Monday July 20, 2009, 5:24 pm
What constitutes cruel? Florida's animal cruelty law is surprisingly vague

By Andrew Marra

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Monday, July 20, 2009

We instinctively understood why a Loxahatchee man was arrested last week for allegedly shooting a stray cat with a bow and arrow. But why not when someone bow-hunts a deer?

Florida's governor is sending posses after pythons with clubs and machetes. A University of Florida professor is encouraging Palm Beach County homeowners to behead iguanas.

So why was a west Boynton teen arrested last month on charges of shooting ducks with a pellet rifle?

It turns out Florida's animal cruelty law is surprisingly vague, giving equal protection to cockroaches and kittens and doing little to spell out what constitutes cruel. How it is enforced has far more to do with our own cultural perceptions of animals and suffering.

Florida law says anyone is guilty of animal cruelty who "unnecessarily overloads, overdrives, torments ... or unnecessarily mutilates, or kills any animal."

There are no provision for "unnecessarily" killing bugs. Or, for that matter, farm chickens, pythons, or the termites gnawing your roof beams.

"They're not defined or addressed in law. They're defined or addressed in the enforcement of law," said Marcy LaHart, a West Palm Beach animal law attorney who serves on the Florida Bar's Animal Law Committee. "You have to acknowledge that as a culture we are very schizophrenic in our behavior toward animals."

Is killing any animal cruel? The statute appears to say yes, if the killing is done unnecessarily and inhumanely.

But what constitutes humane?

"I've often posed the question. Where do you draw the line?" said Capt. David Walesky, operations manager for field services at Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control. "Is stepping on a cockroach animal cruelty?"

Struggling to define and delimit animal protections is as universal as human-animal interactions themselves.

In January, an appellate court ruled Pennsylvania's animal cruelty law was so vague and ambiguous that dog and cat owners should not be prosecuted for shooting their pets. In 2004, a North Carolina court ruled that state's law too foggy to ban a controversial pigeon shoot.

In Florida, things seem no clearer. Two Pinellas County teens were arrested in 2007 for dumping detergent into a koi pond and killing fish. But no charges were filed in 2002 when a Pasco County egg farm let thousands of chickens starve to death.

"There is confusion and that needs to be clarified," said Nick Atwood, spokesman for the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida. "There's a big difference in how the law treats different species."

The more an animal resembles a human - warm-blooded, big brained, furry - the more it is generally perceived to have human-like emotions and be capable of suffering, regardless of whether that is actually the case, experts say.

The animals that tend to benefit most in protections from animal cruelty laws are "companion animals," chiefly dogs and cats. There are state laws, for example, that deal only with dogs and cats, making it illegal to kill either for their pelts or even to sell clothing containing dog or cat fur.

In May, a UF professor told South Florida residents they could dispatch nuisance iguanas by bashing them over the head to stun them, then chop off their heads.

That might border on animal cruelty if the animal wasn't properly stunned before death, said Walesky. It might merit an investigation.

But he acknowledged that "it would be pursued more aggressively if it was a dog."

"Companion animals," he said, are "our mandate, and in our minds the statutes were written to apply to them."

What the law says

Florida's animal cruelty statute (Florida State Statute 828.12) lays out what constitutes misdemeanor and felony animal cruelty:

Misdemeanor: A person who unnecessarily overloads, overdrives, torments, deprives of necessary sustenance or shelter, or unnecessarily mutilates, or kills any animal, or causes the same to be done, or carries in or upon any vehicle, or otherwise, any animal in a cruel or inhumane manner, is guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or by a fine of not more than $5,000, or both.

Felony: A person who intentionally commits an act to any animal which results in the cruel death, or excessive or repeated infliction of unnecessary pain or suffering, or causes the same to be done, is guilty of a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or by a fine of not more than $10,000, or both.

Source: Florida State Statutes

Monday July 20, 2009, 5:27 pm
hmmm... Thanks Raffi!

Monday July 20, 2009, 6:14 pm
Very informative article Rafael my friend. Noted.

This is good to know, I will write to my Reps. & Senators in Florida on this one for sure.

Seems that the law fails us here, I mean I think all people should get some sort of jailtime, forget about the "money", these people are "abusers".

I would think any crime against an animal is punishable by the law, and the punishment should fit the crime. People are killing animals, are animals lives any less worth than that of a humans? I should hope not.

Thank you so much for this news, I'm on it...

Blessings to all,
FreeSpiritRunning...

Monday July 20, 2009, 7:41 pm
Every state and country in the world is to lenient on their animal welfare laws and always will be. As long as there is profit to be made from the suffering of these innocents and they are continued to be looked upon as property and not the sentient creatures that they are then the laws will remain so. You can not have strict laws protecting animals and punish people for abusing cats and dogs when worse abuses happen everyday in factory farms and slaughter houses.

Tuesday July 21, 2009, 1:35 am
Noted & Thanks for sharing.

Tuesday July 21, 2009, 11:10 am
I have never understood how people pick and choice what animals live or die. which are food, which are pets. which are worth saving as endangered and which we hunt down and kill.

ALL ANIMALS HAVE THE RIGHT TO LIVE AND BE LEFT ALONE BY HUMANS.

Tuesday July 21, 2009, 5:29 pm
These pythons kill all of the native animals in the most terrible ways to be imagined. They crush every bone in their bodies, swallow the whole and start digesting them while they are still alive. They pose such a danger to small children. The governor of Florida is correct to destroy them.

Tuesday July 21, 2009, 10:59 pm
Animals kill because they need to eat and don't share our values about cruelty in hunting. The pythons are not there because they decided to emigrate to Florida... What about punishing the morons that leave them there and return the pythons to their homeland? But this is not the issue here. It's about cruelty against animals performed by people. Now, what are these people's values? Don't they think that every living creature has the right of living and that they suffer pain and fear? Is the education the children receive enough? I mean, is there room for a debate at school and within the society?

Tuesday July 21, 2009, 11:15 pm
Sorry my poor English :-(

Tuesday July 21, 2009, 11:53 pm
Nothing wrong with your English Alejandra-;-)

It always seems to me that when it comes to equations the people are largely left out and mysteriously it becomes about the animals and the animals don't have much to say about it.

Wednesday July 22, 2009, 11:09 am
Thanks for the info amiga! and thanks for your words to Alejandra.

Alejandra estamos iguales, seguro alguien te hizo sentir menos en éste lugar, no?