Two dogs were dropped from the Dog River Bridge in Mobile, Alabama, in December 2024. They survived only because Mobile police officers happened to be training nearby and swam out to pull them from the water. Without that stroke of luck, the sheriff said, both dogs would have drowned.

The woman prosecutors say directed the act, 74-year-old Mary Jane Rivers, pleaded guilty to animal cruelty this week. Her sentence includes no time behind bars: a seven-year suspended sentence, three years of probation, 200 hours of community service, and anger management classes. Investigators say she was upset that the dogs had been eating her chickens.

Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch, whose office investigated, described the plea deal as "a very generous offer" given her age and lack of a criminal record, according to WALA.

Cases like this expose a gap in how Alabama handles deliberate cruelty. When someone tries to kill an animal, a suspended sentence sends the message that the crime barely matters. Based on news reports, nothing in this sentence stops the person responsible from owning or caring for animals again.

The Alabama Legislature has the power to change that. Lawmakers should require jail time for intentional cruelty that puts an animal's life at risk, and bar anyone convicted of animal cruelty from owning or caring for animals. These are common-sense protections that people across the political spectrum can get behind.

Animals cannot speak up for themselves in a courtroom. Sign the petition to tell the Alabama Legislature that trying to drown a dog deserves real consequences, before the next case ends with no one there to swim out.