Animal Cruelty Laws in Arkansas: Offenses, Penalties, and Exemptions

Animal cruelty laws in Arkansas cover six kinds of abusive or neglectful conduct and punish them on a sliding scale that starts as an unclassified misdemeanor and climbs to a felony for repeat offenders. Intentionally torturing a dog, cat, or horse is a felony from the first conviction. Every person convicted of any cruelty offense in the state must undergo a psychiatric or psychological evaluation, and the court can order counseling if the evaluation recommends it.

What Counts as Cruelty to Animals

A person commits cruelty to animals in Arkansas by knowingly doing any of the following:

Cruel mistreatment, meaning any act that causes or allows an animal to suffer unjustifiable pain.
Killing or injuring another person’s animal without legal authority or the owner’s permission.
Abandoning an animal without arranging for its continued care.
Failing to give an animal in your custody enough wholesome food and water.
Failing to provide shelter appropriate for the animal’s breed, species, and type.
Transporting an animal in or on a motorized vehicle or boat in a cruel or inhumane way.

Each act against a different animal can be charged separately, so a single incident involving several animals can produce several counts.¹

Penalties for General Cruelty

Arkansas uses a four-tier structure. Each tier applies when the new offense occurs within five years of a prior cruelty conviction, including equivalent offenses from other states.¹

First Offense

A first conviction is an unclassified misdemeanor. The court must impose a fine between $150 and $1,000, along with either one day to one year of jail time or community service. A psychiatric or psychological evaluation is required, and counseling follows if the evaluation calls for it.¹

Second Offense

A second conviction within five years remains an unclassified misdemeanor, but the minimums rise. The fine floor becomes $400, jail must be at least seven days, and community service ordered in place of jail must run at least 30 days.¹

Third Offense

A third conviction within five years is still an unclassified misdemeanor on paper, but sentencing leaves little room. The minimum fine is $900, jail must be at least 90 days, and community service ordered in place of jail must also run at least 90 days.¹

Fourth or Subsequent Offense

A fourth conviction within five years is a Class D felony, carrying longer potential prison time than any misdemeanor. The court still orders a psychological evaluation and any recommended treatment.¹

Aggravated Cruelty to Dogs, Cats, and Horses

Intentionally torturing a dog, cat, or horse is a separate, more serious charge in Arkansas. It is a felony from the first conviction.

A first offense of aggravated cruelty is a Class D felony. The court may order up to 400 hours of community service, and it must order a psychiatric or psychological evaluation. If the evaluation recommends counseling or treatment, the court orders it for whatever period it considers appropriate, and the offender pays the cost.²

A second aggravated cruelty conviction within five years is a Class C felony. The evaluation and any recommended counseling remain mandatory. As with general cruelty, each act against a separate dog, cat, or horse can be charged as its own offense.²

Mandatory Psychological Evaluations

Every cruelty conviction in Arkansas, from a first-offense misdemeanor to felony aggravated cruelty, triggers a mandatory psychiatric or psychological evaluation. The court has no discretion to skip it. If the evaluation identifies a need for treatment, the court can order counseling for as long as it deems appropriate. In aggravated cruelty cases, the offender pays the full cost of the evaluation and any resulting treatment.²

How Prior Offenses Are Counted

Both statutes include a rule that matters for anyone facing a second charge. All acts of cruelty committed against one or more animals within a 24-hour period count as a single criminal episode. When calculating whether a future offense qualifies for enhanced penalties, that whole episode counts as one prior conviction.²

The rule affects only how priors are tallied for sentencing. It does not stop prosecutors from filing separate charges for each animal harmed in that same day.¹

What Happens to the Animal After Seizure

When an officer seizes an animal in a cruelty case, it goes into custody for at least 15 consecutive days while the owner receives written notice describing the animal, the reason for the seizure, and where it is being held. The owner then has 15 business days after receiving notice to petition the district court for the animal’s return. If the owner does not petition, the prosecutor files to permanently strip ownership, and the court can transfer the animal to a shelter, order euthanasia, or arrange something else.³

On conviction, the court must remove ownership and decide the animal’s fate. Someone found not guilty can get the animal back, but only after paying all reasonable expenses incurred during its care.³

Animal Fighting

Animal fighting is prosecuted separately, in two degrees. The statute covers fights involving roosters, dogs, bears, and any other animals.

First-degree animal fighting is a Class D felony. It reaches anyone who promotes or participates in a fight, works at a fighting operation, collects admission money, or sells, buys, possesses, or trains an animal for fighting. Second-degree animal fighting is a Class A misdemeanor and applies to spectators who purchase admission or knowingly attend a fight presented as a public event.⁴

Officers can seize every animal in the defendant’s possession at the time of arrest. On conviction, the court can order permanent forfeiture and require the defendant to reimburse the state or shelter for housing, feeding, and medical treatment.⁴

Activities That Are Exempt

Arkansas exempts a long list of activities from its cruelty statutes:

Reasonably acting to protect yourself, another person, or your property from an animal, including humanely killing an animal on your land if it threatens people or other animals in your care.
Lawful practices under the Arkansas Veterinary Medical Practice Act, including euthanasia performed by or at the direction of a licensed veterinarian.
Good-faith emergency care for an abandoned, injured, or distressed animal, without compensation, including humane killing when there is no reasonable chance the animal can be saved.
Generally accepted agricultural practices, butchering, and food processing.
Lawful professional pest control.
Generally accepted training for and participation in rodeos, equine activities, and other competitive events.
Lawful hunting, fishing, and trapping under the authority of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
Generally accepted identification practices such as branding or tagging.
Research at facilities regulated under the federal Animal Welfare Act or the Health Research Extension Act.
Generally accepted methods for training hunting dogs, service dogs, or dogs used in obedience and field trial work.

The statute also broadly exempts any conduct otherwise permitted under state or federal law, including agricultural, medical, and food-marketing activities.⁵

When Federal Law Applies

Arkansas prosecutes most cruelty cases under state law, but the federal Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act can also apply. It makes “animal crushing” a federal crime when the conduct involves interstate or foreign commerce or occurs on federal property. Animal crushing includes purposely burning, drowning, suffocating, impaling, or otherwise inflicting serious bodily injury on a living mammal, bird, reptile, or amphibian. Creating or distributing videos of such conduct is also a federal offense.⁶

A PACT Act conviction carries up to seven years in federal prison, a fine, or both. The law contains exceptions for veterinary care, agricultural husbandry, slaughter for food, hunting, fishing, trapping, pest control, medical research, euthanasia, and protecting life or property. It does not displace Arkansas law; it fills a gap by reaching conduct that crosses state lines or occurs on federal land.⁶

1
Justia. Arkansas Code 5-62-103 – Offense of Cruelty to Animals
2
Justia. Arkansas Code 5-62-104 – Offense of Aggravated Cruelty to a Dog, Cat, or Equine
3
Justia. Arkansas Code 5-62-106 – Disposition of Animal
4
Justia. Arkansas Code 5-62-120 – Unlawful Animal Fighting
5
Justia. Arkansas Code 5-62-105 – Exemptions
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 48 – Animal Crushing