General Laws of Massachusetts - Chapter 272 Crimes Against Chastity, Morality, Decency and Good Order

• Massachusetts General Laws - Enticing away person under 16 for marriage - Chapter 272, Section 1
  Whoever fraudulently and deceitfully entices or takes away an unmarried person under sixteen from the house of such person’s parents or elsewhere, without the consent...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Enticing away person for prostitution or sexual intercourse - Chapter 272, Section 2
  Whoever fraudulently and deceitfully entices or takes away a person from the house of his parent or guardian or elsewhere, for the purpose of prostitution...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Drugging persons for sexual intercourse - Chapter 272, Section 3
  Whoever applies, administers to or causes to be taken by a person any drug, matter or thing with intent to stupefy or overpower such person...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Inducing person under eighteen to have sexual intercourse - Chapter 272, Section 4
  Whoever induces any person under 18 years of age of chaste life to have unlawful sexual intercourse shall be punished by imprisonment in the state...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Inducing minor into prostitution - Chapter 272, Section 4A
  Whoever induces a minor to become a prostitute, or who knowingly aids and assists in such inducement, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Living off or sharing earnings of minor prostitute - Chapter 272, Section 4B
  Whoever lives or derives support or maintenance, in whole or in part, from the earnings or proceeds of prostitution committed by a minor, knowing the...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Repealed, 1987, 522, Sec. 22 - Chapter 272, Section 5
  Repealed, 1987, 522, Sec.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Owner of place inducing or suffering person to resort in such place for sexual intercourse - Chapter 272, Section 6
  Whoever, being the owner of a place or having or assisting in the management or control thereof induces or knowingly suffers a person to resort...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Support from, or sharing, earnings of prostitute - Chapter 272, Section 7
  Whoever, knowing a person to be a prostitute, shall live or derive support or maintenance, in whole or in part, from the earnings or proceeds...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Soliciting for prostitute - Chapter 272, Section 8
  Whoever solicits or receives compensation for soliciting for a prostitute shall be punished by imprisonment in a house of correction for not more than 2...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Oath and warrant to enter place for prostitution; detention of person in control and prostitute; recognizance to appear as witness - Chapter 272, Section 9
  If a person makes oath before a district court that he has probable cause to suspect that a house, building, room or place is kept...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Arrest without warrant - Chapter 272, Section 10
  Nothing in the preceding section shall prevent the arrest and detention without a warrant of any person who, the officer serving said process may have...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Corroboration of one witness; limitations - Chapter 272, Section 11
  A person shall not be convicted under sections 2, 4 and 6 upon the evidence of one witness only, unless his testimony is corroborated in...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Procuring person to practice, or enter a place for, prostitution; employment office procuring person - Chapter 272, Section 12
  Whoever knowingly procures, entices, sends, or aids or abets in procuring, enticing or sending, a person to practice prostitution, or to enter as an inmate...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Detaining, or drugging to detain, person in place for prostitution - Chapter 272, Section 13
  Whoever, for any length of time, unlawfully detains or attempts to detain, or aids or abets in unlawfully detaining or attempting to detain, or provides...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Adultery - Chapter 272, Section 14
  A married person who has sexual intercourse with a person not his spouse or an unmarried person who has sexual intercourse with a married person...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Polygamy - Chapter 272, Section 15
  Whoever, having a former husband or wife living, marries another person or continues to cohabit with a second husband or wife in the commonwealth shall...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Open and gross lewdness and lascivious behavior - Chapter 272, Section 16
  A man or woman, married or unmarried, who is guilty of open and gross lewdness and lascivious behavior, shall be punished by imprisonment in the...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Incestuous marriage or sexual activities - Chapter 272, Section 17
  Persons within degrees of consanguinity within which marriages are prohibited or declared by law to be incestuous and void, who intermarry or have sexual intercourse...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Fornication - Chapter 272, Section 18
  Whoever commits fornication shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than three months or by a fine of not more than thirty dollars.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Procuring miscarriage - Chapter 272, Section 19
  Whoever, with intent to procure the miscarriage of a woman, unlawfully administers to her, or advises or prescribes for her, or causes any poison, drug,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Advertising relative to miscarriage or prevention of pregnancy - Chapter 272, Section 20
