Chapter 177 |
2018 -- H 8170 AS AMENDED Enacted 07/02/2018 |
A N A C T |
RELATING TO ANIMALS AND ANIMAL HUSBANDRY |
Introduced By: Representatives Nardolillo, Shanley, Canario, Hull, and Quattrocchi |
Date Introduced: May 04, 2018 |
It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows: |
SECTION 1. Sections 4-1-2 and 4-1-40 of the General Laws in Chapter 4-1 entitled |
"Cruelty to Animals" are hereby amended to read as follows: |
4-1-2. Overwork, mistreatment, or failure to feed animals -- Shelter defined. |
(a) Whoever overdrives, overloads, drives when overloaded, overworks, tortures, |
torments, deprives of necessary sustenance, cruelly beats, mutilates, or cruelly kills, or causes or |
procures to be so overdriven, overloaded, driven when overloaded, overworked, tortured, |
tormented, deprived of necessary sustenance, cruelly beaten, or mutilated, any animal, and |
whoever, having the charge or custody of any animal, either as owner or otherwise, inflicts |
cruelty upon that animal, or willfully fails to provide that animal with proper food, drink, shelter, |
or protection from the weather, shall, for each offense, be imprisoned not exceeding eleven (11) |
months, or be fined not less than fifty dollars ($50.00) nor exceeding five hundred dollars ($500), |
or both. If the offense described in this section results in the death of the animal, the person shall |
be punished in the manner provided in ยง 4-1-5. |
(b) Any person who has been previously convicted of an offense provided for in chapter |
1 of title 4 shall, upon conviction of a second or subsequent violation within a ten-(10) year (10) |
period, be imprisoned for a period not exceeding six (6) years, or fined not less than five hundred |
dollars ($500) and not exceeding five thousand dollars ($5,000), or both. In addition, every |
person convicted under chapter 1 of title 4 of a second or subsequent offense shall be required to |
serve one hundred (100) hours of community restitution. The community restitution penalty shall |
not be suspended or deferred and is mandatory. |
(b)(c) Every owner, possessor, or person having charge of any animal may, upon |
conviction of a violation of this section, be ordered to forfeit all rights to ownership of the animal |
to the animal-control officer of the city or town in which the offense occurred or to a humane |
society that owns and operates the shelter that provided the subject animal shelter subsequent to |
any confiscation of said that animal pursuant to this section. |
(c)(d) Shelter means a structure used to house any animal that will provide sufficient |
protection from inclement elements for the health and well being of the animal. |
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LC005594 |
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