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

Animal cruelty laws in Arkansas criminalize six kinds of abusive or neglectful conduct toward animals, with penalties that start as an unclassified misdemeanor for a first offense and rise to a Class D felony for a fourth conviction within five years. Intentionally torturing a dog, cat, or horse is a separate, more serious offense that is a felony from the first conviction. Every conviction, misdemeanor or felony, triggers a mandatory psychiatric or psychological evaluation.

What Counts as Cruelty to Animals

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

Cruel mistreatment: any act causing or allowing an animal to suffer unjustifiable pain.
Killing or injuring someone else’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 to the animal’s breed, species, and type.
Transporting an animal in or on a motor vehicle or boat in a cruel or inhumane way.

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

Penalties for Cruelty to Animals

Arkansas uses a four-tier structure for general cruelty. The enhanced tiers apply when the new offense happens within five years of a prior cruelty conviction, including equivalent convictions from other states.¹

First Offense

A first conviction is an unclassified misdemeanor. The court must impose a fine between $150 and $1,000, plus either one day to one year in jail or community service. The court also orders a psychiatric or psychological evaluation, and counseling if the evaluation recommends it.¹

Second Offense

A second conviction within five years remains an unclassified misdemeanor, but the floors rise. The minimum fine becomes $400, and the minimum jail sentence becomes seven days. If the court orders community service instead of jail, the minimum is 30 days.¹

Third Offense

A third conviction within five years is still an unclassified misdemeanor. The minimum fine climbs to $900, minimum jail time to 90 days, and community service, if ordered instead of jail, to at least 90 days.¹

Fourth or Subsequent Offense

A fourth conviction within five years is a Class D felony. The mandatory psychological evaluation and any recommended treatment still apply.¹

Aggravated Cruelty to Dogs, Cats, and Horses

Intentionally torturing a dog, cat, or horse is prosecuted as aggravated cruelty, a separate offense that is a felony from the first conviction. A first offense is a Class D felony. The court may order up to 400 hours of community service and must order a psychiatric or psychological evaluation, with counseling or treatment if the evaluation recommends it. The offender pays the cost of the evaluation and any treatment.²

A second aggravated cruelty conviction within five years is a Class C felony. The evaluation and potential counseling remain mandatory, and each act against a separate dog, cat, or horse can be its own count.²

The Mandatory Psychological Evaluation

Every cruelty conviction in Arkansas carries a mandatory psychiatric or psychological evaluation, from a first-offense misdemeanor through aggravated cruelty. The court has no discretion to skip it. If the evaluation shows a need for treatment, the court can order ongoing counseling for as long as it considers appropriate.¹

In aggravated cruelty cases the offender pays the full cost of the evaluation and any treatment. In general cruelty cases the court may order the offender to pay up to the jurisdictional limit of the court.²

How Prior Offenses Are Counted

All acts of cruelty against one or more animals within a 24-hour period count as a single criminal episode for the purpose of tallying prior convictions. Someone who harms several animals in one day can still face a separate count for each animal, but the whole group counts as one prior offense when a future case is being charged.²¹

What Happens to the Animal

When a law enforcement or animal control officer seizes an animal in a cruelty case, the animal is kept in an appropriate place of custody for at least 15 consecutive days. The owner receives written notice describing the animal, the reason for seizure, and where it is held. If the owner cannot be found, notice is published in a local newspaper.³

The owner has 15 business days after notice to petition the district court for custody. If the owner does not, the prosecutor must file a petition to strip ownership permanently, and the court can then transfer the animal to a shelter, order euthanasia, or make another arrangement it considers appropriate. If the court divests the owner, it can require a bond covering at least 30 days of care. A conviction triggers mandatory removal of ownership and a court decision on the animal’s fate. If the owner is found not guilty, the animal can be returned, but only after the owner pays all reasonable expenses incurred during its care.³

Animal Fighting

Animal fighting is prosecuted under its own statute, in two degrees, covering fights between roosters, dogs, bears, and any other animals. First-degree animal fighting is a Class D felony and 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 all animals in a person’s possession at the time of arrest. On conviction, the court can order permanent forfeiture of the animals involved and require the defendant to reimburse the state or shelter for housing, feeding, and medical care.⁴

Conduct That Is Exempt

Arkansas excludes a wide range of activities from its cruelty statutes. The exemptions cover:

Reasonable self-defense or protection of another person or property, 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 by or at the direction of a licensed veterinarian.
Good-faith, uncompensated emergency aid to an abandoned, injured, or distressed animal, including humane killing when there is no reasonable chance of saving it.
Generally accepted animal husbandry, 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 Arkansas Game and Fish Commission authority.
Accepted identification practices such as branding or tagging.
Research and education activities regulated under the federal Animal Welfare Act or the Health Research Extension Act.
Generally accepted training methods for hunting dogs, service dogs, or dogs used in obedience and field trial work.

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

When Federal Law Also Applies

State law is not the only source of criminal liability. The federal Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act makes it a crime to engage in “animal crushing” when the conduct involves interstate or foreign commerce or occurs on federal property. Animal crushing covers 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. A conviction carries up to seven years in federal prison, a fine, or both. The federal law includes exceptions for veterinary care, agricultural husbandry, slaughter for food, hunting, fishing, trapping, pest control, medical research, euthanasia, and protection of life or property, and it does not replace state cruelty laws.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