Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Virginia

Re: Animal Cruelty

What the officer told you is hogwash. Killing any animal is presumptively animal cruelty, a class one misdemeanor; no statement is required for prosecution, they merely want to avoid prosecution of cases that aren't easily won. A written confession from the defendant makes it easy, but is not necessary.

A class one misdemeanor is punishable by up to twelve months in the county jail and a $2500 fine.

You can file a civil suit against the cat killer, but the animal cruelty thing won't help, since it only applies in a criminal law context. If your animal was killed while trespassing on the neighbor's land because you allowed the animal to run freely, you probably have no remedy.

Please email me privately and tell me how you know that the person you believe killed the animal did so. That is, what facts are you personally aware of that indicate that person killed the animal, including any statements made by the cat-killer.

Re: Animal Cruelty

A few years back, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors toyed with the idea of requiring all cats domestically possessed by county residents to be leashed when outside their owners' residences. This proposed ordinance never got very far when these elected ones finally realized(under heavy voter protest)that domestic cats have innately feral natures which are patently nonconducive to leash laws---however well intended such laws might be.

As far as I know, this proposed leash law for cats never was enacted in Fairfax County and I am not aware of any other county or city in the Commonwealth which requires cats to be on leashes---under any circumstances. And, therefore, I would be very surprised if a rural jurisdiction like Culpeper County, the venue, apparently, in which this dastardly deed was done, had such a local ordinance.

Furthermore, cats would not appear to fall under the proscriptions of Sec. 306 (and related statutes) of Title 55 of the Virginia Code which apply to domestic animals such as horses, sheep, or fowl which are normally penned or fenced in.

Given all of the above, and even acknowleging that

the cat may have been traversing the cat killer's property against his wishes, a fact which apparently, even the law of the Commonwealth would not recognize as a valid animal trespass, this cat killer, nevertheless, would appear to be utterly devoid of any legal authority whatsoever for his miscreant actions and, consequently, should be subject to the full complement of civil(including, perhaps, the unlawful discharge of a firearm within certain prohibited precincts and, possibly, some form of reckless endangerment) as well as any applicable criminal charges which can be mounted against this vigilante abuser of the cat populations of Culpeper County.