Animal cruelty is a crime in every state.

Every state, and the District of Columbia

Each link opens that state’s consolidated cruelty statutes at the Animal Legal & Historical Center, which publishes the date it last checked each one. petOffenders takes reports from anywhere in the United States, so this directory is the whole country — the state where the conduct happened is the state whose law applies, and Louisiana below is one row among fifty-one.

• AlabamaTop charge: felony

  Alabama runs cruelty on two tracks. The baseline offense reaches reckless or criminally negligent mistreatment, neglect of an animal in your custody, and injuring or killing someone else's animal without good cause, and is capped at a Class A misdemeanor; doing the same thing intentionally with torture involved becomes aggravated cruelty, a felony. Dogs and cats get their own tier, where deliberate torture (or skinning one, or selling the pelt) is a first-degree felony, while overworking, starving, or beating one is the misdemeanor second degree. Dogfighting is a felony, but cockfighting is still only a small-fine misdemeanor, and research, humane euthanasia, and certain self-defense situations are carved out.

  Read the Alabamastatute →
• AlaskaTop charge: felony

  Alaska grades its cruelty statute by which specific act you commit rather than by offense history, so some conduct is a felony on the very first charge. Knowingly inflicting severe or prolonged pain or suffering falls in the felony tier, alongside two other listed acts, while neglect that causes death or severe suffering, sexual abuse of an animal, and hurting an animal to intimidate or threaten a person sit in the misdemeanor tier. The exemptions are unusually broad and regionally specific: accepted veterinary and husbandry practice, humane destruction, scientific research, anything necessarily incidental to lawful hunting, fishing, or trapping, plus dog mushing and sled-pulling contests and rodeos. A sentencing court can also bar the defendant from owning or keeping animals for up to ten years.

  Read the Alaskastatute →
• ArizonaTop charge: felony

  Arizona packs everything into one long section that assigns a different penalty to each numbered act. Reckless mistreatment, failing to provide food, water, shelter, or medical attention, abandonment, and leaving an animal shut in a vehicle are misdemeanors, but doing it intentionally or knowingly is a felony, and intentionally causing serious injury to a domestic animal or a service animal sits at the highest felony class in the section. Dogfighting is charged as a felony in its own right. Hunting, farming, ranching, rodeo, licensed veterinary practice, and falconry are expressly written out of the statute, so agricultural and sporting conduct generally will not support a report.

  Read the Arizonastatute →
• ArkansasTop charge: felony

  Arkansas keeps its general cruelty offense deliberately low-grade: knowingly mistreating an animal, abandoning one without arranging care, denying food, water, or adequate shelter, cruelly hauling one in a vehicle or boat, or killing another person's animal without consent is an unclassified misdemeanor, though it carries a mandatory psychological evaluation on top of the fine or jail. The felony exposure is narrow and species-specific — torturing a dog, cat, or horse is broken out as aggravated cruelty and is a felony on a first offense — and staging or participating in an animal fight is a felony too, while merely attending one is a misdemeanor. Ordinary husbandry such as dehorning, castration, and docking is exempt, as are rodeo and equine events, licensed veterinary work, regulated hunting and trapping, pest control, and federally overseen research.

  Read the Arkansasstatute →
• California

  The assigned reference page for California is a consolidated index rather than statute text: it lists the relevant Penal Code provisions by title — cruelty to animals, failure to care for animals, fighting animals and cockfighting, fighting dogs, and the savings clause for game laws and dangerous animals — and links out to each one, but reproduces none of the operative language. Because no penalty sentence appears anywhere on the page across three separate fetches, the top charge for a first offense could not be read from the source and has been left unverified rather than filled in from memory. Resolving this row requires fetching the standalone Penal Code § 597 page instead of the consolidated index.

  Read the Californiastatute →
• ColoradoTop charge: felony

  Colorado's cruelty section sweeps in overworking, tormenting, beating, depriving an animal of necessary sustenance, housing it in conditions that cause chronic or repeated serious harm, hauling it in a vehicle recklessly, abandoning a dog or cat, and sexual acts with animals; that baseline conduct is a misdemeanor, with a second conviction stepping up to a felony. The separate aggravated tier — knowingly torturing, needlessly mutilating, or needlessly killing an animal — is a felony on the first offense, which is the key line for anyone deciding whether what they saw was ordinary neglect or something prosecutable as aggravated. Accepted animal husbandry, rodeo activities, pest extermination, wildlife nuisance and predator control, dogs used in legal hunting, licensed veterinary treatment, and federally licensed research facilities are all outside the statute.

