Language that Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, is expected to release today seeks some middle ground in the passionate fight over how to protect animals from torture.

A milder bill in the Senate is being blasted by animal rights activists and the sponsor of the two competing Senate bills, who vowed this past summer to try to work out a solution, have stopped talking.

Allen, meantime, has been working with Utah prosecutors on a bill that would give them more discretion in how to pursue animal abusers.

Under her HB470, prosecutors could seek an enhanced penalty against an abuser who tortures an animal as part of a domestic violence incident or in the presence of a child, raising the severity of the charge and potential sentence the perpetrator could face. It also would protect veterinarians who report animal abuse cases from civil liability.

Prosecutor discretion, Allen said, is the key concept. Her proposal would give prosecutors additional tools to protect animals while "still protecting our agricultural interests," she said.

Her bill would also make torturing a companion animal, like a dog or cat, a felony on first offense; torturing livestock would be a class A misdemeanor on first offense, a felony on the second offense.

That piece has been the major sticking point between the competing Senate bills sponsored by Sens. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden, and Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake City.

Davis and animal rights advocates want the first incident of animal torture to be a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison. Christensen's bill, now on the Senate floor, would make the first incident of torture a class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail, and a second incident within five years a felony.

A poll conducted last month for The Salt Lake Tribune found that about two-thirds of Utahns support making animal torture a felony.

gehrke@sltrib.com

HB470

Under the bill, prosecutors could pursue an enhanced penalty against an abuser who tortures an animal as part of a domestic violence incident or in the presence of a child, raising the severity and potential punishment for the crime.