Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws > Chapter 7-12.1 > Article 12 - Miscellaneous Provisions [Effective January 1, 2023.]

• Adopt: means when an adopting party voluntarily acquires and assumes responsibility for an animal from a releasing agency that is properly licensed or registered by the department. See Rhode Island General Laws 4-19-2
• Adopting party: means any person who enters into a contract acquiring an animal from a releasing agency that is properly licensed or registered by the department. See Rhode Island General Laws 4-19-2
• Animal: means any dog or cat, rabbit, rodent, nonhuman primate, bird or other warm-blooded vertebrate, amphibian, fish, or reptile but shall not include horses, cattle, sheep, goats, swine, and domestic fowl. See Rhode Island General Laws 4-19-2
• Dealer: means any person who sells, exchanges, or donates, or offers to sell, exchange, or donate, animals to another dealer, pet shop, or research facility, or who breeds animals for the purpose of selling or donating to another dealer or pet shop or research facility. See Rhode Island General Laws 4-19-2
• Director: means the director of environmental management of the state of Rhode Island. See Rhode Island General Laws 4-19-2
• Euthanasia: means the humane destruction of an animal accomplished by a method that involves instantaneous unconsciousness and immediate death or by a method that involves anesthesia, produced by an agent that causes painless loss of consciousness and death during that loss of consciousness. See Rhode Island General Laws 4-19-2
• Kennel: means a place or establishment, other than a pound or animal shelter, or veterinary hospital that is housing animals during their treatment, where animals not owned by the proprietor are sheltered, fed, and watered in return for a fee. See Rhode Island General Laws 4-19-2
• Licensed releasing agency: means any animal shelter, animal-rescue, pound, animal-control officer, or broker that is required to be licensed or registered with the director pursuant to the provisions of this chapter and is so licensed or registered. See Rhode Island General Laws 4-19-2
• Person: means an individual, business corporation, nonprofit corporation, partnership, limited partnership, limited liability company, general cooperative association, limited cooperative association, unincorporated nonprofit association, statutory trust, business trust, common-law business trust, estate, trust, association, joint venture, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-12.1-102
• Research facility: means any place, laboratory, or institution at which scientific tests, investigations, or experiments involving the use of living animals are carried out, conducted, or attempted. See Rhode Island General Laws 4-19-2
• Sexual maturity: means when a dog or cat reaches six (6) months. See Rhode Island General Laws 4-19-2
• United States: include the several states and the territories of the United States. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-8