  Read the Coloradostatute →
• ConnecticutTop charge: felony

  Connecticut's cruelty law lists conduct at length — overdriving, overloading, or overworking an animal, torture, deprivation of sustenance, mutilation, cruel beating or killing, failing to care for a confined animal, poisoning or leaving out poison for a domestic animal, abandonment, cruel transport, and baiting or harassing animals for amusement. That general subsection tops out at a fine and up to a year on a first offense, but the statute carries a separate subsection for maliciously and intentionally maiming, mutilating, torturing, wounding, or killing an animal, which is a felony from the first offense, as is participating in animal fighting. Licensed veterinarians practicing to accepted standards, approved slaughter methods, authorized medical research, generally accepted agricultural practice, and lawful taking of wildlife are excluded.

  Read the Connecticutstatute →
• DelawareTop charge: felony

  Delaware's cruelty law reaches the full range, from neglect and abandonment to filthy confinement, leaving an animal in a vehicle at dangerous temperatures, and injuring or killing an animal belonging to someone else. It also names a specific scheme most states don't: deceiving an owner into surrendering a pet that is then killed or seriously hurt. Most violations are charged as a class A misdemeanor, but the offense steps up to a class F felony when someone intentionally kills an animal or causes serious injury, and a conviction also bars owning animals for five years, or fifteen after a felony. Slaughter of animals commonly raised for food, lawful hunting and trapping, accepted veterinary work, and research are carved out.

  Read the Delawarestatute →
• District of ColumbiaTop charge: felony

  The District's provision is written broadly, covering overworking, tormenting, beating, mutilating, and cruelly chaining an animal, as well as withholding food, water, air, light, space, shelter, weather protection, or veterinary care. Its definition of "animal" is unusually wide, reaching all living and sentient creatures other than humans. An ordinary violation is capped at 180 days in jail, but conduct that knowingly causes serious bodily injury or death carries up to five years and a $25,000 fine — felony-level in DC, which grades offenses by maximum sentence rather than by a felony or misdemeanor label in the section itself. The main carve-out is for properly conducted scientific work under a medical college, university, or scientific society.

  Read the District of Columbiastatute →
• FloridaTop charge: felony

  Florida reaches both sides of cruelty: deliberate acts that kill an animal cruelly or inflict excessive or repeated unnecessary pain, and an owner's failure to act that produces the same result. Intentional cruelty is charged as a third-degree felony with a fine of up to $10,000, and where the conduct amounts to knowing, intentional torture the court must impose a minimum $2,500 fine plus psychological counseling or anger-management. Recognized livestock husbandry, hunting regulated by the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, veterinary treatment, lawful animal control, and medical or scientific use all sit outside the statute.

  Read the Floridastatute →
• GeorgiaTop charge: felony

  Georgia splits the offense in two. Ordinary cruelty covers causing an animal pain, suffering, or death by any unjustifiable act or omission, including failing to supply food, water, sanitary conditions, or ventilation; aggravated cruelty covers maliciously killing an animal, taking or disabling a body part, seriously disfiguring it, torture involving severe or prolonged pain, poisoning, or maliciously withholding necessities so that the animal dies or is seriously hurt. Aggravated cruelty is a felony carrying one to five years. The exemption list is one of the longest in the country, sweeping in agriculture, animal husbandry, butchering, food processing, research, training, zoos, exhibition and competition, hunting, trapping, fishing, wildlife management, pest control, and authorized veterinary medicine.

  Read the Georgiastatute →
• HawaiiTop charge: felony

  Hawaii grades cruelty in two degrees. First degree covers torturing, mutilating, or poisoning a pet or horse so that it is seriously injured or dies, and killing or trying to kill someone else's pet without authority — a class C felony straight away on a first offense, followed by a minimum five-year ban on owning pets or equines. Second degree picks up starving, beating, overworking, cruel transport or confinement, improper tethering of dogs, and running animal fighting or baiting operations; it is normally a misdemeanor but becomes a class C felony when ten or more pet animals are involved in a single instance, which is the provision that reaches hoarding and mass neglect. Licensed veterinary practice, research meeting accepted standards, humane euthanasia by animal control or humane society officers, and contracted pest control are excluded.

