2014 Rhode Island General Laws
Title 4 - Animals and Animal Husbandry
Chapter 4-1 - Cruelty to Animals
Section 4-1-2 - Overwork, mistreatment, or failure to feed animals – Shelter defined.

§ 4-1-2 Overwork, mistreatment, or failure to feed animals – Shelter defined. – (a) Whoever overdrives, overloads, drives when overloaded, overworks, tortures, torments, deprives of necessary sustenance, cruelly beats, mutilates or cruelly kills, or causes or procures to be so overdriven, overloaded, driven when overloaded, overworked, tortured, tormented, deprived of necessary sustenance, cruelly beaten, mutilated or cruelly killed, any animal, and whoever, having the charge or custody of any animal, either as owner or otherwise, inflicts cruelty upon that animal, or willfully fails to provide that animal with proper food, drink, shelter or protection from the weather, shall, for each offense, be imprisoned not exceeding eleven (11) months, or be fined not less than fifty dollars ($50.00) nor exceeding five hundred dollars ($500), or both.

(b) Every owner, possessor, or person having charge of any animal may upon conviction of a violation of this section be ordered to forfeit all rights to ownership of the animal to the animal control officer of the city or town in which the offense occurred or to a humane society which owns and operates the shelter which provided the subject animal shelter subsequent to any confiscation of said animal pursuant to this section.

(c) Shelters means a structure used to house any animal which will provide sufficient protection from inclement elements for the health and well being of the animal.

History of Section.
(G.L. 1896, ch. 114, § 1; P.L. 1898, ch. 548, § 1; G.L. 1909, ch. 138, § 1; G.L. 1923, ch. 141, § 1; G.L. 1938, ch. 640, § 1; G.L. 1956, § 4-1-2; P.L. 1981, ch. 298, § 1; P.L. 1984, ch. 351, § 2; P.L. 1994, ch. 307, § 1.)