Title 4, Title 4 and Animal Husbandry

Any person violating the provisions of §§ 4-13-29 and 4-13-31 shall be charged with a misdemeanor and fined not less than two hundred dollars ($200) nor more than five hundred dollars ($500) for each offense or be imprisoned for not less than ten (10) days nor more than thirty (3…

The board of police commissioners of any city, and the city council and town council of any city or town where there is no board of police commissioners, may appoint an agent of the Rhode Island society for the prevention of cruelty to animals as special constable or officer to e…

Any defect in any action, complaint and warrant, indictment or other proceeding commenced and prosecuted under this chapter, either of form or substance, may be amended by the court before which the action, complaint and warrant or indictment is originally brought or may be pendi…

No officer making complaint under this chapter shall be required to give surety for costs, or be liable for the costs that may arise upon any complaint brought under this chapter.

The town council of the town of Portsmouth may appoint an agent of the Robert Potter league for animals as special constable or officer to enforce this chapter, and when appointed, that agent shall have all the authority and power and be subject to all the duties and liabilities …

The town council of the town of Middletown may appoint an agent of the Robert Potter league for animals as special constable or officer to enforce this chapter, and when appointed, that agent shall have all the authority and power and be subject to all the duties and liabilities …

A person owning, keeping or possessing a dog shall not allow, permit or consent to this dog chasing, hunting, molesting, attacking, or killing a deer. The director of environmental management is authorized to issue an order to restrain all dogs from running at large in any city o…

Any person convicted of a violation of this chapter shall be fined fifty dollars ($50) for a first offense and one hundred dollars ($100) for a second and subsequent offense.

(a)(1) Every owner or keeper of a dog shall annually, in April, obtain a license effective May 1 through the office of the city or town clerk of the city or town in which the owner or keeper resides. (2) The fees for the license shall be five dollars ($5.00). (3) No city or town …

(a) It is unlawful for any dog pound, animal shelter, kennel, pet store, or any other facility licensed pursuant to chapter 19 of this title to sell, give away, or adopt out any dog without providing the new owner with a form indicating that inoculation against rabies and permane…

The provisions of this chapter do not apply to K-9 and/or other dogs owned by any police department or any law enforcement officer which are used in the performance of police work.

Wherever the word “owner” shall appear in this chapter it shall also mean and may be interchanged with the word “guardian” as defined in § 4-13-1.2.

(a) It shall be a violation of this section for an owner or keeper to: (1) Keep any dog on a permanent tether that restricts movement of the tethered dog to an area less than one hundred thirteen square feet (113 sq. ft.), or less than a six foot (6′) radius at ground level. (2) …

No city or town may enact any rule, regulation or ordinance specific to any breed of dog or cat in the exercise of its power to further control and regulate dogs, cats or other animals as authorized by this chapter.

(a) Except as otherwise authorized under any other provision of law, it shall be a crime, punishable as specified in subsection (c) of this section, for any person to sell or transfer (as further described within subsection (b) of this section) one or more dogs that are not fully…

Every owner or keeper of a dog applying for a license as provided for in § 4-13-4 shall furnish the city or town clerk with the following information: name and address of owner or keeper, and breed, sex, color, and name of dog to be licensed. The city or town clerk shall assign a…

The city or town clerks of the several cities and towns shall annually, in the month of March, give notice by publication at least once in a newspaper of general circulation within the city or town, giving notice to the people of the time and place for issuing the licenses provid…

Towns and cities may adopt ordinances or regulations concerning the use of money received, but where no ordinances or regulations are adopted, town and city clerks shall issue licenses and receive the money and pay the money into the treasury of the city or town retaining fifty c…

No license shall be required for any dog under the age of six (6) months.

No horse, bull, boar, ram, or goat shall be permitted to run at large and if the owner or keeper of these, for any reason suffers any animals to do so he or she shall upon conviction be fined not in excess of one hundred dollars ($100) and be liable in addition for all damages do…

Any person whose beasts are impounded may, if he or she sees cause, maintain a writ of replevin, to be sued out and prosecuted before the district court having jurisdiction in the city or town where they were impounded.

The writ shall be sued out, served and returned, and the cause heard and determined in like manner as other civil actions before a district court in all particulars in which a different course is not prescribed.

The writ shall not be served unless the plaintiff or some one in his or her behalf executes and delivers to the officer a bond to the defendant, with sufficient sureties, to be approved by the officer, in a penalty double the value of the beasts to be replevied, with condition to…

If it appears that the beasts were lawfully impounded, the defendant shall have judgment for any sum as shall be found due from the plaintiff for the damages for which the beasts were impounded, together with all the legal fees, costs, charges, and expenses and the costs of the a…

Whenever the beasts are returned to the defendant pursuant to a judgment under § 4-14-13, they shall be held and disposed of in like manner as if they had not been replevied.

