---
type: "Bill"
title: "Criminal Law - Animal Cruelty - Applicability"
description: "Criminal Law - Animal Cruelty - Applicability"
jurisdiction: "us/states/md"
legislature: "Maryland General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "HB 455"
citation: "Maryland HB 455 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Criminal Law - Substantive Crimes", "Abuse", "Animals", "Crimes and Punishments"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Atterbeary"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 13
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2017-01-26"
last_action: "2017-04-18"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/a62a57d7-c3cf-493f-ae31-1cdd3b712170"
source_url: "http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmMain.aspx?id=HB455&stab=01&pid=billpage&tab=subject3&ys=2017rs"
source_hash: "bfff0f1235f09aa36de9c0703be8a30fc19cd2b41f33c19e7047db5d5bf0ca93"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-md"]
---

# Maryland HB 455 (2017) — Criminal Law - Animal Cruelty - Applicability

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2017RS/bills/hb/hb0455f.pdf)

## Votes

- Third Reading — **131–5** (pass) · legislature
- Third Reading — **45–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Atterbeary — primary (person)
- Anderson — cosponsor (person)
- C. Wilson — cosponsor (person)
- Chang — cosponsor (person)
- Frush — cosponsor (person)
- Kramer — cosponsor (person)
- McComas — cosponsor (person)
- Moon — cosponsor (person)
- Morhaim — cosponsor (person)
- Parrott — cosponsor (person)
- Patterson — cosponsor (person)
- Robinson — cosponsor (person)
- Sanchez — cosponsor (person)
- Sydnor — cosponsor (person)
- Turner — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-01-26** First Reading Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-01** Hearing 2/23 at 1:00 p.m.
- **2017-03-13** Favorable Report by Judiciary `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-14** Favorable Report Adopted `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-14** Second Reading Passed
- **2017-03-15** Third Reading Passed (131-5) `passage`
- **2017-03-16** First Reading Judicial Proceedings `referral-committee`
- **2017-03-30** Favorable Report by Judicial Proceedings `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-30** Favorable Report Adopted `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-30** Second Reading Passed
- **2017-04-07** Third Reading Passed (45-0) `passage`
- **2017-04-07** Returned Passed
- **2017-04-18** Approved by the Governor - Chapter 188 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/a62a57d7-c3cf-493f-ae31-1cdd3b712170`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Maryland legislature records).