/16/2007 - A veterinarian who is also a state lawmaker plans to offer an amendment to pending animal-protection legislation that would take pets away from abusive owners.

Rep. Shawn Webster, DVM, a Republican who represents the Hamilton area near Cincinnati in southwest Ohio, says he will add that clause to a bill already halfway through the General Assembly. The bill, requiring a hearing within 21 days in cases where a live animal is being held as evidence, stems from several dog-fighting arrests earlier this year in the Hamilton and Middletown areas.

In many instances nationwide, dogs rounded up in raids on fighting venues are held several months in shelters at considerable expense while cases plod through the legal system. The Ohio bill and others like it are aimed at speeding up the hearing process to reduce the time the animals are held.

Webster's amendment to that bill would prohibit judges from returning dogs to owners found guilty of animal torture, poisoning, beating, deprivation of food and water and other abuses.

He was asked by a county official to draw up the amendment after two dogs were found with their tethers embedded into their necks. One spent five months in a shelter before a judge ordered the dog returned to its owner after payment of medical and other fees.