Can You Shoot An Animal On Your Property

When Can You Kill an Animal That Comes on Your Property?

Whether it's legal to shoot or impale trespassers is one of our nigh common holding law questions. Short reply: more often than not only in self-defense and in fear of actual impairment or death. And while we normally don't think of animal trespassers in this lite, perhaps we should.

An unidentified Texas man was recently hospitalized and had his jaw wired shot subsequently a bullet he fired at an armadillo in his grand at iii a.thousand. ricocheted off the animal'south armor and struck him in the confront. The status of the armadillo is unknown, just the man'due south unfortunate fate raises an interesting legal question: When can you legally kill animals on your property?

Animal Trespass

Most jurisdictions have animal cruelty laws that prohibit people from intentionally killing animals (with the obvious exception of licensed hunting). In California, for case, a person who "maliciously and intentionally maims, mutilates, tortures, or wounds a living animate being, or maliciously and intentionally kills an brute" can be charged with a felony.

New York'due south animate being cruelty law is even more than comprehensive:

A person who overdrives, overloads, tortures or cruelly beats or unjustifiably injures, maims, mutilates or kills any animal, whether wild or tame, and whether belonging to himself or to another, or deprives any animal of necessary sustenance, food or drinkable, or neglects or refuses to furnish information technology such sustenance or potable, or causes, procures or permits any animal to be overdriven, overloaded, tortured, cruelly beaten, or unjustifiably injured, maimed, mutilated or killed, or to exist deprived of necessary nutrient or beverage, or who willfully sets on foot, instigates, engages in, or in any mode furthers whatsoever human activity of cruelty to any animal, or any act tending to produce such cruelty, is guilty of a course A misdemeanor.

Neither California's nor New York's animal cruelty laws are specific to location, so they would presumably apply equally to your property as to someone else's.

Brute Attacks

In that location are important exceptions to most animal cruelty laws. For instance, it is permissible to impale an animal under California police if the animate being is a danger to life, limb, or belongings. And the important qualifier in New York's statute is "unjustifiably injured, maimed, mutilated or killed." Most courts have interpreted animal cruelty statutes, to let killing a dangerous animal and so long as the killing wasn't malicious.

About of us wouldn't see a wandering armadillo at three in the morning as dangerous to annihilation just our gardens flowerbeds -- and even then, some diced cayenne peppers tin go along the armored trespassers away. But, as ane Texas man found out, that armor might be more dangerous than we think.

Related Resources:

Find Animal Lawyers About You lot (FindLaw's Lawyer Directory)
Is It Legal to Hit Your Pets? (FindLaw's Police force and Daily Life)
When Are Police Immune to Shoot, Kill Dogs? (FindLaw Blotter)
Nat'l Pet Owners Twenty-four hours: Elevation 10 Legal Reminders (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life)
How Much Is Your Pet Worth, Legally? (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life)

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