GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 2009

SENATE BILL 254

RATIFIED BILL

AN ACT to increase the penalty for the malicious abuse, torture, or killing of an animal.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 14-360(a1) reads as rewritten:

"(a1)     If any person shall maliciously kill, or cause or procure to be killed, any animal by intentional deprivation of necessary sustenance, that person shall be guilty of a Class A1 misdemeanor. Class H felony."

SECTION 2.  G.S. 14-360(b) reads as rewritten:

"(b)      If any person shall maliciously torture, mutilate, maim, cruelly beat, disfigure, poison, or kill, or cause or procure to be tortured, mutilated, maimed, cruelly beaten, disfigured, poisoned, or killed, any animal, every such offender shall for every such offense be guilty of a Class I Class H felony. However, nothing in this section shall be construed to increase the penalty for cockfighting provided for in G.S. 14-362."

SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective December 1, 2010, and applies to offenses committed on or after that date.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 17^th day of June, 2010.

                                                                        _____________________________________

Walter H. Dalton

President of the Senate

                                                                        _____________________________________

William L. Wainwright

Speaker Pro Tempore of the House of Representatives

                                                                        _____________________________________

Beverly E. Perdue

Governor

Approved __________.m. this ______________ day of ___________________, 2010