HB 910 Missouri House · 2025 Regular Session

Establishes "Brown's Law", which creates the offense of making a malicious false report of animal abuse, and modifies the offense of animal abuse

HB 910, nicknamed "Brown's Law," creates a new offense for knowingly making false reports about animal abuse with the intent to harass, disrupt, or cause financial harm to an animal owner. It defines this as a minor criminal offense (class C misdemeanor) if the report is false, made to authorities, and actually causes disruption, harassment, or monetary loss to the owner. The law includes a defense for reports made in good faith, shifting the burden to the prosecution to prove the report was not made honestly. This bill directly affects individuals making false reports and protects those who report abuse reasonably, without changing existing animal abuse penalties.
Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2025
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Jan 15, 2025 Last action Apr 29, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced House Committee Substitute · 3 edits
MINOR
The bill was renamed from 'Introduced' to 'House Committee Substitute', indicating it has been amended by the House Committee. The commemorative title for the law was changed to honor Senator Dr. Dan Brown instead of Senator Doc Brown. A new absolute defense was added for individuals who report animal abuse in good faith, shifting the burden of proof to the state when this defense is raised. Minor formatting changes were made to the list of aggravated animal abuse circumstances.
Scope change
The scope of the bill remains focused on animal abuse reporting and penalties, but the addition of a good faith defense expands protections for reporters who may have made reports based on reasonable belief rather than certainty.
DEFINITION

The commemorative name for the law was changed from 'Senator Doc Brown' to 'Senator Dr. Dan Brown'.

ENFORCEMENT

A new absolute defense was added allowing defendants to avoid prosecution if they can prove they reported animal abuse based on good faith and reasonable belief, with the burden of disproving this shifting to the state.

TECHNICAL

Minor formatting changes were made to the list of aggravated animal abuse circumstances, removing redundant bracketed text.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
11
Key actions
4
Committee
6
Apr 29, 2025
Lower · Passed
Reported Do Pass (H) - AYES: 9 NOES: 0 PRESENT: 0
lower
Apr 29, 2025
Lower · Passed
Voted Do Pass (H)
lower
Apr 22, 2025
Committee
Referred: Rules - Legislative(H)
lower
Apr 17, 2025
Lower · Passed
HCS Reported Do Pass (H) - AYES: 21 NOES: 0 PRESENT: 1
lower
Apr 8, 2025
Lower · Passed
HCS Voted Do Pass (H)
lower
Feb 19, 2025
Committee
Referred: Agriculture(H)
lower
Jan 15, 2025
Introduced
Introduced and Read First Time (H)
lower
1 primary · 2 co-sponsors

Sponsors