Animal Cruelty/Abuse Laws in Missouri
The Missouri Revised Statutes include several laws against animal cruelty, abuse, and neglect. These statutes must tread a fine line between criminal conduct and accepted customs and practices in both rural and urban areas. Moreover, they must account for the fact that no owner or keeper can control their animals 100% of the time.
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Prosecutors can use the following laws when they believe an animal’s welfare has been endangered:
Animal Abuse
Animal abuse includes three primary violations.
First, no person can intentionally kill an animal in a manner prohibited by Missouri law or using a method other than the humane euthanasia practices defined by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA).
Missouri expressly allows people to kill dogs that kill or chase sheep or other domestic animals. However, it doesn’t allow anyone to kill dogs that harass domestic animals once they’ve been contained in the owner’s enclosure.
Humane killing practices under the AVMA’s guidelines include many techniques that many people might find disturbing, including the following:
- Gunshot
- Electrocution
- Penetrating captive bolts
- Formaldehyde
- Lidocaine
- Potassium chloride
- Chloral hydrate
- Opioids
- Pentobarbital
- Barbiturates
- Carbon monoxide
Importantly, the AVMA’s guidelines allow certain techniques for small animals but restrict them for large animals. For example, fracturing the neck or decapitation is permitted for chickens or rodents but not cats or dogs.
Second, a person cannot intentionally cause injury or suffering to an animal. For example, it might not be considered animal abuse to shoot an animal in the head, as this is an accepted AVMA euthanasia technique. However, shooting an animal in the abdomen might violate the law because the animal might needlessly suffer.
Third, an owner or keeper cannot knowingly withhold adequate care, thereby causing the animal substantial harm. This type of treatment amounts to neglect, but it requires the owner to act knowingly rather than negligently.
Notably, parents are responsible for their children’s actions. Thus, if a child provides inadequate care for an animal, the parents might face criminal charges.
Animal Neglect
The animal abuse statute criminalizes neglect that causes “substantial harm” to an animal. The animal neglect statute, meanwhile, criminalizes all other forms of neglect that don’t necessarily result in harm.
Specifically, Missouri’s animal neglect law prohibits people with custody or ownership of an animal from:
- Failing to provide adequate care
- Knowingly abandoning the animal without providing for its care
Consequently, leaving your animal in your car on a hot day can amount to animal neglect even if you return quickly enough that the animal is unharmed — the abandonment alone can result in animal neglect charges. Animal abuse charges may apply if the animal suffers heat stroke or dies.
Animal Fights
Missouri has two laws that prohibit fighting animals. The state’s dog fighting statute outlaws all of the following:
- Owning, possessing, or training a dog with the intent of fighting another dog
- Encouraging a dog to fight or injure another dog
- Permitting one’s property to be used for dog fighting
The state’s bull-baiting and cockfighting statute makes the following activities illegal:
- Keeping, using, or managing property used to fight or bait bulls, bears, cocks, or other animals
- Encouraging, aiding, assisting, or being present on such property
- Permitting property to be used for such animal fights
Neither of these laws requires a profit motive. Thus, making dogs, bears, bulls, or roosters fight for entertainment or exhibition violates the law. Moreover, the animals don’t need to be injured for prosecutors to file charges. Simply fighting or intending to fight animals would be enough in most cases.
Defenses to Animal Cruelty/Abuse Charges
The defenses you raise will depend on the nature of your charges and the circumstances of your arrest. However, we often assert the following defenses to animal cruelty, abuse, and neglect charges:
Lack of Intent
Prosecutors must prove your intent in order to secure a conviction. If you lacked the intent required by the statute, the judge or jury can acquit you. For example, suppose that your dog escaped from your fenced yard and attacked another dog. You wouldn’t have violated the dog fighting law because you didn’t cause your dog to fight.
Similarly, prosecutors can’t prove that you knowingly abandoned your animals if you had a heart attack and left your home in an ambulance. However, they might have a case against your neighbors if they voluntarily agreed to feed your dogs while you were in the hospital and never visited your home to do so.
Defense of a Person or Animal
Missouri law allows you to injure or kill an animal that’s harming a person or farm animal. For this defense to apply, the animal must be off the owner’s premises. However, such a defense doesn’t allow people to kill on-duty police dogs.
Protected Act
As pointed out by the AVMA, some humane killing practices may be disturbing but nonetheless minimize an animal’s suffering. Overzealous prosecutors might pursue charges against you for wringing a chicken’s neck, but this practice is permitted by the AVMA’s guidelines and therefore doesn’t constitute animal abuse under Missouri law.
Similarly, the statutes don’t apply to animal husbandry, veterinary treatment, and bona fide scientific experiments. If the alleged acts fall into any of these categories, it isn’t animal abuse.
