GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2009
SESSION LAW 2010-16
SENATE BILL 254
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 17th day of June, 2010.
s/ Walter H. Dalton
President of the Senate
s/ William L. Wainwright
Speaker Pro Tempore of the House of Representatives
s/ Beverly E. Perdue
Governor
Approved 1:46 p.m. this 23rd day of June, 2010