It’s hard to argue against speaking up for those who can’t do it for themselves.

Whether from neglect or out-and-out abuse, Pennsylvania’s animal cruelty law is designed to protect just those cases.

But what happens after an abuser is convicted?

Do shelters have a right to know abusers’ identities so they can screen against those with a history of animal mistreatment?

Given the extensive data linking animal abuse with crimes of violence against people, does the community have a right to know an animal abuser is in their midst?

On the other end of the spectrum, how long should an abuser’s crime follow them after they’ve served their sentence and paid their fine?

A law currently in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee raises these and other questions as it attempts to create a registry for animal abusers, similar to the Megan’s Law registry maintained for convicted child sexual offenders.

“That would be great,” Karen Kolos, executive director of the Warren County Humane Society, said. “I think that any progression, any improvement, to the cruelty laws in Pennsylvania that makes people responsible is positive.”

The legislation matches a measure being backed by the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) for a nationwide database. The origin isn’t surprising. In a memorandum seeking co-sponsorship of the measure, primary sponsor state Rep. Harry Readshaw (D-Allegheny) states the legislation was given to his office by the ALDF.

If passed, the law would require those convicted of a felony-grade animal abuse offense to register with the local county sheriff’s department any time they are within the boundaries of the commonwealth for more than ten days before the 11th day of being in the state.

If an animal abuser moves to a different county while in the state, he or she would have to re-register with the sheriff of that county.

The registration will require abusers to provide their legal name and any aliases , their date of birth, Social Security number, current address or location where they are staying, place of employment and information on the offense they were convicted of. The sheriff would be required to obtain a photograph of the registrant, a complete set of fingerprints and a description of any distinguishing features, such as tattoos and scars.

After initial registration, an animal abuser would be required to re-register annually prior to Dec. 31 of each year for 15 years.

Failure to register would be considered a third-degree felony.

The law would require the sheriff to maintain a current, county-level database and to forward new registrations to the Pennsylvania State Police, which would be required to maintain a state-level database that would be publicly available.

Sheriffs will also be required to provide all registrant information except Social Security numbers to every residence, school, humane society, animal shelter and any other business within one-half mile of a registrant’s residence or location within ten days of receiving a new registration.

Kolos said she sees the parallels to the child sexual offender registry as a step forward due to the correlation between violence between animals and humans.

“It brings the animal laws and the human laws into line,” she said. “There’s a proven link between animal abuse and human abuse.”