R.I. Gen. Laws
Rhode Island General Laws

R.I. Gen. Laws § 4-1-9 (2026)

Animal fighting

✓ text as last checked Sept. 2026 (this copy records no edition or section history)
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Any person who causes or encourages the fighting of any bird, dog, or animal with any other bird, dog, or animal, or keeps or maintains any place for the fighting of birds, dogs, or animals, or who knowingly permits, or suffers, any fight to be had on the person’s premises or on premises under the person’s control, or makes any bet or lays any wager of any kind upon the result of that fight, shall be fined not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000) or be imprisoned not exceeding two (2) years, or both, for the first offense, and for a second and any subsequent offense shall be fined not less than one thousand dollars ($1,000) nor more than five thousand dollars ($5,000) or be imprisoned not exceeding five (5) years, or both. In addition, every person convicted of a first offense shall be required to perform twenty (20) hours of community service. Every person convicted of a subsequent offense shall be required to perform fifty (50) hours of community service. The community service penalty shall not be suspended or deferred.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 1 case, 1981–1981 · leading case: State v. Vinagro, 433 A.2d 945 (R.I. 1981).
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State v. Vinagro, 433 A.2d 945 (R.I. 1981). “1956 (1976 Reenactment) § 4-1-9. Such a conviction, as will be seen, constitutes a petty misdemeanor and is not subject to review by way of a petition for certiorari.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.