SANTA MONICA—The CEO of a risk management firm might be in serious trouble after he was caught on video choking and smacking his four-month old puppy at 6:55 p.m. on August 22, 2020 inside of a luxury condominium located on Ocean Avenue.
The video was made public by a concierge from the building, who heard the cries of the puppy named Beachy. While sitting at his front desk, he glanced over at the video monitor from a security surveillance camera, and witnessed the man in question, Jeffrey Previte, physically abusing his dog.
The images (one of them is posted below) of Previte’s actions are hard to watch for some.
When the unnamed witness told Previte that he would be filing a report to the building, Previte said he doesn’t care if he reports what happened or not. He also made statements about how the witness used the incident to extort money from him, an allegation that hasn’t been proven to be true.
According to the text of H.R.724, the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act (PACT), which was originally introduced in the United States Congress by Representative Ted Deutch (D-FL), any individual who takes part in animal cruelty, and is convicted of the crime in federal court, can receive a fine and serve up to seven years in prison, or both.
The PACT Act strengthened animal cruelty laws, when President Donald J. Trump officially signed H.R.724 into law on November 25, 2019.
The text of H.R.724 states, there is “additional exceptions for conduct, or a video of conduct, including conduct that is […] unintentional.” That means if the individual unintentionally hurt the animal, they aren’t guilty of the crime.
Prosecutors would have to charge the perpetrator with intent to abuse, take the case to court, and convince a jury that they are guilty.