  Except as provided in section twenty-one A, whoever knowingly advertises, prints, publishes, distributes or circulates, or knowingly causes to be advertised, printed, published, distributed or...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Instruments or other articles for self-abuse, prevention of conception or abortion, in general - Chapter 272, Section 21
  Except as provided in section twenty-one A, whoever sells, lends, gives away, exhibits, or offers to sell, lend or give away an instrument or other...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Furnishing drugs, articles or information for prevention of pregnancy or conception - Chapter 272, Section 21A
  A registered physician may administer to or prescribe for any married person drugs or articles intended for the prevention of pregnancy or conception. A registered...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Privately controlled hospital or health facility; abortion or sterilization procedures; contraceptive devices and family planning services - Chapter 272, Section 21B
  No privately controlled hospital or other health facility shall be required to admit any patient for the purpose of performing an abortion, performing any sterilization...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Concealment of death of child born out of wedlock - Chapter 272, Section 22
  A parent who conceals the death of the issue of such parent, which if born alive would be a child born out of wedlock, so...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Joinder of charges of murder and offense under Sec. 22 - Chapter 272, Section 23
  A parent indicted for murder of the infant child born out of wedlock of such parent may also be charged in the same indictment with...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Keeping house of ill fame - Chapter 272, Section 24
  Whoever keeps a house of ill fame which is resorted to for prostitution or lewdness shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than two
• Massachusetts General Laws - Obstructing view of restaurant or tavern patrons; barricaded entrances - Chapter 272, Section 25
  Any person owning, managing or controlling a restaurant, tavern or other place in any town, where food or drink is sold to the public to...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Resorting to restaurants or taverns for immoral purposes - Chapter 272, Section 26
  Whoever, for the purpose of immoral solicitation or immoral bargaining, shall resort to any café, restaurant, tavern, as defined in section one of chapter one...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Record of convictions under Sec. 25 or Sec. 26 sent to licensing officers - Chapter 272, Section 27
  The clerk of the court in which any person is convicted of a violation of either of the two preceding sections shall forthwith send a...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Matter harmful to minors, dissemination; possession; defenses - Chapter 272, Section 28
  Whoever purposefully disseminates to a person he knows or believes to be a minor any matter harmful to minors, as defined in section 31, knowing...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Repealed, 1974, 430, Sec. 2 - Chapter 272, Section 28A 28B
  Repealed, 1974, 430, Sec.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Information or petition against obscene books; order of notice to show cause; notice of order; interlocutory adjudication; defense - Chapter 272, Section 28C
  Whenever there is reasonable cause to believe that a book which is being disseminated, or is in the possession of any person who intends to...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Answer to notice; right to jury trial - Chapter 272, Section 28D
  Any person interested in the dissemination of said book may appear and file an answer on or before the return day named in said notice...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Order of default; adjudication - Chapter 272, Section 28E
  If no person appears and answers within the time allowed, the court may at once upon motion of the petitioner, or of its own motion,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Hearing; evidence; adjudication - Chapter 272, Section 28F
  If an appearance is entered and answer filed, the case shall be set down for speedy hearing, but a default and order shall first be...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Objection that mere judgment sought and no relief claimed on issue of knowledge - Chapter 272, Section 28G
  An information or petition in equity under the provisions of section twenty-eight C shall not be open to objection on the ground that a mere...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Proceeding under Sec. 28C as evidence in trial under Sec. 29; presumptions as to knowledge - Chapter 272, Section 28H
  In any trial under section twenty-nine on an indictment found or a complaint made for any offence committed after the filing of a proceeding under...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Certain procedures as condition precedent to institution of proceedings for dissemination of obscene books - Chapter 272, Section 28I
  The procedures set forth in sections twenty-eight C, twenty-eight D, twenty-eight E, twenty-eight G and twenty-eight H shall be a condition precedent to the institution...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Dissemination or possession of obscene matter; punishment; defense - Chapter 272, Section 29
  Whoever disseminates any matter which is obscene, knowing it to be obscene, or whoever has in his possession any matter which is obscene, knowing it...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Posing or exhibiting child in state of nudity or sexual conduct; punishment - Chapter 272, Section 29A
  (a) Whoever, either with knowledge that a person is a child under eighteen years of age or while in possession of such facts that he...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Dissemination of visual material of child in state of nudity or sexual conduct; punishment - Chapter 272, Section 29B
