FIRST REGULAR SESSION
SENATE BILL NO. 657
92ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY SENATOR KLINDT.
Read 1st time February 27, 2003, and 1,000 copies ordered printed.
TERRY L. SPIELER, Secretary.
1893S.01I
AN ACT
To repeal sections 578.405, 578.407, 578.409, and 578.412, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof four new sections relating to animal research and production facilities, with penalty provisions.
Section A. Sections 578.405, 578.407, 578.409, and 578.412, RSMo, are repealed and four new sections enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as sections 578.405, 578.407, 578.409, and 578.412, to read as follows:
578.405. 1. Sections 578.405 to 578.412 shall be known and may be cited as "The Animal Research and Production Facilities Protection Act".
2. As used in sections 578.405 to 578.412, the following terms mean:
(1) "Animal", every living creature, domestic or wild, but not including Homo sapiens;
(2) "Animal facility", any facility, animal farming operation, business, or organization engaging in legal scientific research or agricultural production or involving the use of animals, including any organization with a primary purpose of representing livestock production or processing, any organization with a primary purpose of promoting or marketing livestock or livestock products, any person licensed to practice veterinary medicine, any organization involved in the production of pet food or pet food research, and any organization with a primary purpose of representing any such person, organization, or institution. The term shall include the owner, operator, and employees of any animal facility [and], the offices [and], barns, buildings, or other structures, the vehicles of any such persons while engaged in duties related to the animal facility, and any premises, private or public property where animals are located, including but not limited to the barns, buildings, or areas where animals are pastured, housed, or otherwise quartered;
(3) "Director", the director of the department of agriculture.
578.407. No person shall:
(1) Release, steal, or otherwise intentionally cause the death, injury, or loss of any animal at or from an animal facility and not authorized by that facility;
(2) Damage, vandalize, or steal any property in or on an animal facility;
(3) Obtain access to an animal facility by false pretenses for the purpose of performing acts not authorized by the facility;
(4) Enter or otherwise interfere with an animal facility with the intent to destroy, alter, duplicate or obtain unauthorized possession of records, data, material, equipment, or animals;
(5) Knowingly obtain, by theft or deception, control over records, data, material, equipment, or animals of any animal facility for the purpose of depriving the rightful owner or animal facility of the records, material, data, equipment, or animals, or for the purpose of concealing, abandoning, or destroying such records, material, data, equipment, or animals;
(6) Enter or remain on an animal facility with the intent to commit an act prohibited by this section;
(7) Photograph, videotape, or otherwise obtain images, without the express written consent of the animal facility, from a location within the animal facility that is not legally accessible to the public;
(8) Intentionally or knowingly release or introduce any pathogen or disease in or near an animal facility that has the potential to cause disease in any animal at the animal facility or which otherwise threatens human health or biosecurity at the animal facility.
578.409. 1. Any person who violates section 578.407:
(1) Shall be guilty of a misdemeanor for each such violation unless the loss, theft, or damage to the animal facility exceeds three hundred dollars in value;
(2) Shall be guilty of a class D felony for a violation of subdivision (7) of section 578.407 or if the loss, theft, or damage to the animal facility property exceeds three hundred dollars in value but does not exceed ten thousand dollars in value;
(3) Shall be guilty of a class C felony if the loss, theft, or damage to the animal facility property exceeds ten thousand dollars in value but does not exceed one hundred thousand dollars in value;
(4) Shall be guilty of a class B felony for a violation of subdivision (8) of section 578.407 or if the loss, theft, or damage to the animal facility exceeds one hundred thousand dollars in value.
2. Any person who intentionally agrees with another person to violate section 578.407 and commits an act in furtherance of such violation shall be guilty of the same class of violation as provided in subsection 1 of this section.
3. In the determination of the value of the loss, theft, or damage to an animal facility, the court shall conduct a hearing to determine the reasonable cost of replacement of materials, data, equipment, animals, and records that were damaged, destroyed, lost, or cannot be returned, as well as the reasonable cost of lost production funds and repeating experimentation that may have been disrupted or invalidated as a result of the violation of section 578.407.
4. Any persons found guilty of a violation of section 578.407 shall be ordered by the court to make restitution, jointly and severally, to the owner, operator, or both, of the animal facility, in the full amount of the reasonable cost as determined under subsection 3 of this section.
5. Any person who has been damaged by a violation of section 578.407 may recover all actual and consequential damages, punitive damages, and court costs, including reasonable attorneys' fees, from the person causing such damage.
6. Nothing in sections 578.405 to 578.412 shall preclude any animal facility injured in its business or property by a violation of section 578.407 from seeking appropriate relief under any other provision of law or remedy including the issuance of an injunction against any person who violates section 578.407 including any relief authorized pursuant to subsection 5 of this section. The owner or operator of the animal facility may petition the court to permanently enjoin such persons from violating sections 578.405 to 578.412 and the court shall provide such relief.
578.412. 1. The director shall have the authority to investigate any alleged violation of sections 578.405 to 578.412, along with any other law enforcement agency, and may [take any action within the director's authority necessary for the enforcement of sections 578.405 to 578.412] initiate civil legal action in the circuit court of the county where the violation occurred. The attorney general, the highway patrol, and other law enforcement officials shall provide assistance required in the conduct of an investigation.
2. The director may promulgate rules and regulations necessary for the enforcement of sections 578.405 to 578.412. No rule or portion of a rule promulgated under the authority of sections 578.405 to 578.412 shall become effective unless it has been promulgated pursuant to the provisions of section 536.024, RSMo.