Animal Cruelty: Legal Consequences

A lot of people simply cannot imagine their day to day living without their beloved pets. Our four-legged, tailed and feathered friends turn into genuine members of our families. We love them, we care for them and we will do everything in our power to protect them from just about any kind of threats.

There are people out there, who cannot be considered actual human beings. They like hurting living things that cannot hurt them back. They actually enjoy the pain and torture and can inflict serious injuries to the poor animals just for fun. It is hard to believe it, but such people actually exist and live in our society right beside us.

The law recognizes that animals are living beings that also feel pain and that is why they must be legally protected against any form of cruelty. The penal code has several definitions of animal cruelty that go as follows:

• Abandonment. It is very important to remember that pets are not toys. You cannot simply take a kitten or a puppy, play with it for a couple of weeks and just throw it out on the street.
• Torture. Sick people, who have no right to be called humans, actually find enjoyment in organizing animal fights and torturing poor things afterwards.
• Unreasonable failure to provide water or food. Some pet owners are incredibly negligent and do not really care about their animals, which is also a crime and is punishable by law.
• Transporting animals in cruel conditions.
• Using animals for luring in dog races. A very cruel practice that used to be a usual thing. Thankfully, now it is generally prohibited by law.
• Intentionally attacking, hurting, killing or tripping an animal. No comments here – animal have feelings too and most of them deserve to live more than some humans.

When it comes to legal penalties for breaking the animal cruelty laws, there are two categories of crimes and the legal punishment is depending on it:

• Intentional category, which is referring to cases of intentional animal cruelty, when an animal is intentionally attacked, injured or killed. Intentional animal cruelty crimes are the most severe ones. People who commit such crimes are risking to spend up to 2 years in jail and will have to pay up to $10 000 in fines.  
• Failure to act. Failing to provide food or water to the animal qualifies as a failure to act crime. These crimes are also punishable by law. Failure to act crimes may result in spending up to a year in jail and up to $4000 in fines.

At times though, sadly, people have little choice. For instance, if a furious animal is attacking and killing the livestock or if it threatens to injure a person, then people may use force for self-defense. If that is the case and you are actually innocent of the crime, since you did not inflict any damage to the animal intentionally, it is best to hire a good attorney in order to gather all the evidence that would help you avoid legal penalties. If you also adore animals and would never hurt them unless the situation would be as dire as it was, do not hesitate to get in touch with The Law Offices of Criminal Defense Specialists and he will be more than happy to help you to discover your best legal defense strategy.