LITTLE ROCK—Factions that opposed previous animal cruelty bills have been working with Attorney General Dustin McDaniel to write a bill that would make torturing animals a felony, McDaniel said Thursday.

McDaniel said the bill is being prepared for the legislative session that begins in January.

McDaniel spoke of the measure after a news conference to call attention to the Humane Society’s offer of $5,000 rewards for convictions resulting from citizen reports of dogfighting and cockfighting.

The bill under development would include clear exemptions so the state’s poultry industry and other agricultural enterprises won’t be exposed to charges for ordinary practices. There would also be a provision to make first-offense aggravated animal cruelty—essentially animal torture—a felony, McDaniel said.

Bills to toughen animal cruelty penalties have been voted down in the Legislature for the past 20 years, McDaniel said, mainly because of “extreme hypotheticals.” He used the example of the horse rider whose mount injures a leg and he can’t afford veterinary care, so he shoots the horse.

McDaniel said meetings have been taking place every couple of days to work on language in the bill, with great attention given to exemptions and definitions. Veterinarians who euthanize animals, medical researchers and people who kill animals that are thought to be a danger are all areas that have come up in past bills.

At present, cockfighting is a misdemeanor in Arkansas, carrying a penalty of a year in jail or a $1,000 fine. The bill would elevate cockfighting to a felony, which dogfighting already is. He said stricter cockfighting penalties are in the interest of public health because breeders secretly bring birds across state lines, with the possibility that they’re spreading avian flu or other diseases.