  (a) Whoever, with lascivious intent, disseminates any visual material that contains a representation or reproduction of any posture or exhibition in a state of nudity...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Knowing purchase or possession of visual material of child depicted in sexual conduct; punishment - Chapter 272, Section 29C
  Whoever knowingly purchases or possesses a negative, slide, book, magazine, film, videotape, photograph or other similar visual reproduction, or depiction by computer, of any child...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Injunctive relief against dissemination of obscene matter; jurisdiction; procedures; appeal - Chapter 272, Section 30
  The superior court shall have jurisdiction to enjoin the dissemination of any matter which is obscene. The attorney general or a district attorney within his...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Repealed, 1974, 430, Sec. 11 - Chapter 272, Section 30A to 30C
  Repealed, 1974, 430, Sec.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Dissemination of visual material of child in state of nudity or sexual conduct; injunction; jurisdiction - Chapter 272, Section 30D
  The superior court shall also have jurisdiction to enjoin the dissemination of any visual material that contains a representation or reproduction of any posture or...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Definitions - Chapter 272, Section 31
  As used in sections twenty-eight, twenty-eight C, twenty-eight D, twenty-eight E, twenty-nine, twenty-nine A, twenty-nine B, thirty and thirty D, the following words shall, unless...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Motion picture theater managers or operators; applicability of Secs. 28, 29 and 29A - Chapter 272, Section 32
  The provisions of sections twenty-eight, twenty-nine and twenty-nine A shall not apply to a manager or a motion picture operator or assistant operator licensed under...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Exhibition of deformities - Chapter 272, Section 33
  Whoever exhibits for hire an albino person, a minor or mentally ill person who is deformed or a person who has an appearance of deformity...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Crime against nature - Chapter 272, Section 34
  Whoever commits the abominable and detestable crime against nature, either with mankind or with a beast, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Unnatural and lascivious acts - Chapter 272, Section 35
  Whoever commits any unnatural and lascivious act with another person shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred nor more than...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Unnatural and lascivious acts with child under 16 - Chapter 272, Section 35A
  Whoever commits any unnatural and lascivious act with a child under the age of sixteen shall be punished by a fine of not less than...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Blasphemy - Chapter 272, Section 36
  Whoever wilfully blasphemes the holy name of God by denying, cursing or contumeliously reproaching God, his creation, government or final judging of the world, or...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Sporting events; penalty for abuse of participants and officials - Chapter 272, Section 36A
  Whoever, having arrived at the age of sixteen years, directs any profane, obscene or impure language or slanderous statement at a participant or an official...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Repealed, 1962, 285, Sec. 4 - Chapter 272, Section 37
  Repealed, 1962, 285, Sec.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Disturbance of assembly for worship - Chapter 272, Section 38
  Whoever wilfully interrupts or disturbs an assembly of people met for worship of God shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than one year...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Selling goods and provisions, caring for horses, illegal gaming, horse racing or exhibits near camp meetings - Chapter 272, Section 39
  Whoever, during the time of holding a camp or field meeting for religious purposes, and within one mile of the place thereof, hawks or peddles...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Disturbance of schools or assemblies - Chapter 272, Section 40
  Whoever wilfully interrupts or disturbs a school or other assembly of people met for a lawful purpose shall be punished by imprisonment for not more...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Alcoholic beverages; gift, sale, delivery or possession on public school premises - Chapter 272, Section 40A
  Whoever gives, sells, delivers or has in his possession any alcoholic beverage, except for medicinal purposes, in any public school building, or on any premises...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Disturbance of libraries - Chapter 272, Section 41
  Whoever wilfully disturbs persons assembled in a public library, or a reading room connected therewith, by making a noise or in any other manner during...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Disturbance of funerals - Chapter 272, Section 42
  Whoever wilfully interrupts or by fast driving or otherwise in any way disturbs a funeral assembly or procession shall be punished as provided in section
• Massachusetts General Laws - Disturbance of funeral services - Chapter 272, Section 42A
  Whoever pickets, loiters or otherwise creates a disturbance within five hundred feet of a funeral home, church or temple or other building where funeral services...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Disturbance of military funeral service; penalty - Chapter 272, Section 42B
  [Text of section added by 2014, 62, Sec. 26 effective July 2, 2014.] Whoever willfully pickets, loiters or otherwise creates a disturbance within 500 feet...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Disorderliness in public conveyances; disturbance of travelers - Chapter 272, Section 43
