Title 12 — Wildlife, Animals, and the Environment
Chapter 12A — Animal welfare and control
| Section | Offense | Grade | Elements |
|---|---|---|---|
| § 12.01 | Animal neglect | M2 | As owner or custodian, knowingly or through criminal negligence fails to provide necessary food, water, shelter, sanitation, or veterinary care. |
| § 12.02 | Animal cruelty | M1 | Intentionally or recklessly causes unjustified pain, injury, overwork, abandonment in danger, or cruel confinement to an animal. |
| § 12.03 | Aggravated animal cruelty | F4 | Intentionally tortures, kills, seriously injures, poisons, or mutilates an animal without lawful justification. Lawful hunting, veterinary care, humane euthanasia, and immediate defense are excluded. |
| § 12.04 | Animal fighting | F4 | Owns, trains, possesses, breeds, sponsors, or uses an animal for fighting, or knowingly provides premises for an animal fight. Spectator with paid or participatory involvement is M1. |
| § 12.05 | Abandoning an animal | M2 | Knowingly abandons a domestic animal without reasonable provision for care. Dangerous conditions or resulting serious harm make the offense M1. |
| § 12.06 | Failure to control a dangerous animal | M1 | Knowing an animal is dangerous, fails to use reasonable restraint and the animal threatens or injures another. Serious injury is F5. |
| § 12.07 | Animal at large | I | Knowingly permits a domestic animal to roam in violation of posted leash, livestock, or containment requirements. |
| § 12.08 | Interference with a service animal | M1 | Intentionally injures, obstructs, distracts, or takes a service or police animal while it is working. Serious injury is F4; killing is F3. |
| § 12.09 | Unlawful possession of dangerous or exotic animal | M1 | Possesses an animal designated dangerous, invasive, or exotic without required permit and secure facilities. Intentional release is F5. |
| § 12.10 | Leaving an animal in a hazardous vehicle | M3 | Knowingly confines an animal in a vehicle under temperature or ventilation conditions creating substantial risk. Authorized rescue under agency policy is permitted. |
Chapter 12B — Hunting, fishing, and wildlife
| Section | Offense | Grade | Elements |
|---|---|---|---|
| § 12.20 | Hunting or fishing without a license | I | Takes or attempts to take wildlife without a required current license. |
| § 12.21 | Taking wildlife out of season or over limit | M3 | Knowingly takes wildlife during a closed season, by prohibited method, or beyond a bag or size limit. |
| § 12.22 | Poaching protected wildlife | F5 | Knowingly takes, possesses, transports, or sells a protected, endangered, or trophy-class animal contrary to law. Organized commercial conduct is F4. |
| § 12.23 | Hunting from a vehicle or public roadway | M1 | Knowingly discharges a weapon from or across a public roadway or from a moving motor vehicle to take wildlife. Authorized disability permits are excluded. |
| § 12.24 | Spotlighting wildlife | M2 | Uses artificial light from a vehicle or roadway to locate or take wildlife where prohibited. |
| § 12.25 | Trespass while hunting or fishing | M2 | Knowingly enters posted or fenced property to hunt, trap, or fish without consent. |
| § 12.26 | Unlawful trapping | M2 | Sets, uses, or fails to inspect a trap contrary to humane, location, tagging, or species restrictions. |
| § 12.27 | Wildlife trafficking | F4 | Buys, sells, transports, or exports unlawfully taken wildlife as part of a commercial or repeated scheme. |
| § 12.28 | Harassment of wildlife | I | Intentionally pursues, corners, feeds, disturbs, or provokes wildlife in a prohibited manner, creating risk to the animal or public. |
| § 12.29 | Destruction of wildlife habitat | F5 | Intentionally destroys a protected nest, den, spawning area, wetland, or designated habitat without authority. Major ecological loss is F4. |
Chapter 12C — Pollution, fire, and environmental harm
| Section | Offense | Grade | Elements |
|---|---|---|---|
| § 12.40 | Littering | I | Knowingly discards refuse on public or private property or water outside an authorized receptacle. |
| § 12.41 | Commercial dumping | M1 | Deposits construction debris, appliances, vehicles, large-volume refuse, sewage, or commercial waste without authority. |
| § 12.42 | Hazardous-waste dumping | F3 | Knowingly releases, stores, transports, or disposes of hazardous waste contrary to law, creating substantial risk to persons, water, soil, or wildlife. |
| § 12.43 | Failure to report hazardous spill | F5 | A responsible person knowingly fails to promptly report or reasonably contain a reportable hazardous-material release. |
| § 12.44 | Water pollution | F4 | Knowingly discharges pollutant, fuel, sewage, chemical, or waste into waters or a drainage system without authority. Catastrophic or drinking-water impact is F2. |
| § 12.45 | Air-pollution violation | M1 | Knowingly emits a prohibited toxic or smoke pollutant or defeats required emission controls. Substantial health danger is F4. |
| § 12.46 | Illegal open burning | M3 | Conducts an open burn without required permit or during a burn ban. Resulting wildfire is governed by reckless burning or arson. |
| § 12.47 | Failure to extinguish or report wildfire | M1 | Having caused or discovered an uncontrolled fire, knowingly fails when reasonably able to extinguish, contain, warn, or report it. |
| § 12.48 | Timber or resource theft | F5 | Knowingly cuts, mines, removes, or sells timber, minerals, water, or natural resources from property without authority. Major commercial value is F4. |
| § 12.49 | Protected-land vehicle damage | M1 | Operates a vehicle off authorized routes in a protected park, habitat, beach, wetland, or restoration area, causing damage. Major damage is F5. |
| § 12.50 | Falsification of environmental record | F5 | Knowingly falsifies a required inspection, test, manifest, disposal, emissions, or spill record. |
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