"Moose's Law"; prohibits persons convicted of animal cruelty offenses from owning animals and from working or volunteering at animal-related enterprises; establishes presumption against pretrial intervention for certain persons.*

Section 1(c)(1) replaces the mandatory rule that all confiscated animals must go to an animal shelter (with a narrow co-owner exception) with a 'best interest of the animal' standard. The court now has discretion to either (a) transfer the animal to a licensed shelter, pound, or kennel operating as a shelter or pound, or (b) transfer it to a co-owner who does not live with the offender and has no animal cruelty conviction. This gives judges more flexibility in deciding what happens to an offender's animals.

Sections 1(a)(1), 1(c)(3), and 1(d) all add 'being employed by' as an explicitly prohibited activity at animal-related enterprises, alongside the existing prohibitions on applying for employment, volunteering, or participating in any capacity. This closes a potential gap where someone already employed at such an enterprise might not have been clearly covered.

The synopsis changes 'domestic companion animals' to simply 'animals,' broadening the stated scope of the prohibition on owning animals after conviction.

Senator Burgess was added as a co-sponsor of the bill.

The entire STATEMENT section (a legislative summary of the bill's provisions) was removed, which is standard when a bill advances through committee.