If it appears, upon the default of the defendant or otherwise, that the beasts were taken without sufficient or justifiable cause, the plaintiff shall have judgment for his or her damages caused by the unjust taking and detaining of the beasts, and for his or her costs of suit.

Either party may, in the district court, claim an appeal in the action brought pursuant to § 4-14-13, in the same manner and with the same effect as is by law provided in other civil actions in a district court.

Whenever the sum demanded for damages exceeds five thousand dollars ($5,000) or whenever the ownership in the beasts is in question and their value exceeds that sum, the action shall be brought before the superior court for the same county, and whenever this fact appears of recor…

If the aggrieved person proceeds by action against the owner or keeper of the trespassing beasts, he or she shall get two (2) disinterested inhabitants of the city or town where the trespass was committed to appraise the damages and to give him or her a certificate, in writing, u…

Nothing in this chapter contained shall be construed as to impair the right of any proprietor or occupant of land to recover all the damages which he or she sustains by any cattle, sheep, horses, or hogs breaking into his land through that part of the division fence between him o…

If any neat-cattle, horses, sheep, or hogs breaks through a lawful fence into the enclosure of any person, the person aggrieved may recover his or her damages either by action against the owner of the trespassing beasts or by impounding the beasts.

Wherever the word “owner” shall appear in this chapter it shall also mean and may be interchanged with the word “guardian” as defined in § 4-1-1.

The party aggrieved, in order to be entitled to recover damages by impounding, shall, within two (2) days after the beasts break into his or her enclosure, get two (2) qualified electors of the city or town where the trespass is committed, to appraise the damage and give a statem…

Whenever beasts are impounded, the poundkeeper shall, within forty-eight (48) hours, give notice, in writing, to the owner, if the owner is known to him or her and resides within six (6) miles from the pound. The notice shall be delivered to the owner or left at his or her place …

If the owner of impounded beasts shall not, within ten (10) days after the impounding, pay and satisfy the damages appraised and the charges of impounding and feeding those beasts, or shall not replevy those beasts, the poundkeeper shall cause them to be sold by public auction in…

The proceeds of sale, after paying all the damages, costs, and expenses, with the costs of advertising and selling the beasts, shall be paid into the city or town treasury, for the use of the owner of those beasts, if he or she substantiates his or her claim within two (2) years …

The poundkeeper shall feed the impounded beasts at the charge of the owner, and he or she shall not deliver them to the owner until the owner pays the fees, together with the sum demanded for damages and all other legal costs and expenses.

The poundkeeper shall be allowed as his or her fee for impounding, for each neat-beast or horse, twenty-five cents (25¢); for each hog or sheep, five cents (5¢); and for each notification set up, or notice given to the owner, twenty-five cents (25¢); and ten cents (10¢) per mile …

If the owner of the impounded beasts within two (2) days after they are impounded, demand of and receive from the poundkeeper those impounded beasts and pay the charges, and if the person impounding has not lodged with the poundkeeper a statement of damages, he or she may have hi…

Every town or city may maintain at its own charge one or more public pounds, for the impounding of horses, mules, neat-cattle, sheep, goats, geese, hogs, and asses and for the securing of those animals agreeable to law in some convenient place or places in that town or city.

If no owner appears within five (5) days from the date of notification, or notice, and pays the penalty and charges, the poundkeeper shall deliver the animal to the city or town treasurer of the city or town, with a statement, in writing, of the time and manner in which the anima…

If the city or town treasurer finds the proceedings of the poundkeeper correct, he or she shall sell the animal at public auction, after giving reasonable notice of the sale, and shall, out of the proceeds of the sale, pay the incidental expenses of the sale, the cost of keeping …

If any horse or other animal, attached to any vehicle, sledge, or sleigh, is found at large, abandoned, or with no person in charge of the animal, upon any highway or common, or on any land thrown open as a way for public travel and used by the public for travel, any person autho…

If any city or town votes to extend the provisions of this chapter to goats and to geese going at large within its limits, those goats and geese shall subject their owner to the same obligations and duties and shall themselves be disposed of in the same way as is in this chapter …

The fees of the poundkeeper for receiving goats shall be four cents (4¢) each, and for receiving geese two cents (2¢) each, and the penalty shall be twenty cents (20¢) for each goat and five cents (5¢) for each goose.

(a) Any licensed veterinarian of this state has the right to treat any animal which has become injured upon any public highway of this state or upon any public or private property of this state which is transported to that veterinarian by any person. (b) If in the veterinarian’s …