Animal Legal Defense Fund v. California Exposition & State Fairs

Plaintiffs brought a Code of Civil Procedure section 526a (section 526a) taxpayer action against defendants based on allegations that defendants commit animal cruelty every summer by transporting pregnant pigs and housing them in farrowing crates at the state fair. One defendant, joined by the other, demurred, contending plaintiffs’ complaint failed to state a cause of action for three distinct reasons, including that California’s animal cruelty laws are not enforceable through a taxpayer action. The trial court agreed on all accounts, and sustained the demurrer without leave to amend. Plaintiffs appeal. We affirm.

SUMMARY OF RELEVANT LAW

California’s Animal Cruelty Law

Under California’s animal cruelty laws, it is a crime to cause harm to an animal through an affirmative act or an act of neglect or to confine an animal in an enclosed space without an adequate exercise area. (Pen. Code, §§ 597, 597t.) Specifically, Penal Code section 597 provides, as pertinent here, that “every person who . . . deprives of necessary sustenance, drink, or shelter . . . and . . . subjects any animal to needless suffering, or inflicts unnecessary cruelty upon the animal, or in any manner…