  Read the Hawaiistatute →
• IdahoTop charge: misdemeanor

  Idaho's cruelty chapter covers malicious infliction of pain, malicious killing or maiming, needless suffering, abandonment, and negligently confining an animal or depriving it of food and water — but its penalties are far weaker than most states. A first offense of general cruelty is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine of $100 to $5,000; felony exposure normally requires a third violation within fifteen years, and the separate companion-animal torture provision reaches felony on a first offense only where the person already has a felony conviction within the past ten years for voluntarily injuring a human. Exemptions are broad, covering veterinary practice, humane slaughter, bona fide research, destroying diseased or disabled animals, standard husbandry and identification practices, and killing animals that threaten people or property. Conduct here is still worth reporting — it simply will not be charged as a felony on a clean first offense.

  Read the Idahostatute →
• IllinoisTop charge: felony

  Illinois consolidates its protections in the Humane Care for Animals Act, which separates ordinary cruel treatment from aggravated cruelty — intentionally acting in a way that causes a companion animal to suffer serious injury or death. Aggravated cruelty is a Class 4 felony on a first violation and a Class 3 felony on a repeat, so felony charges do not depend on a prior record. The Act also regulates how animals may be put down: euthanasia is limited to methods approved by the Department of Agriculture, and only a licensed veterinarian may use carbon monoxide.

  Read the Illinoisstatute →
• IndianaTop charge: felony

  Indiana's cruelty chapter reaches abandonment and neglect by anyone with custody of a vertebrate animal, outright abuse, torture and mutilation, killing another person's pet or livestock without consent, and the whole animal-fighting economy — organizing it, promoting it, attending it, or merely keeping the training equipment. Ordinary abuse and neglect start as misdemeanors, but torture or mutilation is a felony from the first offense, and so is killing an animal in order to frighten or control a family or household member. The chapter steps aside for licensed hunting, fishing and trapping, accepted farm management, generally accepted veterinary standards, USDA-registered research facilities, pest destruction, and humane euthanasia by shelters and animal control.

  Read the Indianastatute →
• IowaTop charge: misdemeanor

  Iowa breaks mistreatment into distinct offenses — abuse, neglect, torture, and abandoning a cat or dog — and grades each by whether the animal suffered serious injury or died. Unusually, Iowa still caps even animal torture at an aggravated misdemeanor for a person with no prior record; the felony tier opens only on a second qualifying conviction, although a psychological evaluation is mandatory right away. Two related things are first-offense felonies and worth reporting on that basis: organized animal fighting and seriously injuring a police service dog. Be aware the chapter's definition of "animal" excludes livestock and most wild game, fish and reptiles unless someone owns or confines them, and it exempts veterinary care, hunting, husbandry and research.

  Read the Iowastatute →
• KansasTop charge: felony

  Kansas folds killing, injuring, maiming, torturing, burning and mutilating into a single cruelty offense, sitting alongside abandonment, failing to supply food, water, shelter or exercise, deliberately tripping a horse, and poisoning a domestic animal. Malice is what divides the tiers: acting knowingly and maliciously is a felony on the first offense and carries a mandatory jail minimum plus a court-ordered psychological evaluation and anger management, while neglect and abandonment are class A misdemeanors until a second conviction. Exemptions are broad — veterinary practice, recognized research, hunting and trapping under the wildlife code, sanctioned rodeo, ordinary livestock husbandry including slaughter, pest control, and killing an animal found threatening a person, farm animal or property.

  Read the Kansasstatute →
• KentuckyTop charge: felony

  Kentucky's statute is narrow at the top and broad at the bottom. Intentionally torturing a domestic dog or cat is a felony — the legislature moved it up in 2024 — and organizing, hosting or profiting from a dog fight is separately a felony, but cruelty to every other animal, including cruel neglect and intentional killing, tops out as a misdemeanor. The torture section defines the conduct in unusual detail, expressly covering restraint-based harm such as caging, chaining, taping, sealing in a container, or abandoning an animal in a building for three days or more, and it carves out licensed hunting, agriculture, veterinary and cosmetic procedures, shows and racing, university research, and pest control.

  Read the Kentuckystatute →
• LouisianaTop charge: felony

  Louisiana splits the offense in two. Simple cruelty covers overworking, tormenting, beating, abandoning, poisoning, transporting inhumanely, or failing to provide proper food, drink, shelter or veterinary care, and carries a short jail term plus non-suspendable community service; aggravated cruelty covers torture, maiming and mutilation, mistreatment causing unjustifiable pain or death, and neglect that actually kills the animal, and carries one to ten years with or without hard labor, a five-figure fine, a mandatory psychological evaluation, and a possible ten-year ban on keeping animals. Each animal harmed is charged as a separate offense. Alongside the usual carve-outs for lawful hunting, herding, veterinary practice and research, Louisiana includes a state-specific exemption for traditional rural Mardi Gras chicken runs; the section was last amended in 2025.

