The public attitude to animal cruelty has hardened and so should the penalties, says New Zealand MP Simon Bridges.
Bridges, the National Party MP for Tauranga, will be seeking multi-party support for a private member's bill he will be putting in the ballot at Parliament as soon as it resumes in 2010.
The bill proposes raising the maximum penalty for wilful ill-treatment of animals under section 28 of the 10-year-old Animal Welfare Act from three to five years imprisonment.
"It is time to get tough on really serious animal cruelty," Bridges says. "The public's attitude has hardened on this and so should Court sentences."
Section 28 creates the most serious offence in relation to animals and prohibits the wilful ill-treatment of an animal where the animal is permanently disabled, or dies, or the pain or distress caused to the animal is so great that it is necessary to destroy the animal in order to end its suffering.
"This is about sending a message that Parliament thinks this offending is abhorrent to our society," he says.
"It's more than not OK, it's an outrage.
"Through a tougher maximum penalty we would better align the most serious offending against animals with serious offending against people.
"Animal-offending penalties will still be a lot lower, though - wounding a person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm carries a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment. Manslaughter and murder of a person carries a maximum of life.
"A tougher maximum penalty would also be in line with increasingly clear research that those who do serious harm to animals are much more likely to perpetrate family as well as other violence."
Bridges says research shows that psychopathic offenders often demonstrate a propensity for cruelty through abuse of animals in their early offending.
He pointed to evidence given at the trial of notorious New Zealand murderer Antonie Dixon, now deceased, that he was cruel to animals as a youth.
"This is a graphic example of what animal cruelty can be an indicator of," Bridges says.
He says he is gratified at the community support for getting tough on serious animal cruelty.
Among groups that support tougher sentences are the SPCA, The New Zealand Veterinarians Association and the recently established Pro Bono Panel of SPCA prosecutors.
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