 - A group of respected leaders from Wyoming’s sportsmen community is urging state lawmakers to pass legislation establishing felony penalties for people who purposely torture wildlife in the state.){kind=link}
(Cheyenne, WY) – A group of respected leaders from Wyoming’s sportsmen community is urging state lawmakers to pass legislation establishing felony penalties for people who purposely torture wildlife in the state.
The “Clean Kill Bill” effort was spurred by a 2024 case of wildlife torture and abuse that left Wyoming sportsmen “shaken,” Muley Fanatic Foundation President and CEO Joshua Coursey said this week.
The incident involved a “coward in Sublette County” who “reportedly ran down a wolf, broke its bones, taped its mouth shut, and kept it alive and suffering for days before bringing the injured animal into the Green River Bar to pose for photos,” Coursey said.
“He ultimately killed it, leaving behind a story that is as disturbing as it is shameful,” Coursey said.
As punishment for his crime, Coursey said the man was made to pay “a mere $250 fine.”
That lenient penalty represents a “deficiency in our statutes – an absence of directly addressing wildlife torture in order to stop it from the start,” Wyoming Rep. Andrew Byron, R-Jackson, said.
Byron is the main sponsor of House Bill 275 – Treatment of animals, which would amend Wyoming’s felony cruelty to animals statute (W.S. 6-3-1005) to include “actions where wildlife is reduced to (a) possession.”
The legislation said a person commits felony cruelty to animals if the person “knowingly, and with intent to cause undue suffering, tortures, torments, or mutilates any living wildlife, including predatory animals and predacious birds, after reducing the living wildlife to possession.”
Felony cruelty to animals is already punishable by imprisonment for up to two years, a fine of up to $5,000, or both, but under HB 275, courts would also be able to revoke any Wyoming Game and Fish licenses a convicted person might hold and suspend the person’s privilege to purchase or receive any other Wyoming Game and Fish licenses or to take any wildlife in the state.
The bill was amended on first reading in the Wyoming House of Representatives to include a misdemeanor penalty for the first offense, punishable by imprisonment for up to six months, a fine of up to $5,000, or both.
“The person shall also be subject to revocation and suspension of licenses and privileges,” the amendment states.
HB 275 was approved on second and third reading in the House this week, too, with no further amendments.
The bill will now be sent to the Wyoming Senate for further consideration.