  Read the Louisianastatute →
• MaineTop charge: felony

  Maine states the duties owed to animals in its agriculture title and the penalties in its criminal title, so the same conduct appears in two places. Everyday cruelty — killing someone else's animal, killing by a method that is not instantaneous, abandonment, depriving an animal of food, medical care, shelter or clean conditions, or shutting one in a vehicle in dangerous heat or cold — sits in the lower Class D band and climbs a class once a person has two or more prior convictions. Aggravated cruelty, defined as depraved indifference that causes extreme pain, torture or death, is a Class C crime from the first offense with a mandatory fine of at least $1,000; Maine grades crimes by letter rather than calling them felonies, but Class C is its felony-level tier. Affirmative defenses cover accepted veterinary practice, approved scientific research, pest control on one's own property, and agricultural best management practices.

  Read the Mainestatute →
• MarylandTop charge: felony

  Maryland keeps plain abuse and neglect — overdriving an animal, denying it sustenance, or failing to supply food, water, air, space, shelter, weather protection or veterinary care — as a misdemeanor, and separates out aggravated cruelty, which the code itself labels a felony: intentional mutilation, torture, cruel beating, cruel killing, sexual contact with an animal, or deliberately harming a law enforcement animal. Dogfighting and cockfighting are charged under that same felony heading, while knowingly attending one is a misdemeanor. The legislature wrote in that protection extends to strays, feral animals, farm animals and research animals, with exceptions for customary husbandry procedures such as dehorning, castration, tail docking and limit feeding, and for research under approved animal care protocols; a provision added in 2025 created a separate one-year misdemeanor where neglect kills a domestic animal or forces euthanasia.

  Read the Marylandstatute →
• MassachusettsTop charge: felony

  Massachusetts runs its cruelty law through a single broad section that reaches overworking, tormenting, torturing, mutilating, cruelly beating or killing an animal, and separately failing to supply food, drink, shelter, and protection from the weather. It also covers using a live animal cruelly in a race, game or contest or as bait, with fishing bait carved out; licensed veterinary work, accepted husbandry, breeding by artificial insemination and conformation judging are exempt. A first offense can be prosecuted at the state-prison level, and a distinctive feature is that conviction also bars the person from working with animals in commercial or nonprofit settings.

  Read the Massachusettsstatute →
• MichiganTop charge: felony

  Michigan splits its law in two: a felony section aimed at deliberately killing, torturing, mutilating, maiming or disfiguring an animal, poisoning it, recklessly injuring it, or threatening an animal in order to torment a person, and a separate duty-of-care section covering food, water and shelter. Animal fighting is reached broadly, including organizing, training for, and merely attending a fight. Neglect starts lower and escalates with repeat offenses or multiple animals, and the statute exempts livestock slaughter and customary husbandry, hunting, fishing and trapping, pest and wildlife control, scientific research, and veterinary treatment.

  Read the Michiganstatute →
• MinnesotaTop charge: felony

  Minnesota's core section covers overdriving, overloading, torturing, cruelly beating, neglecting or unjustifiably injuring an animal, denying it necessary food, water or shelter, abandoning it, leaving a sick or disabled animal exposed in a public place, instigating cruelty by someone else, and harming a service animal at work. Most violations are misdemeanors; the penalty steps up when the cruelty is intentional and causes substantial bodily harm to a pet or companion animal, and steps up again when it causes death or great bodily harm. Notably the escalations are keyed to pets and companion animals rather than livestock, food and fiber animals get a separate veterinary-examination process before seizure, and veterinarians who report in good faith are given immunity.

  Read the Minnesotastatute →
• MississippiTop charge: felony

  Mississippi treats dogs and cats under their own section and everything else under a general cruelty provision that stays at the misdemeanor level. For dogs and cats the law is tiered: wounding an animal, denying it adequate food, water or shelter, or confining it cruelly is simple cruelty, while torture, mutilation, maiming, burning, starvation, crushing, disfigurement, drowning, suffocation or impaling is aggravated cruelty and is expressly a felony on a first offense. The exemption list is long, covering veterinary practice, livestock management, lawful hunting, rodeo and equine events, kennel club shows, pest control, service dog training, and regulated research facilities.

