Whoever enters any premises in which animals are being housed or used in research by a research institution and, without authority, injures, damages, commits any trespass upon, removes or carries away any data, equipment, facility or property or injures, damages, removes, carries away, interferes with or releases any animal shall, if such injury, damage, trespass, removal, carrying away, interference or release is malicious and wilful, be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than ten years or by a fine of not more than twenty-five thousand dollars and imprisonment in a jail or house of correction for not more than two and one-half years; or if such injury, damage, trespass, removal, carrying away, interference or release is wilful but not malicious, be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than five years or by a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars and imprisonment in a jail or house of correction for not more than two and one-half years.
Credits
Added by St.1988, c. 224.