FIRST REGULAR SESSION
93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES GUEST (Sponsor), CHINN, QUINN, MUNZLINGER, McGHEE,
MYERS, SANDER, DETHROW AND WHORTON (Co-sponsors).
Read 1st time March 1, 2005 and copies ordered printed.
STEPHEN S. DAVIS, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
To repeal sections 578.405, 578.407, 578.409, and 578.412, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof
four new sections relating to animal research and production facilities, with penalty
provisions.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Sections 578.405, 578.407, 578.409, and 578.412, RSMo, are repealed and
four new sections enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as sections 578.405, 578.407, 578.409,
and 578.412, to read as follows:
578.405. 1. Sections 578.405 to 578.412 shall be known and may be cited as “The
Animal Research and Production Facilities Protection Act”.
2. As used in sections 578.405 to 578.412, the following terms mean:
(1) “Animal”, every living creature, domestic or wild, but not including Homo sapiens;
(2) “Animal facility”, any facility, animal farming operation, business, or
organization engaging in legal scientific research or agricultural production or involving the use
of animals, including any organization with a primary purpose of representing livestock
production or processing, any organization with a primary purpose of promoting or marketing
livestock or livestock products, any person licensed to practice veterinary medicine, any
organization involved in the production of pet food or pet food research, and any organization
with a primary purpose of representing any such person, organization, or institution. [The term]
Animal facility shall include the owner, operator, and employees of any animal facility [and],
the offices [and], barns, buildings, or other structures, the vehicles of any such persons while
engaged in duties related to the animal facility, and any premises, private or public property,
where animals are located, including but not limited to the barns, buildings, or areas where
animals are pastured, housed, or otherwise quartered;
(3) “Director”, the director of the department of agriculture.
578.407. No person shall:
(1) Release, steal, or otherwise intentionally cause the death, injury, or loss of any animal
at or from an animal facility and not authorized by that facility;
(2) Damage, vandalize, or steal any property in or on an animal facility;
(3) Obtain access or employment to an animal facility by false pretenses for the purpose
of performing acts not authorized by the facility;
(4) Enter or otherwise interfere with an animal facility with the intent to destroy,
damage, alter, duplicate or obtain unauthorized possession of records, data, images, material,
equipment, or animals;
(5) Knowingly obtain, by theft, trespass, or deception, [control over] records, data,
images, material, equipment, or animals of any animal facility for the purpose of depriving the
rightful owner or animal facility of the records, material, data, equipment, or animals, or for the
purpose of concealing, abandoning, damaging, or destroying such records, material, data,
equipment, [or] animals, or animal facility;
(6) Enter or remain on an animal facility with the intent to commit an act prohibited by
this section;
(7) Without the express written consent of the animal facility, photograph,
videotape, or otherwise obtain images from a location within the animal facility that is not
legally accessible to the public;
(8) Intentionally or knowingly release or introduce any pathogen or disease in or
near an animal facility that has the potential to cause disease in any animal at the animal
facility or that otherwise threatens human health or biosecurity at the animal facility.
578.409. 1. Any person who violates subdivisions (1) to (6) of section 578.407:
(1) [Shall be guilty of a misdemeanor for each such violation unless the loss, theft, or
damage to the animal facility exceeds three hundred dollars in value;
(2) Shall be] Is guilty of a class D felony [if] unless the loss, theft, or damage to the
animal facility property exceeds [three hundred dollars in value but does not exceed] ten
thousand dollars in value;
[(3) Shall be] (2) Is guilty of a class C felony if the loss, theft, or damage to the animal
facility property exceeds ten thousand dollars in value but does not exceed one hundred thousand
dollars in value;
[(4) Shall be] (3) Is guilty of a class B felony if the loss, theft, or damage to the animal
facility exceeds one hundred thousand dollars in value.
2. Any person who violates subdivision (7) of section 578.407:
(1) Is guilty of a class C felony unless the loss, theft, or damage to the animal facility
property exceeds one hundred thousand dollars in value;
(2) Is guilty of a class B felony if the loss, theft, or damage to the animal facility
exceeds one hundred thousand dollars in value.
3. Any person who intentionally agrees with another person to violate section 578.407
and commits an act in furtherance of such violation [shall be] is guilty of the same class of
violation as provided in [subsection 1] subsections 1 and 2 of this section.
[3.] 4. In the determination of the value of the loss, theft, or damage to an animal facility,
the court shall conduct a hearing to determine the reasonable cost of replacement of materials,
data, equipment, animals, and records that were damaged, destroyed, lost, or cannot be returned,
as well as the reasonable cost of lost production funds and repeating experimentation that may
have been disrupted or invalidated as a result of the violation of section 578.407.
[4.] 5. Any persons found guilty of a violation of section 578.407 shall be ordered by the
court to make restitution, jointly and severally, to the owner, operator, or both, of the animal
facility, in the full amount of the reasonable cost as determined under subsection [3] 4 of this
section.
[5.] 6. Any person who has been damaged by a violation of section 578.407 may recover
all actual and consequential damages, punitive damages, and court costs, including reasonable
attorneys’ fees, from the person causing such damage.
[6.] 7. Nothing in sections 578.405 to 578.412 shall preclude any animal facility injured
in its business or property by a violation of section 578.407 from seeking appropriate relief under
any other provision of law or remedy including the issuance of an injunction against any person
who violates section 578.407, including any relief authorized under subsection 6 of this
section. The owner or operator of the animal facility may petition the court to permanently
enjoin such persons from violating sections 578.405 to 578.412 and the court shall provide such
relief.
578.412. 1. The director shall have the authority to investigate any alleged violation of
sections 578.405 to 578.412, along with any other law enforcement agency, and may [take any
action within the director’s authority necessary for the enforcement of sections 578.405 to
578.412] initiate a civil action in the circuit court of the county where the violation
occurred. The attorney general, the highway patrol, and other law enforcement officials shall
provide assistance required in the conduct of an investigation.
2. The director may promulgate rules and regulations necessary for the enforcement of
sections 578.405 to 578.412. No rule or portion of a rule promulgated under the authority of
sections 578.405 to 578.412 shall become effective unless it has been promulgated pursuant to
the provisions of section 536.024, RSMo.