What is Animal Cruelty?

A former intern at the Missouri Attorney General’s office, Maral Cavner is an law student focused on studying animal law. Passionate about safeguarding animal rights, Maral Cavner supports stricter animal cruelty laws.

1. What is Animal Cruelty? Maral Cavner

2. Introduction A former intern at the Missouri Attorney General’s office, Maral Cavner is an law student focused on studying animal law. Passionate about safeguarding animal rights, Maral Cavner supports stricter animal cruelty laws. Animal cruelty encompasses all acts of neglect or violence against animals. They include neglect, intentional cruelty, and overt animal abuse. Neglect is defined as the failure of an owner to provide animals with basic requirements including food, shelter, water, and veterinary care. Many times, neglect is due to the owner’s lack of awareness of his or her role and is remedied by compelling the owner to provide the basic necessities. If essential care is still not administered, the animal is rescued by the relevant authorities.

3. Animal Cruelty Intentional cruelty is characterized by the infliction of actual injury or physical harm to an animal. These forms of harm include maiming, torture, and even killing. The operation of dogfighting and cockfighting rings can also be construed as intentional cruelty. As animal cruelty laws differ from state to state, many of the offenders go unpenalized or with a light sentence; only 33 states recognize animal cruelty as a felony. The other states treat it as a misdemeanor, meaning that even individuals found guilty of intentional cruelty receive a maximum of $1,000 in fines or a year in prison.