Richland County's animal ordinance requires humane care, adequate food, water, and shelter, and prohibits neglect. Keeping so many animals that they cannot be properly cared for is enforced as a nuisance and as cruelty. South Carolina's ill-treatment-of-animals statute (SC Code 47-1-40) makes cruelty and neglect a crime.
Richland County's Chapter 5 animal code (rewritten by Ordinance 025-24HR, 2024) requires owners to provide humane care and adequate food, water, and shelter, and animals kept in unsanitary or neglectful conditions are treated as nuisances subject to seizure. Hoarding cases, where the number of animals exceeds an owner's ability to care for them, are pursued under both the county nuisance/welfare provisions and state cruelty law. South Carolina Code Section 47-1-40 makes it unlawful to ill-treat, overload, or deprive an animal of necessary sustenance or shelter; violations range from misdemeanor to felony depending on severity. Richland County Animal Services investigates complaints and can impound animals kept in cruel or hoarding conditions.
Cruelty and neglect under SC Code 47-1-40 carry misdemeanor penalties (fines and jail), escalating to a felony for aggravated or repeat cruelty. The county may seize and impound animals kept in hoarding conditions.
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