Virginia lawmaker pushes for animal cruelty registry following sentencing of man accused of abusing cats

HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — A Virginia man received a historic 15-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in a Henrico courtroom to several charges related to abusing dozens of cats and scamming nearly $400,000 through fundraisers — a case prosecutors are calling the worst animal abuse case Virginia has ever seen.

Rodney Travis Jr., 27, adopted cats from various shelters in Virginia, took them to hotels, abused them, and posted pictures and videos of their injuries to social media. He would then claim the cats had cancer and ask for donations to cover medical bills.

"It was not only just done out of cruelty; it's done for money, and for what seems to be amusement," a prosecutor said.

The case has renewed calls from state Sen. Bill Stanley for a statewide registry for people convicted of animal cruelty crimes.

"That is a heinous, heinous crime where you're mixing both taking advantage of people's goodwill and big hearts to try to save cats and then killing the cats in the meantime to make money," Stanley said.

Stanley has been pushing for an animal cruelty registry for years.

"Back in 2011, I started putting in a bill trying to get an animal registry that would be regulated through the state police," Stanley said.

In 2024, Stanley successfully passed legislation allowing individual localities to create their own registries. But he says cases like Travis's highlight the need for a statewide solution.

"I think it's really important that we kind of link everything together, because a lot of times these offenders are doing them in multiple jurisdictions, just like this case," Stanley said.

"We have so many rescue leagues and organizations that are in different counties, and sometimes they talk and sometimes they don't, but they don't have all the information," Stanley said.

Stanley drew on his background as a criminal defense lawyer to explain why the issue matters beyond animal welfare.

"What I noticed was a lot of times the defendants that I was representing who were charged with violent felonies also had a history of abuse of animals," Stanley said.

He compared the proposed registry to those already in place for sex offenders.

Stanley previously introduced statewide registry legislation that was well-received but ultimately killed over cost concerns. He says he plans to bring it back with tweaks in hopes of getting it passed.

"There are people out there that absolutely abuse our companion animals, and they need to be called out, and everybody in the Commonwealth of Virginia needs to be aware of who those people are, and a registry solves that problem," Stanley said.

Stanley also emphasized a broader responsibility.

"We have an obligation to take care of these animals, and at the same time, we need to make sure that they don't get in the hands of those that abuse them," Stanley said.

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