Rensselaer County latest to start animal cruelty registry

Rensselaer County is about to become the latest county to establish an animal cruelty registry. The county executive was set to sign the bill into law Thursday.

At the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society, they take in animals from both Albany and Rensselaer County who have been mistreated.

Officials say the registry is another tool to keep animals safe.

It will share the information of anyone over the age of 16 who has been convicted of a crime related to animal cruelty.

"If they try to come here to Mohawk Hudson or to any rescue or other animal welfare organization, they can check one central website that has this information, so they know not to adopt out any animals to this individual,” said Ashley Jeffrey Bouck, with the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society.

Albany County has had an animal abuse registry for 10 years. Greene County also recently established a registry. Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin is hoping nearby counties can communicate with each other.

"So certainly any county could take a look at any other county’s registry. What we would hope in the future is that more and more counties do this, and it becomes a centralized type of database where we maintain ours, other counties maintain theirs, but there’s centralized data that people can look at."

Learn more about how the animal abuse database could have an indirect effect on helping to stop abuse against humans by watching the video of Jonathan Hunter’s story.