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A House committee neutered Utah's "feral cat" bill Wednesday, concerned the proposal to allow the shooting of feral animals could open the door to "joykilling."

Instead, the bill approved by House Judiciary Committee eliminated all references to feral animals and left Oda's bill allowing people to shoot an animal in order to protect against "injury or death."

Oda objected to the committee's skinning of his HB210, arguing that removing the language about feral cats meant that "anyone who legitimately shoots a feral animal will still be subject to potentially severe penalties."

But he said after the hearing that it still accomplishes part of what he was attempting to do in adding the self-defense language.

Oda's bill had become a lightning rod, as it got national attention, including being featured on The Colbert Report, and drew him numerous death threats.

Oda said that one individual in Davis County has been charged with a Class A misdemeanor for making a threat against a lawmaker and there are other threats that the FBI is investigating.

Oda said there were "a lot of lies out there" about his bill and that it was not just about feral cats.

"It's about all animals that are feral," he said. "It's affects dogs, cats, pigeons, pigs."

Oda argued his bill would have allowed people to kill an animal – either through shooting or other methods – if the individual believes the animal is feral.

He said it applies mostly to rural areas of the state, since in most urban areas have ordinances against the discharge of firearm in city limits.

Mitch Vilos, an attorney representing the Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said he has seen instances where a dog attacked a child and a person who shot the dog was prosecuted for animal cruelty.

"It has to be clear that feral animals are unprotected wildlife so they could be eliminated," said Vilos. He said the law already allows people to shoot animals like skunks and raccoons, and that feral animals should be treated the same.

But the committee had concern about how someone could judge if an animal is indeed feral.

April Harris from the Salt Lake County Animal Services said that her staff sees several thousand stray cats each year, and many are assumed to be feral until the animals calm down.

"If our trained staff … can't determine if an animal is feral, how can a member of the community?" she asked. "It is much more likely you are killing a neighbor's pet than you are killing a feral animal."

Rep. LaVar Christensen, R-Draper, agreed that the term feral was too subjective and opened the door to indiscriminate killing.

"You can't reasonably turn it into a one-person judge and jury where someone simply goes off and says any animal they see on any given day they can just pull out and have target practice with," Christensen said.