Animal hoarding bill stalls in House committee

The sponsor of a bill to ban "companion animal hoarding" under Montana's animal cruelty laws says he's disappointed that the measure has been tabled.

Sen. Mitch Tropila, D-Great Falls, sponsored Senate Bill 221, which was tabled last week in the House Judiciary Committee. “I was pretty disappointed because I worked hard on the bill,” he said.

The bill, which passed the Senate by a vote of 33-17, would have considered companion animal hoarding as possessing 20 or more pets and failing to provide necessary care for those animals in a severely crowded environment.

But it also would have required anyone convicted of the crime to undergo psychological examination and treatment, at the person’s expense. It was that controversial provision, more than any other concern, that led to the bill's death, Tropila said.

“The mental health community was worried that the bill would be making criminals out of people with mental disabilities,” Tropila said.

-by CNS reporter Shanda Bradshaw