Legal Question in Criminal Law in North Carolina

Re: Animal Abuse

Given your description, I am sorry to say that the police will not likely get involved with the case. While many of us feel like our pets are part of the family, the law views animals as "chattle." Property of the owner to treat as he wants short of cruelty.

Here is the statute:

"A person who overdrives, overloads, tortures or cruelly beats or unjustifiably injures, maims, mutilates or kills any animal, whether wild or tame, and whether belonging to himself or to another, or deprives any animal of necessary sustenance, food or drink, or neglects or refuses to furnish it such sustenance or drink, or causes, procures or permits any animal to be overdriven, overloaded, tortured, cruelly beaten, or unjustifiably injured, maimed, mutilated or killed, or to be deprived of necessary food or drink, or who wilfully sets on foot, instigates, engages in, or in any way furthers any act of cruelty to any animal, or any act tending to produce such cruelty, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment for not more than one year, or by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or by both."

Cruel beating is a higher standard than that you have described. In fact there are cases where the owner kicked his animal and that was found not to be a cruel beating.

Keep and eye out for this guy and if you see any behavior like his again, and you have a cell phone with a camera, try to take a picture or a video of his going off on the dog in public. If he is really bad, you may convince the police to act.

Good luck.