This petition is demanding an Animal Abuse Registry. Animals need our protection because they don't have a voice of their own. I believe that anyone capable of hurting an animal once is just as capable of doing it again. With a registry we can keep track of people who have been convicted of any form of animal abuse/neglect and ensure that they can never harm another animal by making sure they can never own one. And people who have done so should face more than fines and a misdemeanor it should be a crime in which you punish them the way you would if the victim were a child.
http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/abuse_neglect/facts/animal_cruelty_f...