  Read the Mississippistatute →
• MissouriTop charge: felony

  Missouri separates animal neglect and abandonment from animal abuse. Abuse covers intentionally killing an animal unlawfully, purposely causing it injury or suffering, and knowingly failing to provide adequate care in a way that causes substantial harm; a plain first offense sits at the misdemeanor level, but torture or mutilation makes it a felony immediately. The statute carries a wide exemption clause for licensed veterinary care, bona fide scientific experiments, lawful hunting, fishing and trapping, accredited zoos, professional rodeo practices, normal livestock husbandry, and humane killing by authorized personnel.

  Read the Missouristatute →
• MontanaTop charge: felony

  Montana has a basic cruelty offense covering beating, tormenting, torturing, injuring or killing an animal, cruel confinement or transport, failing to supply adequate food, water, shelter or veterinary care for serious illness or injury, and abandoning a helpless animal, which is capped at the misdemeanor level for a first offense. A second offense, or any aggravated animal cruelty conviction, carries a Department of Corrections term longer than the misdemeanor ceiling. Aggravated cruelty is defined as killing or inflicting cruelty with the purpose of terrifying, torturing or mutilating the animal, or inflicting cruelty on a collection, kennel or herd of ten or more animals, which gives Montana an unusually explicit hook for large-scale hoarding cases; agriculture and livestock practice, rodeo, hunting, trapping, wildlife management, research, veterinary services and pest control are excluded.

  Read the Montanastatute →
• NebraskaTop charge: felony

  Nebraska's main section combines abandonment, cruel neglect and cruel mistreatment, with cruel mistreatment defined as knowingly and intentionally killing, maiming, disfiguring, torturing, beating or otherwise inflicting harm on a vertebrate animal. A plain first offense of cruel mistreatment, abandonment or cruel neglect is a misdemeanor, but the charge jumps to a felony on the first offense where the mistreatment involves knowing and intentional torture, repeated beating or mutilation, and neglect that causes serious injury or death is also a felony. Livestock are handled under a separate article and uncaptured wild animals fall outside the definition, and the exemption list covers veterinary care, police animal handling, federally compliant research, hunting, fishing and trapping, owner-authorized humane killing, reasonable force against a threatening animal, pest control, and commonly accepted training.

  Read the Nebraskastatute →
• NevadaTop charge: felony

  Nevada's core cruelty section covers overworking, beating, torturing, maiming and killing animals, along with starvation and abandonment, and it adds concrete rules about how long a dog may be tethered and what an outdoor enclosure must provide. Willfully and maliciously torturing, mutilating or killing a pet, cat or dog is a felony the first time it happens, and it moves to a higher felony grade when the animal dies; ordinary neglect-grade violations start as misdemeanors and escalate with repeat convictions. Lawful hunting, standard livestock and rodeo activity, veterinary care and authorized euthanasia sit outside the statute.

  Read the Nevadastatute →
• New HampshireTop charge: felony

  New Hampshire divides cruelty by state of mind: deliberately beating, cruelly whipping, torturing or mutilating an animal is a felony on a first offense, while negligent mistreatment — failing to feed, shelter or care for an animal, or abandoning it — is a misdemeanor that becomes a felony on a repeat. The law reaches domestic animals, household pets and wild animals held in captivity, and it spells out some unusual specifics such as weaning equine foals too early and transporting animals unsafely. Accepted veterinary practice, ordinary agricultural procedures and licensed hunting are carved out.

  Read the New Hampshirestatute →
• New JerseyTop charge: felony

  New Jersey runs a two-tier structure: everyday abuse, needless killing and failure to provide necessary care is a disorderly persons offense on a first conviction, but aggravated conduct — tormenting, torturing, maiming, poisoning, cruel beating, mutilation or sexual abuse — is an indictable crime from the first offense and steps up a grade if the animal dies or suffers serious injury. New Jersey labels its felony-level charges "crime of the fourth degree" and "crime of the third degree" rather than felonies, but they carry state-prison exposure. Separate sections address cruel tethering, leaving dogs exposed to dangerous weather and animals left unattended in vehicles; scientific experiments, lawful hunting and fishing, humane livestock raising and rodent control are exempted.

