Updated as of April 3rd, 2012 1 VIRGINIA ANIMAL CRUELTY LAWS Carrie Rose Wilkinson 1 Introduction In Virginia, criminal animal protection laws are contained primarily within Title 3.2, the Comprehensive Animal Care laws, which include the state's anti-cruelty and animal fighting provisions. However, there are also other laws related to animal cruelty defined elsewhere within the Code of Virginia. This document lists each animal protection law currently in place and the procedural sections of each law with which officers must comply when enforcing a provision of that law. When available, relevant case law from Virginia follows each law. This summary begins with the basic cruelty to animal statute and moves on to the neglect of companion animals, followed by relative statutes involving abandonment, animal fighting, and sexual assault. The remaining portion of the summary details penalties, punishments, and enforcement. Overview of Statutory Provisions and Case Law 1. Cruelty to animals: VA. CODE ANN. § 3.2-6570 2. Companion animal neglect: VA. CODE ANN. § 3.2-6503 3. Abandonment: VA. CODE ANN. § 3.2-6504 4. Malicious injury, killing, or poisoning animals owned by another: VA. CODE ANN. § 18.2-144 5. Animal Fighting: VA. CODE ANN. § 3.2-6571 6. Sexual assault: VA. CODE ANN. § 18.2-361 7. Penalties, Punishment, and Enforcement: VA. CODE ANN. §§ 18.2-403, 18.2-10, 18.2-11 8. Seizure of Animals: VA. CODE ANN. §§ 3.1-796.115, 3.2-6569, 9. Reporting Animal Cruelty: VA. CODE ANN. § 3.2-6564-6468 1 Carrie Rose Wilkinson produced this document as an undertaking of the George Washington University (GWU) Law School’s Animal Welfare Project, and worked under the guidance of the Project’s founder and faculty director, Professor Joan Schaffner. Rose will graduate from GWU Law School in 2014. Rose and Professor Schaffner can be contacted at [email protected] and [email protected], respectively.
VIRGINIA ANIMAL CRUELTY LAWS
Jul 05, 2023
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