All states have laws that prohibit cruelty to horses and other animals.
Every state makes it a crime to engage in certain cruel acts toward animals.
Most states permit the government to seize and destroy or sell an animal that has been found to have been cruelly treated. Many states give a special role to the Humane Society or Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Those states make officers of these private associations law enforcement officers, empowered to seek and execute search and arrest warrants, search private property for evidence of cruelty to animals and arrest persons whom they have reason to believe have committed an offense of cruelty to an animal. Older statutes are directed toward equines as work animals and seek to protect them from overwork and neglect. The focus of this section of the AAHS web site is upon laws dealing with cruelty to horses.