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S 2298Non-Violent Crime Penalties

Animals and Animal Husbandry - Cruelty to Animals

This bill increases the maximum jail time for a first offense of animal cruelty from eleven months to twelve months.

Held for study
Population
Affected
8
Email Legislator
Introduced Jan 23, 2026Committee Senate Judiciary

Plain-English Summary

This bill amends Rhode Island law regarding animal cruelty. Specifically, it increases the maximum prison sentence for a first-time offense of overworking, mistreating, or failing to provide necessary care to an animal. Currently, the maximum sentence is eleven months. This legislation changes that maximum sentence to twelve months. The existing fines, which range from $50 to $500, and the definition of what constitutes adequate shelter remain unchanged by this amendment.

For younger readers

This bill changes the rules for people who are mean to animals. Right now, if someone hurts an animal or doesn't feed it properly, they can be sent to jail for up to eleven months. This new law adds one more month to that punishment, making the longest time they can stay in jail twelve months. It is a way to tell people that treating animals badly is wrong and has serious consequences.

Who & Where It Applies

Impacted groups
Pet ownersAnimal sheltersAnimal control officersVeterinariansFarmers
Impacted communities
All

Constitutional & Fiscal Check

None Likely

Estimated cost
Amount unknown
Estimated revenue
None

Bill Analysis

Both viewpoints
For Progressives
  • Strengthens the legal protection of vulnerable living beings by increasing the penalty for abuse and neglect, reflecting a commitment to compassion and justice for all creatures.
  • Aligns state law with the seriousness of animal cruelty, potentially acting as a stronger deterrent against violence that often correlates with violence against humans.
  • Updates the justice system to ensure that penalties for mistreatment remain impactful, signaling that the community does not tolerate cruelty.
  • Moving the sentence from eleven to twelve months may trigger severe federal immigration consequences, such as deportation for non-citizens, which disproportionately harms immigrant communities.
  • Contributes to the expansion of the carceral system by increasing jail time rather than prioritizing rehabilitation or mental health interventions for offenders.
  • Fails to address the root causes of neglect, such as poverty or lack of access to resources, focusing instead on punitive measures.
For Conservatives
  • Reinforces law and order by stiffening the penalty for criminals who violate state laws regarding the treatment of animals.
  • Upholds the principle of personal responsibility by ensuring that individuals face strict consequences for their actions.
  • Reflects traditional values of stewardship and moral duty to care for animals under one's charge.
  • Increases the financial burden on taxpayers by potentially extending the length of incarceration for offenders at state expense.
  • Represents an expansion of government power to incarcerate citizens without a clear demonstration that the existing penalty was ineffective.
  • Risks setting a precedent for incrementally increasing criminal penalties without broader justification or reform.

Votes

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Full Bill Text

Changes to existing Rhode Island law · 2 additions · 1 deletion

SECTION 1. Section 4-1-2 of the General Laws in Chapter 4-1 entitled "Cruelty to Animals" is hereby amended to read as follows: 4-1-2. Overwork, mistreatment, or failure to feed animals — Shelter defined.

(a) Whoever overdrives, overloads, drives when overloaded, overworks, tortures, torments, deprives of necessary sustenance, cruelly beats, mutilates, or cruelly kills, or causes or procures to be so overdriven, overloaded, driven when overloaded, overworked, tortured, tormented, deprived of necessary sustenance, cruelly beaten, or mutilated, any animal, and whoever, having the charge or custody of any animal, either as owner or otherwise, inflicts cruelty upon that animal, or willfully fails to provide that animal with proper food, drink, shelter, or protection from the weather, shall, for each offense, be imprisoned not exceeding eleven (11) twelve (12) months, or be fined not less than fifty dollars ($50.00) nor exceeding five hundred dollars ($500), or both. If the offense described in this section results in the death of the animal, the person shall be punished in the manner provided in § 4-1-5.

(b) Any person who has been previously convicted of an offense provided for in chapter 1 of title 4 shall, upon conviction of a second or subsequent violation within a ten-year (10) period, be imprisoned for a period not exceeding six (6) years, or fined not less than five hundred dollars ($500) and not exceeding five thousand dollars ($5,000), or both. In addition, every person convicted under chapter 1 of title 4 of a second or subsequent offense shall be required to serve one hundred (100) hours of community restitution. The community restitution penalty shall not be suspended or deferred and is mandatory.

(c) Every owner, possessor, or person having charge of any animal may, upon conviction of a violation of this section, be ordered to forfeit all rights to ownership of the animal to the animal- control officer of the city or town in which the offense occurred or to a humane society that owns and operates the shelter that provided the subject animal shelter subsequent to any confiscation of that animal pursuant to this section.

(d) Shelter means a structure used to house any animal that will provide sufficient protection from inclement elements for the health and well being of the animal.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.