House Bill 17-35, or the Animal Protection Act, was sponsored by Saipan Independent Rep. Stanley T. Torres.
Similar measures were separately introduced from the 13th to the 16th Legislatures, but none became law.
Torres’ bill seeks to criminalize the unnecessary harm, suffering, or killing of animals in the commonwealth.
It defined an animal as a “vertebrate living creating, including non-human mammal, bird, reptile or amphibian, but does not include fish.”
The measure will impose monetary fines and jail time, or both, depending on the degree of the offense.
