Anti-cruelty Laws

What are anti-cruelty laws?

Anti-cruelty laws are designed to protect animals as well as the rest of society from violence.  These laws impose penalties on convicted offenders for committing cruel or neglectful actions toward animals, and attempt to deter any form of violent behavior by humans.

All states have their own anti-cruelty laws, and many of these laws contain common provisions.  For example, most state statutes consider it an act of cruelty to overdrive, overwork, or work an animal when it is unfit for labor.  Many state statutes prohibit intentional neglect, poisoning, and failure to provide companion animals with adequate food, water, and shelter.  Use of the term intentional is common in many states a factor that can make it difficult to prove cruelty in court, especially in cases of neglect.

Most state laws have standard exemptions for accepted veterinary practices, hunting, research, and animal husbandry.  Some states exempt animal action that takes place in rodeos and zoos or in accepted training practices although the definition of accepted is rarely defined. Certain states have more specific statutes addressing issues such as treatment of elephants or the act of ear-cropping.

While these state laws share many commonalities, differences in their scopes exist.  Variation occurs mostly in the level of punishment for convicted animal abusers.  Some states make aggravated animal cruelty a felony on the first offense, others consider it a misdemeanor until the second or third offense, and still other states consider any incident of animal cruelty a felony.

Another difference in state cruelty laws is that the crime can vary depending on the animal.  For example, in some states, animal cruelty to a companion animal such as a dog or cat carries a higher penalty than cruelty to a pet hamster, farm or wild animal.  A wild animal feels pain just as much as a domestic animal, and cruelty to ANY animal should be banned.  Speciesism is the animal version of predjusism, and both are wrong!

Where does Protect R Wildlife stand?

No matter the commonalities or variations of these laws, Protect R Wildlife firmly believes that cruelty to animals cannot be tolerated.  It has been proven that cruelty to even one living creature often leads to other forms of violent behavior.

Based on this, Protect R Wildlife asserts that the following provisions should be included in all state animal cruelty laws:

First conviction of aggravated animal cruelty is a felony offense;

Individuals convicted of aggravated animal cruelty shall receive adequate fines and imprisonment;

 Individuals convicted of aggravated animal cruelty shall forfeit their animals and have limited or no rights to possess animals in the future;

During court proceedings, individuals convicted of aggravated animal cruelty shall immediately relinquish the animal to another caregiver or shall post adequate bond to provide for the care of the animal;

Courts shall require individuals convicted of aggravated animal cruelty to participate in psychological or behavioral counseling and/or an animal cruelty prevention program; and

 No speciesism!  No cruelty should be allowed to any sentient creature, regardless of whether domestic, farm or wild.

 Contact us: For more information on animal cruelty legislation, appropriate definitions of cruelty, or to join our team, e-mail us at ProtectRWildlife@aol.com.

(c) 2003  Protect R Wildlife.  This Article may not be reproduced or distributed without permission; however, when you have permission, appropriate citation must be given to Protect R Wildlife.