The Times is doing a series of articles highlighting common laws and rules. Today, we examine animal cruelty and neglect. To suggest a law for The Times to highlight, contact the writer.

A Porter County man was recently charged with animal cruelty after he was accused of covering a guinea pig with ketchup and kicking its cage across a room.

Prosecutors say cases of animal cruelty and animal neglect are fairly common, with dogs and horses among the most commonly abused and neglected animals.

Indiana law states animal neglect and animal cruelty are misdemeanor offenses, but animal abuse is a felony if the person has a prior conviction, tortures the animal or abuses the animal to terrorize a household member.

Porter County Prosecutor Brian Gensel said some examples of cases his office has prosecuted are the failure to provide enough food to horses, the hoarding of animals and the beating of dogs.

While animal cruelty and animal neglect are the most common animal-related offenses, Indiana law also covers bestiality, animal fighting and interference with service dogs, police dogs, search dogs.

Bestiality became illegal after an incident in which a man had sex with -- and killed -- a chicken at a Valparaiso motel, Gensel said. It is a felony to engage in bestiality.

Indiana law states it is also a felony to possess an animal for fighting or to stage or promote an animal fight. It is a misdemeanor to attend an animal fight or possess animal fighting paraphernalia.

Indiana law also prohibits people from interfering with a search and rescue animal, a service animal -- like a seeing eye dog -- or a law enforcement animal. Gensel said there was a case a few years ago involving a martial arts fighter who, while being arrested, choked a police dog.

Indiana law doesn't prohibit people convicted of animal-related laws from becoming animal owners, but Gensel said a judge can make staying away from animals a condition of a person's probation.

Gensel said prosecutors take animal abuse seriously, as does the public.