Colorado § 19-2.5-1122 - Sentencing - animal cruelty - anger management treatment.

§ 19-2.5-1122. Sentencing - animal cruelty - anger management treatment.

(1) In addition to any sentence imposed pursuant to this section, a juvenile who has been adjudicated a juvenile delinquent for the commission of cruelty to animals, as described in section 18-9-202, in which the underlying factual basis has been found by the court to include the knowing torture or torment of an animal and that needlessly injured, mutilated, or killed an animal, may be ordered to complete an anger management treatment program, a mental health treatment program, or any other appropriate treatment program designed to address the underlying causative factors for the violation.

(2) The court may order an evaluation to be conducted prior to disposition if an evaluation would assist the court in determining an appropriate disposition. The parents or legal guardian of the juvenile ordered to undergo an evaluation shall pay the cost of the evaluation. If the evaluation results in a recommendation of treatment and if the court so finds, the juvenile must be ordered to complete an anger management treatment program, a mental health treatment program, or any other appropriate treatment program designed to address the underlying causative factors for the violation.

(3) The disposition for a juvenile who has been adjudicated a juvenile delinquent a second or subsequent time, the underlying factual basis of which has been found by the court to include an act of cruelty to animals, as described in section 18-9-202, must include the completion of an anger management treatment program, a mental health treatment program, or any other appropriate treatment program designed to address the underlying causative factors for the violation.

(4) In addition to any sentence imposed pursuant to this section for any juvenile who has been adjudicated a juvenile delinquent for the commission of cruelty to animals, as described in section 18-9-202, the court may enter an order prohibiting the juvenile or other party from owning, possessing, or caring for a pet animal as defined in section 35-80-102 (10), unless the juvenile's treatment provider makes a specific recommendation not to impose the ban and the court agrees with the recommendation.

(5) Nothing in this section precludes the court from ordering treatment in any appropriate case.

(6) This section does not apply to the treatment of pack or draft animals by negligently overdriving, overloading, or overworking them, or the treatment of livestock and other animals used in the farm or ranch production of food, fiber, or other agricultural products when the treatment is in accordance with accepted animal husbandry practices, the treatment of animals involved in activities regulated pursuant to article 32 of title 44, the treatment of animals involved in research if the research facility is operating under rules set forth by the state or federal government, the treatment of animals involved in rodeos, the treatment of dogs used for legal hunting activities, or to statutes regulating activities concerning wildlife and predator control in the state, including trapping.

Source: L. 2021: Entire article added with relocations, (SB 21-059), ch. 136, p. 657, § 2, effective October 1.

Editor's note: This section is similar to former § 19-2-918.5 as it existed prior to 2021.