(Source: MIRS.news, Published 03/17/2023) A citizens initiative drive started by Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson to crack down on animal abuse is looking to start collecting signatures later this year and operating on a $9 million budget.
The lawyers are still drafting the language and the coalition is still in its infancy, but the Protect MI Pet Coalition's plan is to create a new registry that would prevent people convicted of animal abuse from owning, buying or selling animals and speed up the forfeiture process of seized animals.
Michigan Pet Alliance Deborah Schutt said pets are a subject near and dear to the hearts of many people and the group is planning on putting up a citizen-backed ballot proposal in May to go on the November 2024 ballot .
Assistant Genesee County Prosecutor Alena Clark said if they get the signatures, and it ends up passed by either the people or the Legislature, it would create a publicly accessible registry for convicted animal abusers, similar to the sex offender registry.
The ballot imitative would also decrease the amount of time that abused animals seized would have to be held in a shelter while the case was in court.
The group plans on using the vast network of Michigan no-kill shelters, as well as a paid collection system, to collect the 356,958 signatures required over the 180-day period.
“We’ve met with some pretty big players in the animal industry here in Michigan and beyond, one of which said ‘we’re going to collect 100,000 signatures from our locations,” Swanson said.
Schutt said there is a network of about 100 no-kill shelters in Michigan that get no support from the government and are only run on donations.
“I think that even though it will be a big effort in raising money, I think that there’s the will out there for people to support such an effort,” she said.
Clark said the group has got feedback from groups that have issues with the sex offender registry to make sure the proposed language would protect animals, but still maintain the constitutional rights of the individual.
She said there are major differences, such as sex offenders not living a certain distance from a school or park.
“We have to be mindful of people’s privacy and things like that, which is why we’re going to require some tweaking, but ideally it would be run exactly the same way through the website as the sex offender registry,” she said.
