{"topic_id":"animal_welfare_law_us_ca_pen_597","category":"animal-welfare-law","context":"---\ntopic_id: animal_welfare_law_us_ca_pen_597\ncategory: animal-welfare-law\ntitle: \"California — cruelty to animals (Penal Code § 597)\"\nlang: en\nsource: \"California Penal Code § 597, leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, extracted 2026-07-24 via Tokyo relay (Playwright)\"\nsource_file: pdf-raw/animal-welfare-law/ca_pen_597_cruelty.txt\ndate_parsed: 2026-07-24\ntokens_estimated: 242\nverification:\n  method: substring_match\n  claims: 5\n  passed: 5\n  date: 2026-07-24\nrecovered: false\npath: animal-welfare-law/animal_welfare_law_us_ca_pen_597/01_animal_welfare_law_us_ca_pen_597.md\n---\n\n# California — cruelty to animals (Penal Code § 597)\n\nCalifornia Penal Code § 597 is the state's core animal-cruelty statute, covering malicious maiming/torture/wounding/killing and deprivation of food/drink/shelter.\n\nSource: California Penal Code § 597, leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, extracted 2026-07-24 via Tokyo relay (Playwright). First-hand statute text; C1 substring-verified against `pdf-raw/animal-welfare-law/ca_pen_597_cruelty.txt`.\n\nVerbatim C1 claims (each a substring of the source file):\n1. \"597.\"\n2. \"a person who maliciously and intentionally maims, mutilates, tortures, or wounds a living animal, or maliciously and intentionally kills an animal, is guilty of a crime punishable pursuant to subdivision (d).\"\n3. \"Except as provided in subdivision (c) of this section or Section 599c, a person who maliciously and intentionally maims, mutilates, tortures, or wounds a living animal\"\n4. \"cruelly beats, mutilates, or cruelly kills an animal\"\n5. \"fails to provide the animal with proper food, drink, or shelter\"\n","sources":[],"tokens_estimated":400,"generated_at":null,"tip":"Use /api/v1/topics to discover more topics. /api/v1/nutrient for precise single-point queries. /api/v1/cross_compare for 2-3 standard comparisons."}