  Whoever, in or upon a railroad carriage, steamboat or other public conveyance, is disorderly, or disturbs or annoys travelers in or upon the same by...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Smoking in public conveyances and transportation terminals - Chapter 272, Section 43A
  Whoever, in or upon a railroad carriage, steamboat, or other public conveyance, or in a terminal or other facility of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Repealed, 1971, 1076, Sec. 11 - Chapter 272, Section 44 to 50
  Repealed, 1971, 1076, Sec.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Repealed, 1957, 660, Sec. 2 - Chapter 272, Section 51 52
  Repealed, 1957, 660, Sec.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Penalty for certain offenses - Chapter 272, Section 53
  (a) Common night walkers, common street walkers, both male and female, persons who with offensive and disorderly acts or language accost or annoy persons of...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Engaging in sexual conduct for a fee; engaging in sexual conduct with child under age 18 for a fee; penalties - Chapter 272, Section 53A
  (a) Whoever engages, agrees to engage or offers to engage in sexual conduct with another person in return for a fee, shall be punished by...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Apprehension for certain offences, without warrant; custody - Chapter 272, Section 54
  Whoever is found in a public way or other public place, committing any offence or disorder set forth in sections fifty-three and fifty-three A, may...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Repealed, 1928, 155, Sec. 58 - Chapter 272, Section 55
  Repealed, 1928, 155, Sec.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Subsequent offenses; breach of recognizance on appeal - Chapter 272, Section 56
  If a person convicted under section fifty-three appeals from the sentence, the commission of any like offence by him before judgment on the appeal shall...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Discharge upon recognizance; payment of expenses of prosecution - Chapter 272, Section 57
  When a person is brought before a magistrate upon a charge of any offence mentioned in sections fifty-three, sixty-six and sixty-eight, such magistrate, or the...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Employing or permitting employment of minor under 15 to beg - Chapter 272, Section 58
  A parent or other person who employs a minor under fifteen in begging or who, having the care or custody of such minor, permits him...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Ordinances or regulations relating to streets, reservations, or parkways; alcoholic beverages; profanity; arrest without warrant - Chapter 272, Section 59
  Whoever remains in a street or elsewhere in a town in wilful violation of an ordinance or by-law of such town or of any rule...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Disposal of rubbish, etc.; refusal to remove; arrest without warrant - Chapter 272, Section 60
  Whoever commits a misdemeanor, as defined by a by-law, regulation or ordinance of a town or authority therein, in the presence of a police officer...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Conviction after discharge from sentence under Sec. 53 - Chapter 272, Section 61
  Whoever, having been discharged under section one hundred and forty of chapter one hundred and twenty-seven, is afterward convicted of any offence mentioned in section...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Third conviction of being a common nightwalker - Chapter 272, Section 62
  If a complaint charges a person with being a common nightwalker, and it is proved at the trial that such person has been twice before...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Tramps; begging or riding freight trains as prima facie evidence - Chapter 272, Section 63
  Whoever, not being under seventeen, or a person asking charity within his own town, roves about from place to place begging, or living without labor...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Tramps; punishment; entering buildings; injuries to or threats against persons or property; carrying weapons - Chapter 272, Section 64
  A tramp shall be punished by imprisonment in the house of correction for not more than thirty days; and if he enters a dwelling house...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Arrest of tramps without warrant; making complaint - Chapter 272, Section 65
  A sheriff, deputy sheriff, constable or police officer, upon view or information of an offence described in the two preceding sections, may, without a warrant,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Vagrants - Chapter 272, Section 66
  Persons wandering abroad and begging, or who go about from door to door or in public or private ways, areas to which the general public...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Vagrants; arrest without warrant; taking before court; complaint - Chapter 272, Section 67
  Sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, constables and police officers, acting on the request of any person or upon their own information or belief, shall without a warrant...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Vagabonds - Chapter 272, Section 68
  A person known to be a pickpocket, thief or burglar, if acting in a suspicious manner around any steamboat landing, railroad depot, or any electric...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Vagabonds; arrest without warrant; taking before court; complaint - Chapter 272, Section 69
  Sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, constables and police officers shall take any such vagabond into custody without a warrant and shall, within twenty-four hours after such arrest,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Taking dead body on process or execution - Chapter 272, Section 70
  A sheriff, deputy sheriff or constable who takes the body of a deceased person on mesne process or execution shall be punished by a fine...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Disinterring bodies - Chapter 272, Section 71
