---
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: "SB 790"
citation: "Maryland SB 790 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Criminal Law - Substantive Crimes", "Abuse", "Animals", "Crimes and Punishments"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Smith"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 14
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2017-02-03"
last_action: "2017-04-18"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/c709a171-3c33-46b1-9ff9-86ff63dc36b2"
source_url: "http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmMain.aspx?id=SB790&stab=01&pid=billpage&tab=subject3&ys=2017rs"
source_hash: "c57b0e42e9041bc8de29d15c642cf649d05b8c4f186b21f3e03651b8c18aa97c"
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 SB 790 (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/sb/sb0790f.pdf)

## Votes

- Third Reading — **136–1** (pass) · legislature
- Third Reading — **46–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Smith — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2017-02-03** First Reading Judicial Proceedings `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-08** Hearing 2/21 at 1:00 p.m.
- **2017-02-27** Favorable Report by Judicial Proceedings `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-01** Favorable Report Adopted `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-01** Second Reading Passed
- **2017-03-03** Third Reading Passed (46-0) `passage`
- **2017-03-06** First Reading Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2017-03-16** Hearing 3/29 at 1:00 p.m.
- **2017-03-31** Favorable Report by Judiciary `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-31** Favorable Report Adopted `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-31** Second Reading Passed
- **2017-04-04** Third Reading Passed (136-1) `passage`
- **2017-04-05** Returned Passed
- **2017-04-18** Approved by the Governor - Chapter 187 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/c709a171-3c33-46b1-9ff9-86ff63dc36b2`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Maryland legislature records).