STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5801
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
May 15, 2019
___________
Introduced by Sens. SEPULVEDA, BOYLE -- read twice and ordered printed,
and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Domestic Animal
Welfare
AN ACT to amend the agriculture and markets law, in relation to aggra-
vated cruelty to animals
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivisions 1 and 2 of section 353-a of the agriculture
2 and markets law, as added by chapter 118 of the laws of 1999, are
3 amended to read as follows:
4 1. A person is guilty of aggravated cruelty to animals when, with no
5 justifiable purpose, he or she intentionally kills or intentionally
6 causes serious physical injury to a companion animal or wildlife, as
7 defined in subdivision six of section 11-0103 of the environmental
8 conservation law, other than insects, with aggravated cruelty. For
9 purposes of this section, "aggravated cruelty" shall mean conduct which:
10 (i) is intended to cause extreme physical pain; or (ii) is done or
11 carried out in an especially depraved or sadistic manner.
12 2. Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to prohibit or
13 interfere in any way with anyone lawfully engaged in hunting, trapping,
14 or fishing, as provided in article eleven of the environmental conserva-
15 tion law, activities deemed to be sound agricultural practices pursuant
16 to section three hundred eight of this chapter, the dispatch of rabid or
17 diseased animals, as provided in article twenty-one of the public health
18 law, or the dispatch of animals posing a threat to human safety or other
19 animals, where such action is otherwise legally authorized, or any prop-
20 erly conducted scientific tests, experiments, or investigations involv-
21 ing the use of living animals, performed or conducted in laboratories or
22 institutions approved for such purposes by the commissioner of health
23 pursuant to section three hundred fifty-three of this article.
24 § 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
25 have become a law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01851-01-9
