Lombardo signs Reba’s Law on animal cruelty, rescue

Animal rights advocates scored a legislative win this week when Gov. Joe Lombardo signed “Reba’s Law,” a bill increasing cruelty penalties and beefing up bystander guidance for animals locked in hot cars.

Assembly Bill 381 goes into effect immediately. The genesis of the bill came from a cruelty case that is pending in court, bill sponsor Assemblymember Melissa Hardy, R-Henderson, said. The bill stiffens penalties for animal cruelty. It is named in honor of an English bulldog that died from complications after being taped in a plastic bin in hot weather.

For instance, if the cruelty causes the death of the animal, then the felony is punishable by one to six years in prison, according to the new law. That penalty also applies to someone who commits the act to threaten, intimidate or terrorize someone else.

Hardy said it was “the toughest bill” she’s worked on. AB 381 technically died at the Legislature’s first deadline mid-session, but an activists’ campaign in the days after prompted legislative leadership to revive the bill by the following Monday.

It passed unanimously in the Assembly on May 16 and 14-7 in the state Senate on June 2 in the waning hours of the 120-day session. Some senators who opposed the bill said they believed existing penalties were sufficient.

“It’s a collective effort of everybody saying, ‘No, this is important. We want this. We want our Legislature to pass this law and protect animals,’” Hardy said in a Wednesday interview. “We wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for the efforts of everyone involved.”

Also added to the bill during the lawmaking process was a section on how bystanders can rescue a pet in a car in extreme weather conditions. The law grants immunity from criminal and civil liability to a person who tries to remove an animal from an unattended, locked car in extreme weather conditions such as heat or cold.

A person can “use any reasonable means necessary to protect the pet and to remove the pet” from the car if it’s locked and there’s no other way to remove the animal, and they’ve reported the animal in the car to emergency services or animal control and requested their assistance.

The person should cooperate with the responding officials and has to stay with the pet “in a safe place in close proximity to the motor vehicle” until the official dismisses them, according to the law.

Hardy said she’s proud that the new law addresses a concern she’s heard from constituents, who ask what to do if they see a dog in a locked car on a hot day.

“’What are we supposed to do?’ And it’s always, ‘Well, you have to call law enforcement or animal control and wait for them to show up,’” Hardy said. “Now, right there — section 14.3 — it gives them the ability (to intervene) and tells exactly what you do.”

Contact McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.