New Jersey law prohibits Offering Diseased Animal For Sale. State and local authorities investigated and recently charged an owner and employee of an animal shelter in Berkeley Heights, NJ. Indeed, the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs and the Union County Prosecutor’s Office investigated the shelter together. Moreover, the allegations relate to falsifying records to conceal negative medical histories from prospective adopters, per the Union County Prosecutor’s news release. The shelter allegedly scrubbed negative information from some of the dogs’ intake forms before putting them up for adoption. The cops claim this occurred more than a dozen times during a span of about two years. The adopted pets included a variety of breeds, ranging from types of hounds to shih tzus.
The news release, however, does not indicate the diseases the shelter concealed. Additionally, assuming the December 20 online news release will remain unedited, it does not indicate the dangers the concealed diseases posed to the health or life of humans or other animals.
Nevertheless, the cops charged the owner with knowingly selling and/or exposing to human contact a pet with a contagious or infectious disease. Additionally, they filed charges for falsifying records for the purpose of deceiving prospective pet owners. They also charged the owner with coercion by threatening to harm an employee’s reputation or livelihood. Furthermore, they charged a shelter employee with false advertising for the purpose of deceiving prospective pet owners.
Offering Diseased Animal For Sale
Under New Jersey law, a person who shall:
- Willfully sell, or offer to sell, use, expose, or cause or permit to be sold or offered for sale, used or exposed, any horse or other animal having the disease known as glanders or farcy, or other contagious or infectious disease dangerous to the health or life of human beings or animals; or
- When any such disease is beyond recovery, refuse upon demand to deprive any such animal of life–
Shall be guilty of a crime of the fourth degree.
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