Humane Society policy coordinator to visit the Legislature next month

An official of the Humane Society of the United States Hawaii plans to meet with members of the Legislature when she visits the Commonwealth next month.

Inga Gibson, HSUS Hawaii senior state director and Pacific Islands policy coordinator, said she intends to urge lawmakers to work with the Humane Society to enact stronger anti-animal cruelty laws.

This comes in the wake of a Saipan Tribune article that reported the circulation of a disturbing animal cruelty video that reportedly occurred on Saipan. Guam resident Aguarin Iriarte initially emailed the video to Saipan Tribune. Saipan Tribune subsequently posted the video on April 5 and it garnered more than 23,000 views and 500 shares on Facebook. The newspaper also emailed the video to Gibson and she said she viewed it repeatedly in an effort to identify or get a clearer picture of the situation.

“We definitely need to strengthen Saipan’s animal cruelty laws and in addition to bringing our spay/neuter clinic toward the end of May, I will be meeting with legislators, urging to work with us to enact some strong animal cruelty laws that will not only hold people that do these kinds of heinous acts accountable but will also deter others who may also consider doing other similar acts,” Gibson said.

“What we normally do is offer a reward for information that leads to the identification and potential conviction of the person so that’s what I am waiting to hear about from the Mayor’s office,” she added.

Gibson pointed out that the CNMI’s Administrative Code already has in place a law against unlawful killing or injuring of a dog.

The CNMI Administrative Code’s “Title 165: Local Rules and Regulations; Saipan and Northern Islands (Third Senatorial District), Chapter 165-10: Office of the Mayor; Municipality of Saipan, Subchapter 165-10.1: Dog Control Rules and Regulations” has a specific section that deals with this type of situation.

Section 165-10.1-250 Unlawful Killing, Injuring or Impounding states that “except as otherwise provided in this part, it is unlawful for any person to kill, injure, or impound any dog, if the owner of the dog has complied with the provisions of this part.”

This means that as long as the dog is licensed and registered, it cannot be killed, injured, or impounded. However, it doesn’t state anything that prohibit any kind of animal cruelty.

“There is no question that Saipan’s laws are really the weakest in the nation and the territories. Even Guam has significant cruelty laws. In the books for those kinds of act would cause felony on animal cruelty because obviously it doesn’t appear that the individual is defending himself and the animal doesn’t appear to be fighting back. It is hard to tell, but the animal that appeared on the video looked completely helpless and unprovoked,” Gibson said.

She cited Hawaii, which has two levels in the laws that are similar to Guam’s. One is a misdemeanor, which carries up to one year in jail and a $2,000 fine. The felony level typically carries up to a $10,000 fine and up to five years in jail.

“So Saipan no doubt will need to work on its laws,” she said.

In a separate interview, Saipan Mayor’s Office Dog Control Program manager Spencer Marchadesch said that they have received Gibson’s emails and will be meeting today, April 9, to work on finding and amending a part of the Administrative Code on cruelty laws.

“The law under the Administrative Code isn’t really precise so we’re taking Gibson’s emails and putting them all together and work on finding a way to amend these laws,” Marchadesch said.

Rep. Edwin K. Propst (Ind-Saipan) said he is already looking into the law and has some people working with him to improve the law on animal cruelty and re-introduce it in the Legislature.