“Bond or Forfeit” Laws

A new trend in 2023 was the enactment and clarification of “bond-or-forfeit” laws. When an animal is seized pursuant to an animal cruelty investigation, the owner still retains ownership, or their property interest, in the animal despite losing physical custody of the animal. Owners can always voluntarily surrender that property interest, but if they choose not to, the animal is put into legal limbo. They cannot — and should not — be returned to the owner until the animal cruelty charges are fully adjudicated or dismissed. But they also cannot be adopted out into new homes, because the defendant still technically owns them.

Criminal cruelty cases can drag on for months or even years, meanwhile, the animal is languishing in a shelter. Keeping animals for long periods of time in a shelter — even the best, most well-resourced shelters — is harmful for animals’ psychological well-being and can cause them to be re-traumatized. This can lead to behavioral problems, making animals even harder to adopt out when the criminal case eventually concludes.

Caring for seized animals is also a huge financial burden on cities and counties, or other organizations that house seized animals. In addition to the ordinary costs of providing food and shelter to animals in their care, shelters also have to provide veterinary care. Depending on the extent of the abuse or neglect, the animal may require significant rehabilitative care. Animal hoarding cases involving dozens or hundreds of animals, or cases involving large animals like horses or cows, can exacerbate these costs even further.

The most common legislative solution to these issues is bond-or-forfeit laws. Thirty-nine states plus the District of Columbia and Guam all have some form of bond-or-forfeit laws. These laws require that the defendant either post a bond with the court covering the costs of caring for the seized animals, or forfeit the animals, allowing them to be adopted out into new homes. The bonds typically cover the costs of caring for a seized animal for 30 days and are renewed when they expire.

The legal proceedings around bond-or-forfeit laws are complex and can be difficult for all parties to navigate. They are civil hearings, running in conjunction with a criminal prosecution. In order to protect the defendant’s civil rights and property interests, they must be afforded due process. It is therefore vital that bond-or-forfeit statutes be written clearly, so that all parties are well aware of the legal processes in place and have the opportunity to be heard.

In 2023, Indiana and Washington overhauled their pre-existing bond-or-forfeit laws to clarify the procedures and ensure defendants are being given proper notice of their legal duties and rights. Delaware slightly tweaked their preexisting bond-or-forfeit law, and New Jersey and the District of Columbia enacted bond-or-forfeit laws for the first time.

“Bond-or-forfeit statues are a practical way to address multiple needs: respecting the constitutional rights of animal owners, addressing the economic ‘free rider’ problem caused when people choose to own animals but then shift the cost of caring for them onto the community, and – critically – the animal victim’s need to receive care,” says Animal Legal Defense Fund Managing Attorney David Rosengard. “When someone chooses to own an animal, they are also agreeing to meet that animal’s minimum needs. Bond-or-forfeit statutes give owners a choice: either continue owning the animal while living up to that agreement, or stop owning the animal – in which case the community will shoulder the animal’s care, but also be able to place the animal in a healthy home.”