Lawmakers advance a bill that creates an enhanced penalty for animal abuse. The bill was brought in response to the killing of a horse West River.

Sen. Taffy Howard is the bill’s prime sponsor.

“The problem is not that our law fails to capture cruelty," Howard said on the Senate floor Wednesday. "The problem is that our sentencing structure fails to distinguish between all cruelty and torture-level cruelty.”

SB 156 makes “torture-level" animal cruelty’s max penalty a 10-year prison sentence and $20,000 fine. Current statute is the max sentence for any animal cruelty is two years in prison and $2,000 fine.

Sen. Kevin Jensen shared a personal story on the Senate floor where he was touched by animal cruelty.

“About 20 years ago we had three-yearling steers brutally attacked and because of the vicious attack on them, the wicked attack on them, again I’m not going to mention the details, but they were all killed and tortured and tortured until they died," Jensen said. "But at the time the penalty really wasn’t worth the sheriff trying to spend a lot of time figuring out who it was. We never did find out who it was, but it was very traumatic to my children because they had their 4-H steers. This does happen, and it’s been happening for awhile.”

No Senators spoke against the bill. It advanced out of the Senate 25 to 8.