AN ACT to increase the penalty for the malicious abuse, torture, or killing of an animal.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 14‑360(a1) reads as rewritten:
"(a1)	If any person shall maliciously kill, or cause or procure to be killed, any animal by intentional deprivation of necessary sustenance, that person shall be guilty of a  Class H felony."
SECTION 2.  G.S. 14‑360(b) reads as rewritten:
"(b)	If any person shall maliciously torture, mutilate, maim, cruelly beat, disfigure, poison, or kill, or cause or procure to be tortured, mutilated, maimed, cruelly beaten, disfigured, poisoned, or killed, any animal, every such offender shall for every such offense be guilty of a  Class H felony. However, nothing in this section shall be construed to increase the penalty for cockfighting provided for in G.S. 14‑362."
SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective December 1, 2010, and applies to offenses committed on or after that date.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 17th day of June, 2010.

	s/	 Walter H. Dalton
	 President of the Senate

	s/	 William L. Wainwright
	 Speaker Pro Tempore of the House of Representatives

	s/	 Beverly E. Perdue
	 Governor

Approved 1:46 p.m. this 23rd day of June, 2010