  Read the New Jerseystatute →
• New MexicoTop charge: felony

  New Mexico names two distinct offenses in one section. Plain "cruelty to animals" — negligent mistreatment, tormenting, killing without justification, abandonment, or failing to provide necessary sustenance — is a misdemeanor that only becomes a felony on a fourth conviction, while "extreme cruelty to animals" — intentionally or maliciously torturing, mutilating, injuring or poisoning an animal, or maliciously killing one — is a fourth-degree felony from the first offense. Animal fighting and horse tripping have their own sections, and the statute does not apply to hunting and fishing, veterinary medicine, pest control, commonly accepted husbandry, rodeo practices or licensed research facilities.

  Read the New Mexicostatute →
• New YorkTop charge: felony

  New York's general cruelty section reaches overdriving, overloading, torture, cruel beating, unjustified injury or killing, and depriving an animal of food and water, but it tops out at a misdemeanor. The heavier charge sits in a separate provision known as Buster's Law: intentionally killing or causing serious physical injury to a companion animal with aggravated cruelty — extreme physical pain, or an especially depraved or sadistic manner — is a felony on a first offense. Organized animal fighting is separately a felony, while abandonment and cruel transport remain misdemeanors; farm-animal husbandry, approved scientific research, lawful hunting and trapping, and veterinary procedures are excluded.

  Read the New Yorkstatute →
• North CarolinaTop charge: felony

  North Carolina keeps simple cruelty — depriving an animal of necessary food, water, shelter or care — as a misdemeanor, but maliciously torturing, mutilating, maiming, cruelly beating, disfiguring, poisoning or killing an animal is a felony on a first offense, and so is maliciously starving one to death. Abandonment, cruel chaining and cruel conveyance are separate misdemeanors, and dogfighting and cockfighting are felonies in their own right. The exemption list is unusually broad and worth checking before reporting: lawful wildlife taking, livestock and poultry production, aquaculture, biomedical research and lawful veterinary purposes all fall outside the statute.

  Read the North Carolinastatute →
• North DakotaTop charge: felony

  North Dakota's modern cruelty chapter treats intentional cruelty — conduct such as breaking bones, mutilation, physical torture or causing prolonged impairment of health — as a felony on a first offense, with neglect and abandonment handled as lesser offenses. An older humane-treatment chapter still carries the fighting and exhibition bans, including cockfights and dogfights, plus oddities like restrictions on artificially colored animals and birds used as advertising devices. The exemptions are extensive, covering normal livestock production, breeding and competition, rodeo and racing, licensed exhibitors, hunting and trapping, wildlife management, lawful research, pest control and defense against an attacking animal.

  Read the North Dakotastatute →
• OhioTop charge: felony

  Ohio splits its protections in two: a general cruelty section covering torture, deprivation of food and water, and improper confinement for animals broadly, and a stronger companion-animal section for dogs, cats, and animals kept in a residence. Separate provisions reach abandonment, organized dogfighting and cockfighting, and sexual conduct with animals. Most neglect-type violations start as first-degree misdemeanors and only escalate to felonies on repeat, but knowingly causing serious physical harm to a companion animal is a fifth-degree felony straight away; licensed veterinary work, customary treatment of hunting dogs, federally regulated research, and livestock slaughter are carved out.

  Read the Ohiostatute →
• OklahomaTop charge: felony

  Oklahoma's core cruelty section reaches willfully or maliciously torturing, killing, beating, maiming, or mutilating an animal, and equally covers depriving one of necessary food, drink, shelter, or veterinary care. Companion provisions address poisoning, abandoning animals on roadways, mistreatment of animals in transit, and instigating dogfights or cockfights. Unusually, there is no misdemeanor step for the main offense — cruelty is charged as a felony from the first conviction — though lawful hunting, livestock and agricultural production, and dog training, breeding, and showing fall outside the statute.

  Read the Oklahomastatute →
• OregonTop charge: felony

  Oregon runs a graded ladder rather than a single offense: causing physical injury to an animal is the entry-level crime, causing serious injury or death sits above it, and intentionally torturing an animal is aggravated abuse at the top. Separate sections cover failing to provide minimum care, abandoning a domestic animal, and dogfighting, cockfighting, and animal fighting generally. The entry tier is only a Class B misdemeanor, but a first-time aggravated abuse charge is a Class C felony; good animal husbandry, lawful hunting and fishing, wildlife management, veterinary practice, and rodeos are exempt.

