Wisconsin Animal Welfare Laws

Humane Organizations

70.11 [Property tax exemptions] (28 ) Humane Societies . Property owned and operated by a humane society organized primarily for the care and shelter or homeless, stray or abused animals, on a nonprofit basis, no part of the net income of which inures to the benefit of any member, officer or shareholder, if the property is used exclusively for the primary purposes of the humane society.

174.09 Dog license fund; how disposed of and accounted for. (1) The dog license taxed so paid to the county treasurer shall be kept in a separate account and shall be know as the “ dog license fund” and shall be appropriated and disbursed for the purposed and in the manner following; within 30 days after receipt of the same the county treasurer shall pay into the state treasury 5% of the minimum tax as provided for under s. 174.05m (2) of all dog license taxed which shall have been received by the county treasurer.

(2) Expenses necessarily recurred by the county in purchasing and providing books, forms and other supplies required in the administering of the dog license law, expenses incurred by the county under s.95.21 ( 4) (b) and (8) and expenses incurred by the county pound or by a humane society or other organization designated to provide a pound for collecting, caring for and disposing of dogs may be paid out of the dog license fund. The amount remaining in the fund after deducting these expenses shall be available for and may be used as far as necessary for paying claims allowed by the county to the owners of domestic animals because of damages done by dogs during the license year of which the taxes were paid. Any surplus in excess of $1,000 which may remain from the dog license taxed of any license year shall on March 1 of the succeeding year be paid by the county treasurer to the county humane society or other organization designated by the county board to provide a pound. If there is no humane society or other organization designated to provide a pound, these funds shall be paid to the towns, villages and cities of the county for their use in the proportion in which the towns, villages and cities contributed to the fund out of which the surplus arises.

95.01 Administration of drugs to horses. (1) No person may administer a drug to a horse, either internally or externally, for the purpose of altering the performance of the horse in a horse pulling contest

(2) Persons in charge of a horse pulling contest may require as a condition of participation in the contest that the exhibitor submit the exhibitor‘s horse for examination by a licensed veterinarian to determine the presence of dugs under sub (1)

95.72 ( 10 ) HUMANE HANDLING. Live downer animals picked up for animal food processing or rendering shall be slaughtered before loading for transport to a processing or rendering plant.

Slaughtering shall be done by humane methods as defined in s. 95.80 (1 ) (a).

95.80 Humane slaughtering. ( 1 ) DEFINITIONS. As used in this section;

(a) “Humane method” means :

1. Any method of slaughtering livestock which normally causes animals to be rendered insensible to pain by a single blow or shot of a mechanical instrument or by electrical, chemical or other means that is rapid and effective, before being shackled, hoisted, thrown, cast, or cut; or

2. The method of slaughtering, including handling and other preparation for slaughtering, required by or used in connection with the ritual of any religious faith, whereby the animal suffers loss of consciousness by anemia of the brain caused by the simultaneous instantaneous severance of the carotid arteries with a sharp instrument.

(b.) “ Livestock” means cattle, horses, swine, sheep, goats, farm-raised deer and other species of animals susceptible of use in the production of meat products.

(c) “ Slaughterer” means any person operating a slaughterhouse licensed under s 97.42, or registered under s. 97.44

(2) PROHIBITION. No slaughterer may slaughter livestock except by a humane method.

350.07 Driving animals. No person shall drive or pursue any animal with a snowmobile, except as a part of normal faming operations involving the driving of livestock.