Forwarded message - for info, please visit
http://www.straypetadvocacy.org/html/cruelty_laws.html

Animal Cruelty Laws State By State

Every state in the United States and the District of Columbia has a
law prohibiting cruelty to animals. These laws do not give animals
rights, but do afford some legal protection. The purposes of these
laws is to deter violence by humans in any form as well as to
protect animals from mistreatment and cruelty by imposing a
penalty for those acts. Most of these laws fall under the purpose
of morality, meaning the purpose is not to protect the animals,
but to keep people on the straight and narrow. Whatever the
reason, many more states are recognizing that animal cruelty,
neglect and abuse are serious issues. There are now 41 states
plus the District of Columbia with felony provisions for animal
cruelty (32 plus DC with "Felony" specifically stated in the statute,
8 with felony punishments attached, but the status of the crime
is not specifically defined).

The Animal Welfare Act is the Federal Law which provides
regulations for research facilities, state and private run shelters
and pounds, transportation of animals, and stolen animals. It
was originally passed in 1966 and has been amended multiple
times through 1996. One of the more interesting statutes, for
our discussion, is that any state or private run shelter is required
to hold an dog or cat for at least 5 days including a weekend day
for recovery by the owner or adoption before selling it to a dealer
(PUBLIC LAW 101-624, Sec. 28.a.1). For summaries and the full text
of the Animal Welfare Act and Amendments, visit:
http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/legislat/usdaleg1.htm

To view a summary of the state's animal cruelty law and for a link
to the text of the law itself, please see the two linked pages below,
or download all of the state summaries in the PDF format. Updated
as of July, 2003.

http://www.straypetadvocacy.org/html/cruelty_laws.html

Posted on SHARE Yahoo group - Nov. 21, 2008