Ohio Supreme Court rules felony animal cruelty does include strays

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WOIO) - The Ohio Supreme Court decided unanimously that felony animal cruelty applies to all cats and dogs, overturning a previous decision from the Eighth District Court of Appeals.

The original decision found the felony statute only applied to dogs and cats that received care from someone, court officials say.

Court documents show the court ruled Cleveland man Alonzo Kyles could be convicted of the fifth-degree felony after pouring bleach on the floor of an apartment basement to make a cat leave.

“Applying the statute’s plain meaning, we hold that R.C. 959.131’s prohibition on causing serious physical harm to a companion animal extends to all dogs and cats,” Justice Patrick Fischer wrote for the court majority.

Kyles was sentenced to nine months in jail after being found guilty of animal cruelty but appealed to the Eighth District, court records show.

The law defines a companion animal as “any dog or cat, regardless of where it is kept.”

The Eighth District found ‘kept’ meant to take care of, officials say, and that the law does not apply to a stray cat.

The district vacated Kyle’s conviction, court records show, due to the change from felony to misdemeanor animal cruelty charges for a stray cat.

The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office appealed the decision to Ohio’s Supreme Court.

Court News Ohio covered the decision, saying the dispute centers on the definition of companion animal.

Ultimately, the court decided the word regardless in the law does not set a condition that limits the law, but expands it, Court News Ohio reports.

“We are not convinced by Kyles’s argument that ‘regardless of where the animal is kept’ is a clause that means the animal must be kept. Kyles argues that if R.C. 959.131 was meant to protect all dogs and cats, then the statute would say ‘any dog or cat regardless of whether it is kept,’” the Court stated.

“But the General Assembly did not have to use that language to accomplish its purpose of protecting all dogs and cats. Instead, it chose to use the expansive word, ‘any.’”