  Whoever, not being lawfully authorized by the proper authorities, wilfully digs up, disinters, removes or conveys away a human body, or the remains thereof, or...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Buying, selling or possessing dead bodies - Chapter 272, Section 72
  Whoever buys or sells, or has in his possession for the purpose of buying, selling or trafficking in, the dead body of a human being...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Tombs, graves, memorials, trees, plants; injuring, removing - Chapter 272, Section 73
  Whoever wilfully destroys, mutilates, defaces, injures or removes a tomb, monument, gravestone, veteran’s grave marker or metal plaque, veteran’s flag holder that commemorates a particular...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Removal of gravestones and other memorials for repair or reproduction - Chapter 272, Section 73A
  In any city or town which accepts this section, the provisions of section seventy-three shall not prohibit the removal, in accordance with rules and regulations...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Desecrating place of burial; use and occupation as evidence of title - Chapter 272, Section 74
  Whoever wrongfully, and by any act not included in the preceding section, destroys, injures or removes a building, fence, railing or other thing lawfully erected...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Removal of flowers, flags or memorial tokens from burial lot - Chapter 272, Section 75
  Whoever, without authority, removes flowers, flags or memorial tokens from any grave, tomb, monument or burial lot in any cemetery or other place of burial...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Ways, railroads, canals or public easements through burial grounds - Chapter 272, Section 76
  Whoever lays out, opens, or makes a highway or town way, or constructs a railroad or canal, or any other thing in the nature of...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Cruelty to animals; prohibition from work involving contact with animals - Chapter 272, Section 77
  Whoever overdrives, overloads, drives when overloaded, overworks, tortures, torments, deprives of necessary sustenance, cruelly beats, mutilates or kills an animal, or causes or procures an...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Willfully injuring police dogs and horses - Chapter 272, Section 77A
  Whoever willfully tortures, torments, beats, kicks, strikes, mutilates, injures, disables or otherwise mistreats, a dog or horse owned by a police department or police agency...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Exhibition of wild animals - Chapter 272, Section 77B
  No person shall exhibit or sponsor an exhibition of any wild animal for the purpose of attracting trade at or for any place of amusement,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Selling, leading, or using horses not fit for work; forfeiture of auctioneer’s license - Chapter 272, Section 78
  No person holding an auctioneer’s license shall receive or offer for sale or sell at public auction, nor shall any person sell at private sale,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Sale of foals under five months; penalty - Chapter 272, Section 78A
  No person shall sell, offer for sale or otherwise dispose of any foal under five months of age other than for the purpose of immediate...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Corporation’s responsibility under Sec. 77 or Sec. 78 - Chapter 272, Section 79
  A corporation violating either of the two preceding sections shall be punished by a fine as therein provided, and shall be responsible for the knowledge...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Cutting bones or muscles to dock or set tail of horse; wound as evidence - Chapter 272, Section 79A
  Whoever cuts the bone of the tail of a horse for the purpose of docking the tail, or whoever causes or knowingly permits the same...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Exhibiting horse with tail cut under Sec. 79A; affidavit as to cutting in state where not prohibited; inspection - Chapter 272, Section 79B
  Whoever shows or exhibits at any horse show or exhibition in the commonwealth a horse with its tail cut in either manner prohibited in section...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Repealed, 1934, 234, Sec. 1 - Chapter 272, Section 80
  Repealed, 1934, 234, Sec.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Devocalization of dogs or cats; definitions; penalty; exceptions; records - Chapter 272, Section 801/2
  (a) For the purposes of this section, the following words shall have the following meanings:— “Board”, the board of registration in veterinary medicine. “Devocalization”, a...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Cropping or cutting off ear of dog; wound as prima facie evidence - Chapter 272, Section 80A
  Whoever, not being a veterinarian duly registered under chapter one hundred and twelve, crops or cuts off the whole or any part of the ear...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Exhibiting dogs with ears cropped or cut off - Chapter 272, Section 80B
  Whoever shows or exhibits or procures to be shown or exhibited at any dog show or exhibition in the commonwealth a dog with an ear...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Taking cat, dog or bird to exhibit it, subject it to experimentation or mutilation, or to sell it for such purposes; application of law - Chapter 272, Section 80C
  Whoever, without the consent of the owner, takes a cat, dog or bird, with intent to exhibit or cause it to be exhibited or to...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Living rabbits, baby chickens, ducklings or other fowl; sale, barter or gift - Chapter 272, Section 80D
  No person shall sell, offer for sale, barter or give away as premiums living baby chickens, ducklings or other fowl under two months of age....
