Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Legal Services

To:       David L. Corliss, Assistant City Manager & Director of Legal Services

From:   Scott J. Miller, Staff Attorney

RE:       Amendment to Cruelty to Animals Ordinance

Date:    June 16, 2005

Section 3-105 of the City code, adopted in 1999, makes cruelty to animals illegal within the City of Lawrence.  Section 3-105(A)(1) contains a list of ten different classes of acts that are illegalized.  Section 3-105(A)(1)(a) includes the acts many people would think of first if they were asked about what being cruel to animals consists of.  This subsection defines willful killing, maiming, torturing, beating, scalding and driving over as acts that are unlawful.

The attached ordinance slightly changes the language of that code subsection to aid in its enforceability by explicitly applying its prohibitions to “domesticated animals” as that term is defined in Chapter III Article 1.  The additional language reduces the ambiguity of the ordinance and in doing so better protects the domestic animals of the City from these acts of intentional cruelty.  No other portion of the Code is modified, enacted, or repealed by operation of this ordinance.

Midge Grinstead, the Executive Director of the Lawrence Humane Society, reviewed the proposed changes and they met with her approval.