Animal Cruelty laws

I found this website with a definition of animal cruelty and information on some of the ways different states do or don't deal with it. Since a lot of people report finding sick pigs in pet stores, or pigs that need medical care, too many pigs in too small a cage or tank and cages with no hay or fresh veggies, I thought this definition would help people determine if an animal really is being abused, or if it's just not being treated as well as we think it should be treated. This doesn't explain the exact laws in each state, but it does help with things like not having hay is not abuse, but not getting a sick animal needed medical attention is. Having too small a cage is not abuse, but not cleaning that cage is, etc.

http://definitions.uslegal.com/a/animal-cruelty/

Thank you for the post!

I think they should have alot more strict animal crutely laws.
alot of people these days take animals for granted and neglect and abuse them... its like they don't even realize that they're a living breathing creature just like them. and when people do this they don;t even get punished much.

what also aggravates me is its depending upon what kind of animal it is. someone could tortue a dog and get 6 months in prison and then someone could tortue a chicken and just have to pay a fine of a $1000. these are just examples but i hate it when people discriminate against certain animals. All animals are equal in my opinion. I mean, sure everyone has their personal favs and personal hates on animals but at the end of the day they should all be treated the same.

If we ever got truly equitable animal cruelty laws, it's going to be a long time in the future. I don't think PITA is helping as much as they'd like to think they are, either, as their shock tactics turn off more people than they turn on. In the meantime, at least the definition I posted helps people decide if what they're seeing qualifies as abuse or not. Hopefully, establishing that will give them the strength to report abuse to the authorities and get that started, even if it doesn't pan out. I think harassing neglectful store owners often enough will make them treat their animals better, just to get rid of the problems. I hope!!!!

I always watch Animal Cops in Animal Planet and i breaks my heart how those individuals treat their pets. The day before yesterday it was a case of several pets being abused by their owners including a horse which owner "forgot to remove his horse collar from his face" while the poor horse was growing up. The collar was so tight to his face that it started to penetrate the horse's face and blood was running all over the face, the SPCA arrived at the owners place and gave him a "notice to appear" to a vet clinic the next day, failure to do so they will remove the horse from him. Just because the owner took the horse to a vet as indicated they didn't remove the horse from him. Accoding to SPCA "rules" if the individual attempts to offer treatment to the animal they don't take it away from the owner. What do I think? simple, the owne is going to mistreat the poor horse again and they won't do anything because the "owner" will attempt to treat again? I just don't get these stupid laws/rules. I think in a case like this they should remove the animal for its safety.

Where I used to live there was an equine rescue. I knew the woman who ran it, and she told me some terrible stories. She even had some secret places for stashing horses siezed from abusive owners, as they would try to steal their horses back. They didn't think they were doing anything wrong, and the police state was interfering in their lives. Those people don't learn anything from the fines and court orders. They do what they have to do, but they don't agree.
I can't watch those shows. They make me cry. The last one I watched was back in the mid 1980s. There was a segment on this dog that barked too much during dinner, so the owner put a board in its mouth and mailed it's mouth shut. I couldn't stop crying, and haven't been able to watch those shows since. Hub wouldn't want to go through that again, trust me!!!

I watch it because I would like to be an animal cop in the future.