  Read the Oregonstatute →
• PennsylvaniaTop charge: felony

  Pennsylvania, reorganized wholesale under Libre's Law, keys the charge to the harm caused rather than to the act alone. Neglect — failing to provide food, potable water, shelter, or veterinary care — and ill-treating, overloading, beating, abandoning, or abusing an animal both begin as summary offenses and step up to misdemeanors once bodily injury results, while torture or conduct causing serious bodily injury or death is aggravated cruelty and a third-degree felony on a first offense. Normal agricultural operations, activity under the game and hunting laws, authorized research facilities, reasonable pest control, and lawful shooting activities are excluded, and a separate provision gives immunity to people who break into a vehicle to rescue an animal.

  Read the Pennsylvaniastatute →
• Rhode IslandTop charge: felony

  Rhode Island's chapter is an older one, spread across several short sections rather than a single consolidated offense. The general cruelty provision covers overworking, tormenting, beating, mutilating, and denying sustenance, alongside a separate unnecessary-cruelty section that reaches hoarding-style accumulation and inadequate living conditions, and another covering abandonment on streets, roads, or property. Basic cruelty is capped below a year in jail on a first offense, but maliciously wounding, dismembering, killing, or poisoning an animal carries up to five years — felony territory — while licensed hunters in season, licensed slaughter for human consumption, and federally licensed research facilities in good standing are exempt.

  Read the Rhode Islandstatute →
• South CarolinaTop charge: felony

  South Carolina divides its main cruelty section into two tiers: a misdemeanor for overloading, overworking, ill-treating, or depriving an animal of necessary sustenance or shelter, and a felony for torturing, tormenting, needlessly mutilating, cruelly killing, or inflicting excessive or repeated unnecessary pain. Separate sections address abandonment and cruel transport in vehicles. The felony tier is available on a first offense, but the statute's practical reach is narrowed by broad carve-outs — fowl are excluded outright, along with accepted farm animal husbandry, animal training, veterinary practice, agricultural, forestry and wildlife management activity, and hunting authorized elsewhere in the code.

  Read the South Carolinastatute →
• South DakotaTop charge: felony

  South Dakota separates neglect from cruelty and treats the two very differently. Neglect — failing to provide food, water, shelter, sanitation, or the standard care an animal's health and well-being require — and abandonment sit at misdemeanor level, while cruelty is defined narrowly as intentionally, willfully, and maliciously inflicting gross physical abuse causing prolonged pain, serious injury, or death, and is a Class 6 felony on a first offense, as is owning or training animals to fight or staging fights. The exemption list is wide, covering regulated scientific experiments, humane killing, destruction of dangerous animals, ordinary agricultural and husbandry practice, lawful hunting, trapping and fishing, and pest or predator control.

  Read the South Dakotastatute →
• TennesseeTop charge: felony

  Tennessee runs two tiers. Ordinary cruelty — abandonment, cruel confinement or transport, gross overwork, tethering that injures, and failing to provide food, water, shelter, or care — is a misdemeanor on a first conviction, though a second conviction escalates. The felony tier, aggravated cruelty, reaches only companion animals, meaning pets and other non-livestock animals rather than farm stock; dogfighting is likewise a felony while cockfighting is deliberately left at the misdemeanor level. Routine farm husbandry, accepted veterinary treatment, hunting, trapping, and scientific research are carved out.

  Read the Tennesseestatute →
• TexasTop charge: felony

  Texas writes cruelty twice — once for pets and other non-livestock animals, once for livestock — and the non-livestock statute carries the heavier penalty. Torturing or killing an animal, or causing it serious bodily injury, is a felony on a first offense; neglect of food, water, care or shelter, abandonment, cruel confinement or transport, poisoning, animal fighting, using live animals as bait or lures, and horse tripping are also covered at lower grades. Accepted agricultural and husbandry practices, lawful hunting, fishing and trapping, wildlife management, and bona fide research fall outside the statute.

  Read the Texasstatute →
• UtahTop charge: felony

  Utah renumbered its cruelty code effective May 2025, so older citations to 76-9-301 and following now point to a different chapter — worth checking before relying on an old reference. Basic cruelty and even the provision labelled "aggravated" cruelty stay at the misdemeanor level; the felony tier is reserved for intentionally torturing a companion animal, and separately for dogfighting. The exemption list is unusually long, covering farming and livestock management, hunting, fishing and trapping, veterinary care, research, rodeo, accredited zoos, licensed circuses, and hunting-dog and raptor training.

  Read the Utahstatute →
• VermontTop charge: felony

  Vermont separates ordinary cruelty — overworking, abandonment, poisoning, depriving an animal of food, water or shelter, inhumane tethering, animal fighting, and sexual conduct with animals — from aggravated cruelty, with the ordinary tier capped at one year. Aggravated cruelty covers killing an animal in a way that causes undue pain, and intentionally and maliciously torturing, mutilating, or beating one, and carries up to five years, which places it in felony territory under Vermont's general definition of a felony. Livestock and poultry husbandry, veterinary procedures, activities regulated by Fish and Wildlife, and institutionally reviewed research are excluded.