• Massachusetts General Laws - Use of decompression chambers for putting animals to death - Chapter 272, Section 80E
  Whoever puts any animal to death by the use of a decompression chamber shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred
• Massachusetts General Laws - Giving away live animals as prize or award - Chapter 272, Section 80F
  No person shall offer or give away any live animal as a prize or an award in a game, contest or tournament involving skill or...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Experiments on vertebrates; vivisection, dissection of animals; care - Chapter 272, Section 80G
  No school principal, administrator or teacher shall allow any live vertebrate to be used in any elementary or high school under state control or supported...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Motor vehicles; striking, injuring or killing dogs or cats - Chapter 272, Section 80H
  The operator of a motor vehicle that strikes and injures or kills a dog or cat shall forthwith report such an accident to the owner...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Leasing or renting dogs; penalties - Chapter 272, Section 80I
  (a) As used in this section, the following words shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly requires otherwise:— “Assistance and service dog”, a...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Rest, water and feed for transported animals; lien; liability for detention - Chapter 272, Section 81
  Railroad corporations shall not permit animals carried or transported by them to be confined in cars longer than twenty-eight consecutive hours without unloading them for...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Arrest without warrant for violation of Sec. 77 or 81; notice; care of animals; lien - Chapter 272, Section 82
  A person found violating any provision of section seventy-seven or eighty-one may be arrested and held without a warrant as provided in section fifty-four; the...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Complaint, warrant and search relative to cruelty to animals - Chapter 272, Section 83
  If complaint is made to a court or magistrate authorized to issue warrants in criminal cases that the complainant has reasonable cause to believe that...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Prosecutions under Secs. 77 to 81 - Chapter 272, Section 84
  Sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, constables and police officers shall prosecute all violations of sections seventy-seven to eighty-one, inclusive, which come to their notice.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Repealed, 1951, 34, Sec. 2 - Chapter 272, Section 85
  Repealed, 1951, 34, Sec.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Injuring, taking away or harboring domesticated animals or birds; removal of dog license tag, collar or harness; imitation tag - Chapter 272, Section 85A
  Whoever with wrongful intent kills, maims, entices or carries away a dog or other domesticated animal or bird shall be liable in tort to its...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Assistance animals stolen or attacked; actions for economic and non-economic damages - Chapter 272, Section 85B
  (a) A physically impaired person who uses an assistance animal or the owner of the assistance animal, may bring an action for economic and non-economic...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Stabling horses or mules on second or higher floors, in places other than cities - Chapter 272, Section 86
  No person shall stable a horse or mule on the second or any higher floor of any building, unless there are two means of exit...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Stabling horses and mules above first floor; exceeding six; fire exits - Chapter 272, Section 86A
  No person shall stable a horse or mule above the first or ground floor of any building not equipped with an automatic sprinkler system, or...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Stabling horses or mules exceeding fifteen - Chapter 272, Section 86B
  No person shall stable horses or mules exceeding fifteen in all at any one time in a building not equipped with an automatic sprinkler system...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Smoking in buildings used for stabling horses or mules - Chapter 272, Section 86C
  No person shall have a lighted cigarette, cigar or pipe in his possession in any building in which by the provisions of section eighty-six A...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Pails of water and sand in buildings used for stables - Chapter 272, Section 86D
  On every floor of a building not equipped with an automatic sprinkler system, where horses or mules are stabled, there shall be kept in accessible...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Entry upon premises to enforce Secs. 86A to 86D; orders - Chapter 272, Section 86E
  The chief of the fire department or any person designated by him may, at all reasonable hours, enter into buildings within their jurisdiction where horses...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Violation of Secs. 86 to 86D; refusal or neglect to comply with Sec. 86E orders - Chapter 272, Section 86F
  Whoever violates any provision of sections eighty-six to eighty-six D, inclusive, shall be punished by a fine of not more than two hundred dollars or...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Keeping or using birds to be shot at; shooting them; permitting premises to be used for shooting - Chapter 272, Section 87
  Whoever keeps or uses any live bird, to be shot at either for amusement or as a test of skill in marksmanship, or shoots at...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Complaints and warrants relative to fighting animals; searches; arrests - Chapter 272, Section 88
  If complaint is made to a court or magistrate authorized to issue warrants in criminal cases that the complainant has reasonable cause to believe that...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Exhibition place of fighting animals; entry without warrant; arrests; seizure of animals - Chapter 272, Section 89
