People convicted of animal abuse could be banned from owning, babysitting or living with an animal if a Denver Democrat’s bill becomes state law.

Judges would also get the option to include therapy or anger management classes as part of a sentence.

“I think the real important piece of this legislation is the component that deals with judges being able to sentence folks to anger management or mental health treatment,” Rep. Alex Valdez, D-Denver, said.“There’s a correlation between people who commit acts of violence against animals and those same people committing acts of violence against people.”

HB19-1092 would give judges the discretion to prohibit adults and juveniles convicted of misdemeanor animal abuse from “owning, possessing, caring for, or residing with an animal of any kind” for a certain number of years. The ban would be mandatory for people convicted of felony animal abuse.

Valdez, a first-year lawmaker, modeled the bill after a California law that bans pet ownership for five years after a misdemeanor conviction and 10 years for a felony. But he said he got some pushback from members of the House Judiciary Committee where the bill is scheduled for its first hearing Thursday. He plans to change it during that hearing to give judges more leeway when it comes to sentencing.

“We’re leaving (misdemeanors) up to judicial discretion,” Valdez said. “They’re dealing with these cases day in and day out, and we don’t want to take away their ability to evaluate cases individually.”

Currently, Valdez said, judges don’t have a lot of discretion when it comes to the pets of people who mistreated an animal.

“As much as I love animals, this bill is about helping people who do these sorts of things, so we can prevent them from committing worse crimes in the future,” Valdez said.

Women in domestic violence shelters were 11 times more likely to report a partner had harmed or killed a pet than women who hadn’t experience domestic violence, according to a 2007 study for Sage Journals. Another study, by researchers at Northeastern University, found people who commit animal abuse were five times more likely to commit violent crime against a person.

Republicans in the Colorado House declined to comment through their spokesperson, but Valdez is optimistic his bill will find support from both parties.

Florida Republican Rick Scott signed a similar bill into law there in March 2018 when he was the governor.

“If Florida can pass this under complete conservative leadership, I think that we have a really good chance of doing this in Colorado as well,” Valdez said.