BILL NUMBER: AB 1969	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Members Plescia and Smyth

                        FEBRUARY 14, 2008

   An act to amend Section 600 of the Penal Code, relating to crimes.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1969, as introduced, Plescia. Crimes against police dogs or
horses.
   Under existing law, the penalty for willfully and maliciously
causing serious injury to a dog or horse under the supervision of a
peace officer while in the course of his or her duties is
imprisonment in the state prison for 16 months, or 2 or 3 years. If a
person intentionally causes the death, destruction, or serious
injury of a police dog or horse, the penalty is enhanced by one
additional year in prison.
   This bill would instead provide that the penalty for intentionally
causing, under the stated circumstances, the death of a police dog
or horse is 3, 4, or 5 years.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 600 of the Penal Code is amended to read:
   600.  (a) Any person who willfully and maliciously and with no
legal justification strikes, beats, kicks, cuts, stabs, shoots with a
firearm, administers any poison or other harmful or stupefying
substance to, or throws, hurls, or projects at, or places any rock,
object, or other substance which is used in such a manner as to be
capable of producing injury and likely to produce injury, on or in
the path of, any horse being used by, or any dog under the
supervision of, any peace officer in the discharge or attempted
discharge of his or her duties, is guilty of a public offense. If the
injury inflicted is a serious injury, as defined in subdivision (c),
the person shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for
16 months, two or three years, or in a county jail for not exceeding
one year, or by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars ($2,000),
or by both a fine and imprisonment. If the injury inflicted is not a
serious injury, the person shall be punished by imprisonment in the
county jail for not exceeding one year, or by a fine not exceeding
one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both a fine and imprisonment.
   (b) Any person who willfully and maliciously and with no legal
justification interferes with or obstructs any horse or dog being
used by any peace officer in the discharge or attempted discharge of
his or her duties by frightening, teasing, agitating, harassing, or
hindering the horse or dog shall be punished by imprisonment in a
county jail for not exceeding one year, or by a fine not exceeding
one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both a fine and imprisonment.
   (c)  (1)    Any person who, in violation of this
section, and with intent to inflict such injury or death, personally
causes the  death,  destruction  ,
 or serious physical injury  ,  including bone
fracture, loss or impairment of function of any bodily member, wounds
requiring extensive suturing, or serious crippling, of any horse or
dog, shall, upon conviction of a felony under this section, in
addition and consecutive to the punishment prescribed for the felony,
be punished by an additional term of imprisonment in the state
prison for one year. 
   (2) If, under those circumstances, the person causes the death of
the horse or dog, the punishment shall instead be imprisonment in the
state prison for three, four, or five years. 
   (d) Any person who, in violation of this section, and with the
intent to inflict such injury, personally causes great bodily injury,
as defined in Section 12022.7, to any person not an accomplice,
shall, upon conviction of a felony under this section, in addition
and consecutive to the punishment prescribed for the felony, be
punished by an additional term of imprisonment in the state prison
for two years unless the conduct described in this subdivision is an
element of any other offense of which the person is convicted or
receives an enhancement under Section 12022.7.
   (e) In any case in which a defendant is convicted of a violation
of this section, the defendant shall be ordered to make restitution
to the agency owning the animal and employing the peace officer for
any veterinary bills, replacement costs of the animal if it is
disabled or killed, and the salary of the peace officer for the
period of time his or her services are lost to the agency.