Following Suffolk County’s decision to maintain an animal abuse registry, Rockland County also enacted a law to have those convicted of animal abuse crimes register. Rockland County requires all persons convicted of an animal abuse crime to register with the database within five days of being sentenced or being released from incarceration.
Each registrant has to pay an annual $50.00 fee, which is used to pay for administrative costs for maintaining the registry. The database keeps record of the name, all aliases, address, and a photograph of each convicted person for a period of four years. Each subsequent conviction will require the registrant to stay in the database for four years from the date of the most recent conviction.
Rockland County’s statute also requires pet dealers, duly incorporated societies for prevention to cruelty to animals, humane societies, pounds, animal shelters, and all of their authorized agents to check the Animal Abuse Registry before selling or giving an animal for adoption to ensure that person is not in the database.
The statute also provides penalties for both offenders who fail to register and those who knowingly sell or give an animal to a registered offender. The penalty for failing to register is that the offender is guilty of a class A misdemeanor. The penalty for those who knowingly sell or give animals to registered animal abusers will be guilty of a class A misdemeanor while those who fail to check and then sell or give animal to a registrant will be guilty of a violation. A second violation in two years for failure to check the database will result in that animal society or pet dealer being guilty of a class A misdemeanor.
Rincker Law, PLLC works on animal law cases – both with litigation and mediation. Cari is licensed in the Tri-state area and Illinois. She works on both companion animal, livestock and equine law matters.