Police dogs and their handlers came to the Statehouse in Columbia, South Carolina to advocate for a bill that would increase penalties for killing or injuring police dogs on Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (Photo by Adrian Ashford/SC Daily Gazette.)
COLUMBIA — A bill that would increase punishments for people who hurt or harass police dogs and horses advanced out of the House on Wednesday.
The bill passed in a vote of 106-2. Democratic Reps. Wendell Gilliard, of Charleston, and Anne McDaniel, of Winnsboro, voted against.
The biggest change representatives made to the bill Wednesday would reduce the amount of time someone could spend in jail for taunting, tormenting, teasing, beating or striking a police animal from a maximum of five years to a maximum of one year.
Officers and their K-9s pack meeting to support SC bill increasing penalties for killing police dogs
Killing, torturing, mutilating, injuring or hitting a dog or horse with a car would remain a felony with a maximum sentence of up to 15 years.
Another amendment would require law enforcement agencies to create public reports of times when a police dog bites a person. There is no accurate data statewide, said House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, one of the amendment’s sponsors.
Rutherford, a Columbia Democrat, opposed not only the bill but the concept of police dogs, he said.
The bipartisan bill, named after six dogs killed on the job over the past 15 years, is meant to deter people from hurting officers’ dogs and punish them when they do, supporters have said.
Police depend on their dogs, and they should be treated like valued members of law enforcement, bill sponsor Rep. Neal Collins, R-Easley, said previously.
A better way to protect the animals would be to not send them into dangerous situations at all, Rutherford said.
“We talk about dogs that have been injured and killed,” Rutherford said. “Why are they being injured in killed? Why is a dog being put in that position where they are being injured and killed?”
Rutherford also questioned the inclusion of jail time for teasing or taunting a police animal. Without a definition, it’s impossible to know what that includes.
After record number of SC police dogs killed, bill would increase penalties
For instance, Rutherford asked, if a person told a dog its ears were too big, would that count as teasing?
“You can do it to a human,” Rutherford said of teasing. “You can do it to a member of the House, a member of the Senate. You can do it to a member of Congress. You can do it to the president of the United States.”
“But when you do it to a dog,” it means up to a year in prison, he said.
An amendment Rutherford proposed to remove those words did not pass. Rutherford did not vote on the bill, citing his continuing concerns with the use of police dogs.
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Courtesy of South Carolina Daily Gazette
