I'd like to think cooler heads can prevail on this issue. It is possible to craft a law that makes people who indiscriminately kill puppies pay a high price for doing so, yet exempts customary practices on ranches and farms. This doesn't mean ranchers and farmers should have a free pass to do what they will, but it should offer them some level of protection from frivolous prosecutions, which a few years ago I would have thought unnecessary. But as we learn more about university researchers who have been harassed at their homes by animal rights activists, it is understandable that farmers and ranchers fear the same, or worse, will happen to them.

So why not a meeting of the minds between the approach advocated by Sen. Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake, with SB102, known as Henry's Law, which would make animal cruelty a felony offense, and that of Ogden Republican Sen. Allen Christensen, sponsor of SB117, which makes animal cruelty a felony on the second offense and only if it occurred within five years of the first crime?

Many animal advocates say SB117 is a step backward, rendering animals more prone to abuse.

There's a lot of middle ground between the two proposals, the latter of which was approved by the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee last week. Meanwhile, Davis' proposal, scheduled to be heard by the same committee last week but wasn't, appears to be in legislative limbo.

Henry's Law may go too far for some people's sensibilities. But SB117 seems to leave the door open to a lot of bad behavior. It seems to send the message, "OK, we're not going to get serious about this until we see other evidence that you're a serial animal torturer." What's the sense of that? Henry's abuser would have to put another dog in the oven before he'd do significant hard time?

Sorry, one such incident was enough to prove to me that Henry's abuser was a sick puppy who needed to face tough consequences as well as an intervention before he turned his considerable wrath to humans.

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Marjorie Cortez, who wishes one of the first animal advocates, St. Francis of Assisi, could testify before Utah lawmakers on this issue, is a Deseret Morning News editorial writer. E-mail her at marjorie@desnews.com