  Read the Vermontstatute →
• VirginiaTop charge: felony

  Most cruelty in Virginia — ill-treatment, overloading or overdriving, depriving an animal of food, water, shelter or emergency veterinary care, and cruel transport — is a misdemeanor. The statute reserves its felony for a narrow and specific case: torturing, willfully inflicting inhumane injury, or cruelly beating, maiming or mutilating a dog or cat kept as a companion animal, where that directly causes serious bodily injury, death, or the need to euthanize. Virginia also singles out soring horses and deliberately tripping equines, and exempts lawful hunting, fishing and trapping, farming, wildlife management, bona fide research, and customary dehorning of cattle.

  Read the Virginiastatute →
• WashingtonTop charge: felony

  Washington grades cruelty by degree, and the first-degree tier is a felony: intentionally inflicting substantial pain or physical injury by means causing undue suffering, starving, dehydrating or suffocating an animal, exposing it to extreme heat or cold, sexual contact, and — unusually — forcing a minor to harm an animal. Second degree is the neglect tier and a gross misdemeanor, reaching abandonment and an owner's failure to supply food, water, shelter, rest, sanitation, space or medical attention where the animal suffers as a result. Accepted husbandry, work by a licensed veterinarian or certified technician, livestock management and slaughter, lawful hunting, and authorized research sit outside both degrees.

  Read the Washingtonstatute →
• West VirginiaTop charge: felony

  West Virginia puts the common conduct in the misdemeanor tier: mistreatment, abandonment, withholding food, water, shelter or medical treatment, leaving an animal shut in a vehicle, cruel chaining or tethering, baiting, and riding an animal that is unfit. The felony tier is narrow and intent-driven, covering only intentional torture or mutilation and malicious killing, and carries one to five years plus a fine. The carve-outs are broad — lawful hunting, fishing, trapping, animal training, farm livestock, poultry, and notably gaming fowl kept on private or licensed game farms, along with federally regulated research.

  Read the West Virginiastatute →
• WisconsinTop charge: felony

  Chapter 951 reaches both active mistreatment and passive neglect: beating or injuring an animal, failing to supply adequate food, water, and shelter, abandoning an animal, staging animal fights, shooting caged or staked animals, and interfering with police or service animals. Wisconsin carves out normal veterinary care, accepted farm husbandry practices, hunting and wildlife management, pest control on your own property, and federally regulated research, so complaints about livestock handling or lawful hunting generally will not stick. Everyday mistreatment starts as a misdemeanor, but intentional cruelty that mutilates, disfigures, or kills an animal is a felony the first time it happens, as is a first animal-fighting offense.

  Read the Wisconsinstatute →
• WyomingTop charge: felony

  Wyoming's animal abuse article covers beating or knowingly injuring an animal, overworking or hauling it in a way likely to cause harm, abandoning it, withholding food, water, or shelter while showing extreme indifference, refusing care for a serious illness or injury, keeping household pets in conditions that cause ongoing harm, and organizing dogfights or cockfights; shooting or poisoning someone else's livestock is also covered. The exemptions are unusually broad even by Western standards, protecting industry-accepted agricultural and livestock practices, rodeo events and rodeo training, herding and hunting dogs, falconry, predator control, and humane euthanasia. A first ordinary cruelty offense is capped as a misdemeanor at six months and a $750 fine, but torture or cruelty that kills an animal is charged as a felony on a first offense, carrying up to two years, a $5,000 fine, and permanent loss of the animal.

  Read the Wyomingstatute →

Louisiana

The operator’s home jurisdiction, and the only one whose citations we publish directly — because it is the one we can commit to re-checking whenever the legislature adjourns. Every citation below was verified against Michigan State’s reference and cross-checked independently. For every other state, the maintained link above is the citation.

Louisiana R.S. 14:403.6 requires certain officers and government employees investigating child or adult abuse to report animal abuse they encounter. Animal cruelty rarely stands alone, and the law already recognises it — which is the connection this registry exists to make visible.

Who may, and who must, report

Whether a veterinarian must report suspected cruelty — and whether they are granted civil immunity for doing so — varies by state. If you are a clinic, check your own state's rule before acting on anything you read here.