§ 4-1-3 - Unnecessary cruelty. - Rhode Island Statutes

SECTION 4-1-3

   § 4-1-3  Unnecessary cruelty. – (a) Every owner, possessor, or person having the charge or custody of anyanimal, who cruelly drives or works that animal when unfit for labor, orcruelly abandons that animal, or who carries that animal, or causes that animalto be carried, in or upon any vehicle or otherwise in a cruel or inhumanmanner, or willfully authorizes or permits that animal to be subjected tounnecessary torture, suffering or cruelty of any kind, or who places or causesto have placed on any animal any substance that may produce irritation or pain,or that is declared a hazardous substance by the U.S. food and drugadministration or by the state department of health, shall be punished for eachoffense in the manner provided in § 4-1-2.

   (b) The substances proscribed by subsection (a) do notinclude any drug having curative and therapeutic effect for disease in animalsand which is prepared and intended for veterinary use.