Similar to Albany and other counties in New York State, Westchester has taken convictions of animal abuse extremely serious and require those convicted to register with an animal abuse database. The Westchester law requires all persons 18 and older who are convicted to an animal abuse crime to register with the database within ten days of conviction or released from incarceration.
The Westchester statute requires registrants to pay an annual $50.00 fee, which is used to pay for administrative costs of maintaining the registry. The registration includes the name of the offender, all aliases, their address, and a photograph of him or her. The registration must be updated annually or within ten days of any address change in Westchester County. The offender must stay in the database for ten years and any subsequent conviction requires that he or she stay in the database for life.
Any convicted person who fails to register with the database or update his or her registration, will be guilty of a violation punishable by a fine between $250.00 and $1,000.00, up to 15 days in prison, or both. A failure to update or register for a second time within a two year period will cause the offender to be guilty of a class A misdemeanor. A person in this database who possesses, adopts, owns, purchases, or exercises control over any animal at any time while registered in this database will be guilty of a violation punishable by a fine between $250.00 and $1,000.00, up to 15 days in prison, or both. A second offense of this in a two year period will result in the offender 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.
Comments 1
Does the public have access to see the registry?