Laws in favor of reporting of animal cruelty

A continuing legislative trend is the creation and strengthening of cross reporting laws and veterinary reporting laws. Cross-reporting refers to laws which explicitly permit or require cross-reporting between various animal and human welfare organizations, such as requiring humane officers to report suspected child abuse, or requiring elder protective service workers to report suspected animal cruelty. These laws recognize and respond to the link between animal cruelty and interpersonal violence.

In 2023, Delaware enacted comprehensive cross-reporting laws requiring social service workers to report suspected animal cruelty — a requirement which historically has been rare. As of December 2023, only 15 states plus DC require or explicitly permit social services workers to report suspected animal cruelty.

Veterinarians are often the only witnesses — other than the perpetrator themselves — to the signs and symptoms of animal cruelty. They also have the education and experience to identify those signs when they see them. Veterinary reporting, as the name suggests, refers to laws requiring veterinarians to report suspected cruelty, and/or giving them civil immunity for reporting in good faith. Such immunity is necessary to protect the veterinarian from retaliatory lawsuits. It’s important to note that even if a state does not explicitly have a law permitting veterinarians to report suspected cruelty, veterinarians are still free to do so in all 50 states. In 2023, Connecticut made it mandatory for veterinarians to report suspected animal cruelty and granted them civil immunity for doing so in good faith.

Animal victims can’t speak for themselves, so it’s absolutely vital that those frontline workers who are most likely to witness animal cruelty in the community — like veterinarians and social service workers — are not only empowered, but required to report animal cruelty to the authorities,” says Lora Dunn, Director of the Criminal Justice Program. “We’re thrilled to see more states taking the important step of not just allowing, but mandating that these stakeholders report animal abuse and neglect, for the sake of the animal victims.