State v. Cleve

OPINION

SERNA, Justice.

{1} Defendant Charles Cleve appeals the Court of Appeals’ affirmance of his two convictions of cruelty to animals. A jury found Cleve guilty of two counts of unlawful hunting and two counts of cruelty to animals based on his killing of two deer. Cleve contends that his actions, while within the scope of the prohibition against unlawful hunting, are not contemplated by the prohibition against cruelty to animals. We hold that New Mexico’s statute proscribing cruelty to animals applies only to domesticated animals and wild animals previously reduced to captivity.…