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What defines
animal cruelty?
Animal cruelty is prosecuted under state law.
It’s a felony if a person intentionally or knowingly:
•tortures an animal;
•kills, seriously injures, or administers poison to an
animal
•causes one animal to fight with another;
Conducting a cockfight, in which roosters are pitted against
each other while spectators gamble on the outcome, would be
covered in the state law, punishable by time in prison.
A number of other offenses under the law are Class A
misdemeanors.
Among the misdemeanor offenses is failure to provide food,
care or shelter necessary to maintain an animal in a state
of good health.
A severe example of that would be when an individual owns a
large number of dogs, horses or cattle, and stops providing
for them. Someone complains that the animals are
malnourished and near starvation, and the animals are
rescued and the owner prosecuted.
Transporting or confining an animal in a cruel manner also
is a misdemeanor. An example would be leaving a pet in a
locked car with windows up in summertime.
To abandon is defined as a person leaving an animal he owns
without making reasonable arrangements for assumption of
custody by someone else.
“Necessary food, care or shelter” includes food, care or
shelter provided to the extent required to maintain the
animal in a state of good health.
It is
a defense to prosecution under the law if an animal were
discovered on a person’s property in the act of, or
immediately after, injuring or killing the person’s goats,
sheep, cattle, horses, swine or poultry, and that person
killed or injured the animal at the time of discovery.
It’s also a defense under the law if a person had a
reasonable fear of bodily injury to himself or another by a
dangerous wild animal. |
