We, the residents and taxpayers of Northeast Ohio, are demanding an immediate, systemic overhaul of how animal abuse and neglect crimes are handled and funded across our regional communities.
Laws are entirely useless if our public officials refuse to enforce them. Right now, severe cases of companion animal cruelty and torture are routinely downgraded by county prosecutors into lenient plea bargains. Abusers regularly walk out of our courtrooms with minor fines and probation. This complete lack of consequences creates a culture of total impunity. Abusers know they can repeat these heinous crimes over and over because our local judicial systems refuse to punish them. 
As taxpayers, we pay public officials to uphold justice and protect our communities—not to look the other way while animals are neglected, starved, and tortured to death. Because our justice system has failed to create a deterrent, animal abuse crimes have multiplied out of control. 
Worse yet, our local governments have provided zero realistic infrastructure or sustainable funding to handle the fallout. They have completely passed the buck to the community. Everyday citizens and donation-funded non-profits are forced to spend their own money to clean up a catastrophic shelter crisis caused directly by the state's failure to enforce its own laws. Furthermore, decades of criminological data prove that individuals who torture animals frequently progress to committing violent acts against children, domestic partners, and the elderly. Failing to enforce these laws puts our entire regional community at immediate risk. This is completely unacceptable, and we will no longer tolerate it.
We are building an undeniable, massive block of local voters across our counties to demand the following immediate actions:
1. End Lenient Plea Bargains: We demand that county prosecutors and local judges stop offering weak misdemeanor plea deals to severe or repeat animal abusers, and instead enforce the absolute maximum statutory punishments available under current law. Lock these criminals up.
2. Passage of Ohio Senate Bill 64: We demand that state lawmakers aggressively push Ohio Senate Bill 64 out of the Judiciary Committee and onto the Senate floor for a vote, officially upgrading companion animal abuse to a mandatory 5th-degree felony across all 88 Ohio counties.
3. Executive Action: We demand Governor Mike DeWine publicly back this legislation and swiftly sign it into law to strip judges of the ability to hand out weak slaps on the wrist.
4. Mandatory Funding for Regional Animal Infrastructure: We demand that County Commissioners immediately establish sustainable, taxpayer-funded contracts to support our humane societies and shelters. The counties must legally fund the housing, medical care, and processing of seized animals so that shelters do not have to close their doors to animals in crisis.
The Specific Law Changes We Demand:
To break this cycle of impunity, we are demanding the immediate passage and enforcement of Ohio Senate Bill 64, which explicitly amends Ohio Revised Code Section 959.99 with the following protections:
Mandatory Felony Baselines: Elevates first-offense companion animal torture and abuse from a weak misdemeanor directly to a 5th-degree felony, closing the plea-deal loophole.
Mandatory Maximum Prison Sentences: Legally forces judges to impose the maximum possible prison terms for severe abusers, stripping them of the ability to hand out probation or simple slaps on the wrist.
Repeat Offender Crackdowns: Automatically escalates repeat offenses to a 3rd-degree felony with severe prison time. 
The 3-Year Ownership Ban: Legally forbids anyone convicted of felony animal abuse from owning, possessing, or living with any companion animal for three full years post-release, giving humane officers the immediate power to seize animals if they try to repeat the cycle.                                               We are gathering signatures across the entire region. We pay your salaries, and we demand that you do your jobs. Sign and share to demand real enforcement and real justice for our animals.