Animal Cruelty Bills are one of the many topics at Maryland’s General Assembly

January 11th, 2017 was the first day of Maryland's General Assembly in Annapolis.

Over the next few months, the legislative body will go over thousands of bills with the welfare of the state's citizens in mind.

And here locally, one case of animal cruelty led to the creation of two bills, which will be one of the topics discussed during this session.

61-year-old Robert and 67-year old Susan Murphy are facing 192 charges combined for torturing over 300 dogs. 

The scope of the suspected puppy mill scandal in Eden, Maryland galvanized the Delmarva peninsula in April 2016.

This was a major push as Senator Jim Mathias drafted two animal cruelty bills to be introduced in the Maryland House and Senate.

All in the hopes of preventing this type of torture and neglect of animals from happening again.

The Murphy's case has yet to go to trial but the evidence made public in the indictments is overwhelming.

Investigators have reason to believe the pair not only failed to provide for the dogs, but they intentionally tortured them.

Now these two bills would address animal cruelty.  One bill would raise the misedemeanor to a felony.

And the second bill would establish an animal abuse registry that would list violators of animal abuse laws.

These are some bills that have their originin Wicomico county but have statewide implications that are going to have a profound difference in the treatment animals.

Senator Mathias hopes increased penalties for offenders in animal abuse cases will give enforcement more teeth and give potential offenders pause.