Landmark Year for Texas Animals-From THLN President-Cross-Post, Please

[Guest guest]

From Texas Humane Legislation Network President, Randy Turner:

 

Thanks to your hard work and determination in fighting for the animals of

Texas, we can all celebrate the most successful legislative session to date

for animal protection. With your help, good bills were passed and bad ones

were defeated.

 

Topping the list of good bills was the passage of HB 2328, the animal

cruelty bill, which strengthens our current animal cruelty statute by

closing loopholes that have allowed many heinous crimes against animals to

go unpunished.

 

HB 2328, sponsored by State Rep. Beverly Woolley and State Sen. John

Whitmire:

 

- lowers the required mental state for proof of animal cruelty from

" intentional or knowing " to " reckless " which will make proof of animal abuse

much easier;

 

- specifically protects homeless dogs and feral cats from acts of cruelty;

 

- makes it a felony to kill, administer poison to or cause serious bodily

injury to an animal without the owner's consent; and

 

- adds " water " to the list of required care for an animal in a person's

custody.

 

A prosecutor must still prove " torture " in some cases involving cruelty to

animals classified as " livestock " (including horses, cattle, sheep, pigs,

goats); however, " torture " is now defined as " any act that causes

unjustifiable pain or suffering " , which will make proof of " torture " much

easier. The animal cruelty bill will take effect September 1.

 

Several other significant animal bills passed this session include:

 

- In the state budget bill, the legislature freed up over $2 million from

the Animal Friendly License Plate Fund to help address the statewide pet

overpopulation crisis. This money will now be available for distribution to

low and no-cost spay/neuter programs throughout the state.

 

- HB 916, sponsored by State Rep. Jose Menendez and State Sen. Leticia Van

de Putte, increases the penalty for dog fighting from a Class A misdemeanor

to a state jail felony and increases the punishment for attending a dog

fighting exhibition from a Class C misdemeanor to a Class A misdemeanor.

 

- SB 1562, sponsored by State Sen. " Chuy " Hinojosa and State Rep. Phil

King, provides for training and certification of animal control officers.

This bill also increased the penalty for killing or seriously injuring a

police service animal from a third degree felony to a second degree felony.

 

- HB 1411, sponsored by State Rep. Buddy West, prohibits an owner from

tethering a dog outside between the hours of 10 pm and 6 am and during

extreme weather conditions.

 

- HB 88, sponsored by State Rep. Dan Branch, requires that companion

animals and service animals be included in evacuation plans in the event of

natural disasters.

 

- HB 1728, sponsored by State Rep. Linda Harper-Brown, allows certain

confidential information in rabies vaccination certificates and in municipal

or county dog and cat registries to be disclosed to third party contractors

who are performing animal control services or animal registration services

for a city or county; but requires those third party contractors to maintain

the confidentiality of that information and use that information only in

connection with the performance of their duties under the government

contract.

 

And, we can now breathe a sigh of relief that horse slaughter in Texas is

dead! Efforts waged by some of the most influential lobbyists in Austin to

save Texas' two notorious horse slaughter plants were defeated once again.

You made your voices heard and the legislators listened.

 

Last, but certainly not least, we defeated an attempt to give owners of

cruelly treated animals the right to appeal the court's decision to remove

those animals from their custody. This bill would have had a huge negative

effect on the ability of law enforcement to seize cruelly treated animals

because of the time and costs involved in housing and caring for these

animals during protracted appeals.

 

" This has truly been a landmark year for the animals of Texas, " said Randy

Turner, president of Texas Humane Legislation Network. " We commend our

state legislators for giving innocent creatures the protection they deserve

from senseless acts of violence. "

 

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