Animal cruelty is defined by the Pinal County Animal Control Ordinance as:
ยง1015. CRUELTY AND NEGLECT OF ANIMALS
Any person who overdrives, overloads, overworks, tortures, torments, cruelly beats, mutilates or unlawfully kills an animal, or causes or procures an animal to be so overdriven, overloaded, driven when overloaded, overworked, tortured, tormented, cruelly beaten, mutilated or killed, and any such person, having charge or custody of an animal, either as owner or otherwise, who inflicts unnecessary cruelty abandons it, or carries it or causes it to be carried in or upon a vehicle or otherwise, in an unnecessarily cruel or inhumane manner or knowingly and willfully authorizes or permits it to be subjected to unreasonable or unnecessary torture, suffering cruelty of any kind, shall be guilty of a violation of this ordinance.
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Laws require an owner to provide clean potable water, good quality food, shade and protection from temperature extremes. What does that mean? We’ve also included pictures of animals that we have found. You can be the judge – is it cruelty/neglect or not?
Each section below can be read as if the sentence begins with “The owner of the animal is responsible to ensure….”
Food Supply
That the animal receives food that is free from contamination and is of sufficient quantity and nutritive value to maintain the animal in good health.
Water Supply
That potable water is accessible to the animal at all times, either free-flowing or in a clean receptacle.
Shelter
Except for livestock, all animals shall have convenient access to natural or artificial shelter any spaces accessible to the animal shall be maintained in a manner which minimizes the risk of the animal contracting disease, being injured, or becoming infested with parasites.
Health care
That the animal receives care and medical treatment for injuries, parasites and diseases, sufficient to maintain the animal in good health and minimize suffering.
1. With an enclosure that shall be constructed in a manner to minimize the risk of injury to the animal and shall encompass sufficient usable space to keep the animal in good condition, or on a tieout, consisting of a chain, leash, wire cable or similar restraint attached to a swivel or pulley. A tieout shall be so located as to keep the animal exclusively on the secured premises. Tieouts shall be so located that they cannot become entangled with other objects. Collars used to attach an animal to a tieout shall not be of a choke type.
Shelter
That the animal has access to adequate ventilation and is protected from temperature extremes at all times. In this connection, it is unlawful for any person to keep any animal in a vehicle or other enclosed space in which the temperature is either so high or so low, or the ventilation is so inadequate, as to endanger the animal’s life or health.
