Ruling on an issue of first impression for the state’s high court on Friday in Commonwealth v. Heather M. Duncan, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court said that, “in appropriate circumstances, animals, like humans, should be afforded the protection of the emergency aid exception.”
“In addition to promoting life-saving measures, the ability to render such assistance vindicates the legislative framework for preventing cruelty to animals, particularly the provision regulating the conditions under which dogs may be kept outside,” Associate Justice Barbara Lenk wrote.
She cited precedents from California, the District of Columbia, Rhode Island, Montana and Vermont.
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