Virginia’s animal-cruelty law carries a lasting reminder of a dog whose suffering moved people across Richmond and beyond. The measure widely known as “Tommie’s Law” took effect on July 1, 2019, expanding when severe cruelty to a companion dog or cat can be prosecuted as a Class 6 felony.
The change matters because the earlier felony provision focused on cases in which an animal died. The 2019 legislation added “serious bodily injury” to the threshold, meaning prosecutors no longer had to wait for a gravely injured dog or cat to die before pursuing that felony charge.
The dog whose case galvanized Virginia
On February 10, 2019, firefighters found a male pit bull tied to a pole in Richmond’s Abner Clay Park after he had been covered with a flammable liquid and set on fire. Richmond Animal Care and Control named him Tommie and arranged intensive treatment. Contemporary reporting said burns covered more than 40 percent of his body.
Tommie died five days later, on February 15. His case drew enormous public attention and helped give a name and emotional force to legislation already moving through Virginia’s General Assembly. The companion measures, including Senate Bill 1604, passed the legislature and were signed in March 2019.
The person prosecuted in Tommie’s death later pleaded guilty and received a five-year prison sentence, three years of post-release supervision and a lifetime prohibition on possessing animals, according to a Richmond Police Department statement reported at the time. That prosecution concerned Tommie’s death; the new law’s distinctive change was protection for severely injured dogs and cats who survive.
What Tommie’s Law actually changed
The current Virginia Code § 3.2-6570 says a person who tortures, willfully inflicts inhumane injury or pain, or cruelly and unnecessarily beats, maims or mutilates a companion dog or cat—and directly causes serious bodily injury, death or medically necessary euthanasia—is guilty of a Class 6 felony.
The statute defines serious bodily injury as harm involving a substantial risk of death, extreme physical pain, protracted and obvious disfigurement, or prolonged loss or impairment of a bodily member, organ or mental faculty. That wording is important: the law did not turn every instance of neglect or mistreatment into a felony. It created a felony route for specifically defined, exceptionally severe harm.
A Class 6 felony can carry one to five years of imprisonment. Virginia law also gives a judge or jury discretion in qualifying cases to impose up to 12 months in jail and a fine of up to $2,500, either or both, instead of the felony prison term. So it is more accurate to describe the possible penalties as alternatives under the Class 6 sentencing statute, rather than automatically combining five years in prison with a $2,500 fine.
A legacy measured in protection
No law can undo what happened to Tommie, and criminal penalties alone cannot prevent every act of cruelty. But precise laws give investigators and prosecutors tools that better reflect the seriousness of deliberate violence against vulnerable animals.
Tommie’s legacy is therefore not the claim that all animal cruelty in Virginia is now a felony. It is the narrower—and still consequential—principle that a dog or cat does not have to die before extreme, intentionally inflicted injury can support a felony prosecution.
For anyone who witnesses suspected cruelty, the safest response is to contact local animal control or law enforcement rather than confront a suspected offender. Prompt reports, photographs taken lawfully from a safe place, and accurate location and time details can help authorities act.
Sources
- Code of Virginia § 3.2-6570: Cruelty to animals; penalty
- Virginia Legislative Information System: SB 1604 (2019)
- Richmond Magazine: Tommie’s Legacy
- WDBJ/NBC12: Early reporting on Tommie’s rescue
