The House Judiciary Committee passed a bill Tuesday to make cockfighting a felony. During that same meeting, the committee killed a bill to make more domestic violence cases felonies.

That led the sponsor of the bill, Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, to say that the votes make it look like animals' lives are more important than people's.

When she first started pushing her bill last year, she told members of the same committee, "We still in this state have a stiffer penalty for people who beat their dog than we have for people who beat their partner."

But lawmakers on the committee who voted against the bill say it had nothing to do with being against tougher penalties for criminal domestic violence. They say the bill had several technical problems.

Rep. Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, says, "Well, there was a number of concerns raised. One was the pre-trial intervention, which would outlaw anybody being charged with criminal domestic violence from being on pre-trial intervention. Heard some objections from Lexington County solicitor's office, from various solicitors' offices across the state that said, 'We're doing it and we're doing it right and it's being successful.' And so that was a point of contention with the bill." 

Rep. John Graham Altman, R-Charleston, says the two are separate bills and the votes were unrelated. "Sensible people don't like the two together," he told News Channel 7.

His comments to another television reporter brought more controversy to the subject. When asked whether the votes made it look like lawmakers think an animal's life is more important than a woman's, Rep. Altman told the reporter, "You're really not very bright."

House members were talking about the story and the exchange all day Wednesday.

House Speaker David Wilkins issued a written statement, saying, "Criminal Domestic Violence (CDV) and animal cruelty are both critical issues that this body takes very seriously.  

"The House is working diligently to improve the language on the CDV bill and pass meaningful legislation.  That is our goal.  In its present form, the bill has a number of legal and technical problems that would have made it very difficult to pass.  We intend to fix those problems and get a bill to the floor of the House."