Harming a service animal in the first degree · as in force on May 31, 2026
§ 242.15 Harming a service animal in the first degree.
A person is guilty of harming a service animal in the first degree when, he or she commits the crime of harming a service animal in the second degree, and has been convicted of harming a service animal in the first or second degree within the prior five years.
Harming a service animal in the first degree is a class E felony.
Committing second-degree harm to a service animal after a first- or second-degree service-animal-harm conviction within the prior 5 years is first-degree harm to a service animal, a class E felony. ★
Marked in the text: penalties, time limits, sums of money. Editorial emphasis added by this edition; it does not appear in the statute as enacted.
This provision appears in Volume 4 — The Court Clerk: Penal Law; Volume 1 — The Court Officer in Plain English; Volume 3 — The Court Officer: Penal Law; Volume 3 — Your Career: Penal Law in Plain English.