HB 673 Virginia House of Delegates · 2026 Regular Session

Animal Cruelty Conviction List; established.

Summary
Animal Cruelty Conviction List established. Requires the Superintendent of State Police to establish no later than January 1, 2028, and to maintain an Animal Cruelty Conviction List and to make the List publicly available on the Department of State Police's website. The bill specifies that the List include the names of persons convicted of certain felony animal cruelty offenses on or after July 1, 2026. The bill requires persons convicted of any such offense to pay a fee of $50 per conviction to fund the maintenance of the List. The bill requires the Department to remove a person's name and information from the List 15 years after its listing if he has no additional felony conviction for any such offense. Finally, the bill directs the Department to develop forms to implement and enforce the provisions of the bill, including the operation and maintenance of the List and the removal of the records of persons who are deceased, whose convictions have been reversed, or who have been pardoned.
Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2026
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Jan 13, 2026 Last action Feb 18, 2026
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced Courts of Justice Substitute · 5 edits
MODERATE
This bill was amended from its original version to shift responsibility for maintaining an Animal Cruelty Conviction List from the Department of State Police to the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia. The original version required the State Police to maintain a database of convicted offenders, while the substitute version directs the Supreme Court to include this list on their online case information system. This change affects which agency is responsible for tracking and publicly displaying animal cruelty convictions.
Scope change
The bill's scope changed from being maintained by the Department of State Police to being maintained by the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia. The list now appears on the Supreme Court's online case information system rather than the State Police website.
REQUIREMENT

Responsibility for maintaining the Animal Cruelty Conviction List was transferred from the Department of State Police to the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia.

Requirements for the Department of State Police to develop forms for implementing the list and removing records of deceased persons, reversed convictions, or pardoned persons were removed.

ENFORCEMENT

The database location changed from the Department of State Police website to the Supreme Court's publicly viewable case information system.

FISCAL

The $50 per conviction fee that was to be paid by convicted persons and used by the Department of State Police to maintain the list was removed from the substitute version.

TECHNICAL

The bill title changed from 'A BILL to amend the Code of Virginia by adding in Article 9 of Chapter 65 of Title 3.2 a section numbered 3.2-6573.2' to 'A BILL to direct the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia to include a separate animal cruelty list on the online case information system.'

Floor votes

How they voted

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Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
8
Key actions
3
Committee
6
Feb 18, 2026
Lower · Passed
Left in Committee Courts of Justice
lower
Feb 9, 2026
Lower · Passed
Subcommittee recommends laying on the table (7-Y 3-N)
lower
Feb 9, 2026
Lower · Passed
House subcommittee offered
lower
Feb 7, 2026
Committee
Assigned HCJ sub: Criminal
lower
Feb 4, 2026
Committee
Referred from Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources and referred to Courts of Justice (Voice Vote)
lower
Jan 13, 2026
Committee
Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources
lower
0 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

No sponsor information available.