Fecht Disagrees With Animal Cruelty Rating

Cheyenne Animal Shelter CEO Bob Fecht says he doesn't think Wyoming deserves the low rating  recently given to it for it's animal cruelty laws by a national group.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund recently included Wyoming in the lowest tier of states for it's laws protecting animals. That survey looked at 15 different ares related to animal cruelty, ranging from general prohibitions to laws governing dog fighting and other animal combat.

But Fecht says he thinks some of the rankings don't make sense, citing specifically the fact that the survey penalized Wyoming for it's failure to address in state law whether it is legal to video or photograph operations at farms that may show animal cruelty. But Fecht says even though the issue is not specifically addressed in state law, such videos allegedly taken at a pig farm near Wheatland have in fact resulted in charges being filed against former employees of the farm.

Fecht says it appears to him that the Animal Legal Defense Fund is mostly interested in filing lawsuits, and largely based it's rankings on how difficult or easy it is to file such suits in any given state.