I love Virginia law. If a criminal defendant is charged with "larceny of a dog" (or certain other animals), you don't have to prove the value of the animal. However, in order to convict someone of the crime of "larceny of poultry", you must specifically prove that the poultry taken was worth between 5 and 200 dollars. See Va. Code § 18.2-97.
The significance is that larceny of poultry is a felony, while under normal larceny rules, stealing something worth less than $200 is a misdemeanor, with significantly lower penalties and no loss of civil rights such as voting and gun ownership.
So conceivably, if a particularly scrawny chicken was stolen, you could have an expert witness battle involving whether the chicken was worth less than $5 or not. Welcome to Old Dominion.
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