The intentional or negligent infliction of unnecessary pain, suffering, or harm on an animal, or the failure to provide an animal in one's care with adequate food, water, shelter, or veterinary care, codified as a criminal offense in the law of most countries, though the severity of the offense, the animals it covers, and the penalty it carries vary substantially by jurisdiction. Criminologists and law enforcement agencies, including the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, which began tracking animal cruelty as its own category within the National Incident-Based Reporting System in 2016, have documented animal cruelty as frequently co-occurring with domestic violence and other forms of interpersonal violence, a pattern sometimes termed the link, in which harm to a household pet is used as a means of intimidating or controlling a human victim, or, in a number of documented cases involving a serious violent offender, has appeared as an early behavior later associated with the offender's later violence against people.
Facts
Classification CodeIn Nigeria, animal cruelty is prohibited under section 495 of the Criminal Code of 1990, which separately criminalizes cruel beating or terrifying of an animal, willful neglect causing unnecessary suffering, unsafe transport, unauthorized administration of poison, careless operations, and animal fighting. 1 Typical PenaltyUnder the federal Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, signed into law in the United States in November 2019, certain intentional acts of animal cruelty depicted in crush videos and similar material became federal crimes carrying penalties of up to seven years in prison. 1 Elements of OffenseSouth Africa's Animal Protection Act No. 71 of 1962 lists the specific conduct that constitutes cruelty, including overloading an animal, causing unnecessary suffering through confinement, chaining or tethering, abandonment, denying food or water, keeping an animal in a dirty or parasitic condition, or failing to provide veterinary care, alongside a general prohibition on wanton or negligent acts or omissions causing unnecessary suffering. 1 Notable ExampleThe 2010 case United States v. Stevens is a leading precedent on the constitutional limits of animal cruelty law in the United States, holding that a federal restriction on the possession of depictions of animal cruelty was an unconstitutional restriction on speech, a ruling that later shaped the narrower 2019 PACT Act. 1 Jurisdiction VariationWithin the United States, 46 of the 50 states have enacted felony penalties for certain forms of animal cruelty, but most jurisdictions still charge the ordinary case as a misdemeanor; enforcement strength is ranked annually by the Animal Legal Defense Fund, whose 2013 report found Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Oregon and California had the strongest laws and Kentucky, Iowa, South Dakota, New Mexico and Wyoming the weakest. 1 Classification
Offense GradeMinor or Summary Offense 1 Connections
Has Offense Grade
Entity-backed identity for the offense-grade enum value this offense already carries, resolved to a crime concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The offense-grade fact itself stays on the offense unchanged.
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Cruelty to Animals (Wikipedia)
Wikipedialead paragraph
Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse, animal neglect or animal cruelty, is the infliction of suffering or harm by humans upon animals, either by omission (neglect) or by commission.
Laws by country, Nigeria subsection
Animal cruelty in Nigeria is prohibited under Section 495 of the Criminal Code (1990).
Laws by country, South Africa subsection
The Act contains a detailed list of prohibited acts of cruelty including overloading, causing unnecessary suffering due to confinement, chaining or tethering, abandonment, unnecessarily denying food or water, keeping in a dirty or parasitic condition, or failing to provide veterinary assistance.
United States section
Currently, 46 of the 50 states have enacted felony penalties for certain forms of animal abuse. However, in most jurisdictions, animal cruelty is most commonly charged as a misdemeanor offense.
United States section, PACT Act passage
In November 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, making certain intentional acts of cruelty to animals federal crimes carrying penalties of up to seven years in prison.
United States section, Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act passage
This follows the precedent set by United States v. Stevens, which additionally held that restrictions on the possession of animal cruelty videos were unconstitutional.
View the Source Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.