Animal cruelty

“Our opinion should not be read to condone the conduct alleged in the complaint or take a position one way or the other regarding ‘complicated’ and ‘heartbreaking’ end-of-life decisions,” Justice Frank Gaziano wrote for the court. “Instead, we hold, on these facts, that the defendant committed no crime.”

The state animal cruelty statute, among other things, criminalizes an owner or person caring for an animal who unnecessarily fails to “provide it with proper food, drink, shelter, sanitary environment … or knowingly and willfully authorizes or permits it to be subjected to unnecessary torture, suffering, or cruelty of any kind.”