Illinois is making animal welfare a priority in 2019 with numerous new laws that took effect January 1.

One of the more notable ones is the Humane Care for Animals Act. It allows law enforcement officers to take temporary custody of animals if they believe they’re in danger. The officers can take the animals to a vet for care. 

Samantha DeYoung, Operations Manager of Rock Island County Animal Care and Control, tells Local 4 News while they would take action in the past, having the law in writing could speed up that process. 

“It will give the officers the authority- if they need to pull that dog, they’ll pull that dog,” said DeYoung. “They don’t have to wait for everybody else to make that decision to pull that dog before it’s too late.” 

DeYoung says they see a lot of requests for animal welfare checks when the weather gets cold. But she says while looking out for your neighbor’s pet isn’t a bad thing, there’s a few things to keep in mind. 

“A lot of times, I know my dogs sleep in beds in my room, and when their beds aren’t fluffy enough we have to get a new bed for them,” said DeYoung. “Not everybody does that with their animals. That doesn’t make them a bad pet owner, it just doesn’t make them a pet owner like I am.”

She says the majority of the time, the animals they’re checking on aren’t being neglected. Instead, it gives the animal control officers a chance to educate the owners on their pet’s needs. 

“I hear a lot of our officers educating them,” she said. “I mean when people come back in and say ‘yeah I went out and checked it out, the dog was fine it had shelter, it had food, it had fresh water that was not frozen.'”

But DeYoung says on the rare occasions where they have to take the animal into custody, the Humane Care for Animals Act could be beneficial, especially if an animal has been left in the cold, or in a hot car, for too long.

“We really kind of had that before but now it puts it into writing that we can bring them in, we can get them vet care,” she said.

But DeYoung says if you don’t want officers to take your pets away, use your head. 

“You just have to apply common sense,” she said. “Can you leave your animals out for a long period of time? No it’s not a good idea, it’s a horrible idea. Especially, we don’t want to stand out there in the cold and freeze, the animals don’t either.”

The Reckless Dog Owner act also went into effect in Illinois at the start of 2019. Under that law, if there is proof of a pet owner killing, abusing or neglecting an animal, they can be banned from adopting another pet for 12 to 36 months. 

And in Illinois, a judge can now grant sole or joint custody of the family pet in a divorce proceeding.

Stacey Teager, Community Services Director of the Quad City Animal Welfare Center, tells Local 4 News it’s not uncommon for an animal to be turned over to their shelter after a separation or divorce. Teager says occasionally, the owner who initially inherited the pet can’t care for them alone, and gives them up. She says that can sometimes lead to the other person in that relationship finding out that their pet was put up for adoption, and taking them back.

But Teager says while they want to see the animals go back home, the back and forth between a couple can be stressful on an animal. 

“We obviously would rather see pets at home than in a shelter,” said Teager. “So if the new law makes it so that people can decide that in a divorce proceeding, then I think that would be so much better off for the pet and then maybe not even come into the shelter.”  “

Both shelters tell Local 4 News they don’t want to deter people from bringing their pets to a shelter if they can’t properly care for their pets. They’d rather see the pets in good hands at a shelter than an alternative. 

Local 4 News wants to remind Quad Citians that there are hundreds of animals in the Quad Cities area waiting to be adopted.

Here are some of the current totals of animals available for adoption at area shelters and links to their websites: 

QC Paws in Moline: 113

Quad City Animal Welfare Center in Milan: approx. 100

King’s Harvest Animal Shelter in Davenport: approx. 100

Humane Society of Scott County in Davenport: 90