Senate Bill 2397

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 97-41-1, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REVISE THE CRIME OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS, TO INCORPORATE ELEMENTS OF OFFENSES FOUND ELSEWHERE IN CHAPTER 41, AND TO CREATE SIMPLE AND AGGRAVATED DEGREES OF THE OFFENSE; TO AMEND SECTION 97-41-11, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REENACT AND REVISE THE PENALTY FOR COCKFIGHTING FOUND IN CHAPTER 41, SECTION 13; TO AMEND SECTION 97-27-7, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REENACT AND REVISE THE PENALTY FOUND IN CHAPTER 41, SECTION 13; TO REPEAL SECTION 97-41-7, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, WHICH PROVIDES THAT CONFINING ANY LIVING CREATURE WITHOUT SUFFICIENT FOOD AND WATER IS A MISDEMEANOR; TO REPEAL SECTION 97-41-9, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, WHICH PROVIDES THAT A CUSTODIAN OF ANY LIVING CREATURE WHO FAILS TO PROVIDE SUFFICIENT FOOD AND DRINK IS GUILTY OF A MISDEMEANOR; TO REPEAL SECTION 97-41-13, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, WHICH PROVIDES PENALTIES FOR CERTAIN ACTS OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Section 97-41-1, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

97-41-1. (1) (a) Any person who intentionally or with criminal negligence commits any of the following shall be guilty of simple cruelty to animals:

(i) Overdrives, overloads, drives when overloaded or overworks a living animal;

(ii) Torments, cruelly beats or unjustifiably injures a living animal;

(iii) Having charge, custody or possession of any animal, either as owner or otherwise, and unjustifiably deprives of necessary sustenance, food, drink, shelter or veterinary care, or abandons any living animal.

(iv) Impounds or confines or causes to be impounded or confined in a pound, stable, lot, or other place, a living animal and fails to supply it during such confinement with proper food, proper drink, and proper shelter.

(v) Carries or causes to be carried, by hand or in or upon any vehicle or other conveyance, any living creature in a cruel or inhumane manner.

(vi) Unjustifiably administers any poisonous or noxious drug or substance to any domestic animal or unjustifiably exposes any such drug or substance with intent that the same shall be taken or swallowed by any domestic animal.

(vii) Injures any animal belonging to another person without legal privilege or consent of the owner.

(viii) Mistreats any living animal by any act or omission whereby unnecessary or unjustifiable physical pain, suffering or death is caused to or permitted upon the animal.

(ix) Causes or procures to be done by any person any act enumerated in this subsection (1).

(b) (i) A person convicted of the crime of simple cruelty to animals shall be fined not more than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00), imprisoned for not more than six (6) months, or both.

(ii) In addition to any other penalty imposed, a person convicted of the crime of cruelty to animals shall be ordered to perform five (5) eight-hour days of court-approved community service, which sentence shall not be suspended.

(2) (a) Any person who intentionally or with criminal negligence tortures, maims, mutilates, or maliciously kills any living animal, whether belonging to himself or another, shall be guilty of aggravated cruelty to animals.

(b) Any person who causes or procures to be done by any person any act enumerated in this subsection (2) shall also be guilty of aggravated cruelty to animals.

(c) A person convicted of the crime of aggravated cruelty to animals shall be fined not less than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00), imprisoned in the custody of the Department of Corrections for not more than ten (10) years, or both.

(d) For purposes of this subsection (2), where more than one (1) animal is tortured, maimed, mutilated, or maliciously killed, each act constitutes a separate offense.

(3) (a) This section shall not apply to the lawful hunting or trapping of wildlife as provided by law, herding of domestic animals, accepted animal husbandry practices, accepted veterinary practices, and activities carried on for scientific or medical research governed by accepted standards.

(b) A person shall not be considered to have abandoned an animal delivered to an animal control center.

(4) For the purposes of this chapter, unless otherwise defined, "animal" means any mammal, reptile, bird or amphibian.

SECTION 2. Section 97-41-11, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

97-41-11. (1) Any person who shall keep or use, or in any way be connected with or interested in the management of, or shall receive money for the admission of any person to, any place kept or used for the purpose of fighting any bear, cock or other creature, except a dog, or of tormenting or torturing the same, and every person who shall encourage, aid, or assist therein, or who shall permit or suffer any place to be so kept or used, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. It shall be the duty of any policeman or other officer of the law, county or municipal, to enter into any such place kept for such purpose, and to arrest each and every person concerned or participating therein.

(2) Any person convicted under this section shall be fined not more than One Hundred Dollars ($100.00), imprisoned in the county jail not more than one hundred (100) days, or both. SECTION 3. Section 97-27-7, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

97-27-7. (1) (a) If any person, being the owner or having the charge of any animal diseased with the glanders or farcy, shall not deprive the animal of life or closely confine it remote from all other animals liable to contract the disease, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, on conviction, shall be punished as provided in Section 97-41-13.

(b) Whenever a case of glanders or farcy is reported to the president of the board of supervisors, he may employ a competent veterinary surgeon, if necessary, at the expense of the county. If such veterinary surgeon declare the animal or animals affected with the glanders or farcy the sheriff shall immediately kill the animal or animals, for which service he shall be allowed not more than Two Dollars ($2.00) for each animal destroyed, to be paid out of the county treasury. * * * The said board of supervisors are hereby authorized and empowered, in the discretion of said board, to allow the owner of said animal or animals, to be paid out of the county treasury, such sum therefor as the board may deem proper. If any owner of stock, having good reason to suspect that his stock is diseased shall fail to report to the president of the board, or if any official named in this section shall fail to perform the duties herein imposed, such offender shall, on conviction, be fined not less than Twenty-five Dollars ($25.00) or more than Two Hundred Dollars ($200.00), or shall be imprisoned in the county jail for a term not exceeding two (2) months or both. The board of supervisors, when any animal shall have been exposed to glanders or farcy and not actually infected, may order all such animals to be quarantined until such time as the danger of contagion shall have passed, and the place where such animals are kept shall also be quarantined.

(2) Any person who shall violate this section, on conviction, shall be fined not more than One Hundred Dollars ($100.00), imprisoned in the county jail not more than one hundred (100) days, or both.

SECTION 4. Section 97-41-5, Mississippi Code of 1972, which provides that carrying any creature in a cruel or inhuman manner is a misdemeanor, is repealed.

SECTION 5. Section 97-41-7, Mississippi Code of 1972, which provides that confining any living creature without sufficient food and water is a misdemeanor, is repealed.

SECTION 6. Section 97-41-9, Mississippi Code of 1972, which provides that a custodian of any living creature who fails to provide sufficient food and drink is guilty of a misdemeanor, is repealed.

SECTION 7. Section 97-41-13, Mississippi Code of 1972, which provides penalties for certain acts of cruelty to animals, is repealed.

SECTION 8. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2004.