Animal Cruelty Prosecution Animal Cruelty Prosecution

A NIMAL C RUELTY P R OSECUTION
During the same period in the United States, there were scattered cases
of criminal prosecution for harm to animals based on charges of malicious
mischief, breach of the public peace or theft of property—but none
as a distinct crime of cruelty or causing suffering. A few states had laws
related to harming animals owned by others, but these were applied only
to commercially valuable animals and none viewed harming one’s own
animals as a crime.
The first American law that moved away from these limitations was in
Maine (1821), prohibiting cruelly beating any horse or cattle—regardless
of ownership.This was the earliest indication of a law addressing concern
for the welfare of the animal itself. However, there was no system or
organization established to enforce this law.
This was followed by a wave of anti-cruelty laws best represented by
New York’s law of 1829 (N.Y. Rev. Stat. tit.6 §26 (1829)):
“Every person who shall maliciously kill, maim or wound any horse,
ox or other cattle, or any sheep, belonging to another or shall maliciously
and cruelly beat or torture any such animals, whether
belonging to himself or another, shall upon conviction, be adjudged
guilty of a misdemeanor.”
Most of the laws passed during the next 30 years were motivated by a
concern for what such acts of cruelty said about the perpetrator of the
deeds and the possibility of future cruel acts against humans. For this reason,
even though they dealt with the “property” of animals, these laws
were often included within sections related to public morals and decency
rather than property. For example, animal cruelty offenses in the New
Hampshire code were in the same section as those related to adultery,
incest, blasphemy, profane swearing, grave-robbing and tomb desecration.
The Minnesota statute was in the same section as that describing the
penalties for “attending a dance on the Lord’s Day.”
Animal cruelty laws and their enforcement moved into the modern era
largely through the efforts of prominent New York socialite Henry Bergh.
He realized that the existing laws did not address acts of serious neglect
that he saw so commonly. In 1866, he successfully amended the 1829 law:
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