12/09/2025
🐾❄️🥶🌧☀️⛈️🌨 --- If you are cold. They are cold.
Kershaw County Humane Society
South Carolina Law: What Owners Must Know About Keeping Animals Outside
1. You MUST provide proper shelter.
South Carolina law requires that any animal kept outside must have shelter that protects them from suffering due to weather
including:
• Rain
• Heat
• Cold
• Wind
• Snow or ice
Shelter must:
• Have a roof, three sides, and a dry floor
• Be big enough for the animal to stand, turn around, and lie down normally
• Actually protect the animal from the weather (not just a wire crate or open structure)
2. The animal must always have clean water.
Law requires constant access to clean, fresh, drinkable water.
Water bowls cannot be empty, dirty, or frozen.
3. You must feed them regularly.
Food must be:
• Enough for the animal’s size and age
• Given at reasonable intervals
• Nutritious and safe
4. Weather-related suffering counts as cruelty.
If an animal is outside and:
• Shivering
• Overheated
• Wet and cold
• Unable to escape the sun
• Locked outside during storms
➡️ This can be charged as animal cruelty under SC Code §47-1-40.
5. You cannot abandon an animal outside.
Leaving an animal outside long-term with:
• No shelter
• No water
• No food
➡️ Is considered abandonment and is illegal.
6. Local county rules may add more restrictions.
Some SC counties/cities have stricter rules such as:
• No tethering in extreme heat or cold
• Requirements for bedding in winter
• Shade requirements in summer
(If you want, you can check your county’s exact rules.)
If a dog is outside in South Carolina, it MUST have:
• Real shelter
• Clean water at all times
• Proper food
• Protection from heat, cold, rain, and storms
And the animal cannot be suffering due to the weather.
If they are, the owner can be charged with cruelty.
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