  Any officer authorized to serve criminal process, or any special police officer duly appointed by the colonel of the state police at the request of...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Custody of arrested persons; time limitation - Chapter 272, Section 90
  Persons arrested under either of the two preceding sections shall be kept in jail or other convenient place not more than twenty-four hours, Sundays and...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Application for decree of forfeiture; notice; hearing; adjudication; returning or killing of animals - Chapter 272, Section 91
  After seizure and removal of animals or property used or employed, or intended to be used or employed, in violation of section 94, application shall...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Appeal; recognizance; custody and disposition of animals - Chapter 272, Section 92
  An owner or claimant aggrieved by such judgment may, within twenty-four hours after the entry thereof and before its execution, appeal therefrom to the superior...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Advertisement, book, notice or sign relative to discrimination; definition of place of public accommodation, resort or amusement - Chapter 272, Section 92A
  No owner, lessee, proprietor, manager, superintendent, agent or employee of any place of public accommodation, resort or amusement shall, directly or indirectly, by himself or...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Expenses of care and destruction of fighting animals - Chapter 272, Section 93
  The necessary expenses incurred in the care and destruction of such birds, dogs and other animals may be allowed and paid in the same manner...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Owning, possessing or training fighting animals; establishing or promoting exhibition; loaning, selling or exporting fighting animals; owning or possessing animals for breeding fighting animals - Chapter 272, Section 94
  Whoever: (i) owns, possesses, keeps or trains any bird, dog or other animal, with the intent that it shall be engaged in an exhibition of...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Aiding or being present at exhibition of fighting animals - Chapter 272, Section 95
  Whoever is present at any place, building or tenement where preparations are being made for an exhibition of the fighting of birds, dogs or other...
• Massachusetts General Laws - False notice of birth, marriage or death - Chapter 272, Section 96
  Whoever wilfully sends to the publisher of a newspaper for publication a false notice of a birth, marriage or death shall be punished by a...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Repealed, 1962, 285, Sec. 4 - Chapter 272, Section 97
  Repealed, 1962, 285, Sec.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Demands, notices or other documents resembling court process; complaint; order to discontinue - Chapter 272, Section 97A
  Forms of demands or notices or other documents drawn to resemble court process shall not be used by attorneys at law, persons conducting collection agencies...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Discrimination in admission to, or treatment in, place of public accommodation; punishment; forfeiture; civil right - Chapter 272, Section 98
  Whoever makes any distinction, discrimination or restriction on account of race, color, religious creed, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, which shall not include persons whose...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Physically handicapped persons with dog guides; public places or conveyances; charges or fares; penalties - Chapter 272, Section 98A
  Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any blind person, or deaf or hearing handicapped person, or other physically handicapped person accompanied by a dog guide,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Discrimination in employment on public works or in public relief or transitional assistance - Chapter 272, Section 98B
  Whoever, knowingly and wilfully, employs discriminatory practices in the administration or giving of employment on public works or projects, or in the dispensing or giving...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Libel; groups of persons; defenses; punishment; prosecutions - Chapter 272, Section 98C
  Whoever publishes any false written or printed material with intent to maliciously promote hatred of any group of persons in the commonwealth because of race,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Interception of wire and oral communications - Chapter 272, Section 99
  Interception of wire and oral communications.— A. Preamble. The general court finds that organized crime exists within the commonwealth and that the increasing activities of...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Jury deliberations; overhearing by use of devices - Chapter 272, Section 99A
  Whoever secretly overhears, or attempts secretly to overhear or to have any other person overhear the deliberations of a jury by use of a device...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Repealed, 1968, 738, Secs. 4 to 6 - Chapter 272, Section 100 to 102
  Repealed, 1968, 738, Secs. 4 to
• Massachusetts General Laws - Repealed, 1993, 279 - Chapter 272, Section 103
  Repealed, 1993,
• Massachusetts General Laws - Security for seizure and impoundment of animals relating to cruelty to animals or animal fighting - Chapter 272, Section 104
  (a) As used in this section the word “Authority” shall mean an organization or authorized agent thereof that seizes or impounds an animal pursuant to...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Photographing, videotaping or electronically surveilling partially nude or nude person or the sexual or other intimate parts of a person around the person's clothing; exceptions; punishment - Chapter 272, Section 105
  (a) As used in this section, the following words shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly requires otherwise:   "Electronically surveils'' or "electronically surveilled'',...

Last modified: September 11, 2015