R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-25-17

This is the official text of R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-25-17, part of Rhode Island’s Gen. Laws — part of the compiled statutory law of Rhode Island, published by the state as "Gen. Laws." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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§ 5-25-17. Immunity from liability for gratuitous emergency care.

Official statutory text

(a) No veterinarian licensed under the provisions of this chapter or members of the same profession duly licensed to practice in other states of the United States, who voluntarily and gratuitously and other than in the course of his or her employment or practice renders emergency veterinary assistance to an animal in need of assistance, is liable for civil damages for any injuries that result from acts or omissions by those persons in rendering the emergency care, which may constitute ordinary negligence.

(b) The immunity granted by this section does not apply to acts or omissions constituting gross negligence.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.